The Ledger
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Coca-Cola secured trademark protection for its bottle shape in 1951
“The company then went to the patent office and made the case that the bottle shape was so distinctive and so well known in 1951 that it should be granted trademark status Which they got. It is highly unusual for packaging to be granted a trademark.”
Coca-Cola greenlit a record $100,000 budget for 1971 'Hilltop' ad
“They got the budget greenlit from the head of advertising at Coca-Cola to do the most expensive ad of all time, a 100,000 dollar budget.”
Gilbert: 69% of Coca-Cola's revenue comes from sparkling soft drinks
“69% of revenue comes from sparkling soft drinks. So as much as they are in water and milk and tea and juice and sports drinks, the bulk of this business is selling soda.”
The original Coca-Cola formula contained four times today's caffeine content
“In the original Coca-Cola, for the first, I don't know, couple decades, it actually had four times the amount of caffeine that Coke does today, so it's effectively an energy drink, even leaving the cocaine aside.”
Gilbert: Over 5B Coke bottles were distributed via 64 WWII portable plants
“1941 to 19 45, 64 portable bottling plants were sent to Asia, Europe, and North Africa, and the best estimates are that more than five billion bottles were distributed to troops during the war.”
Coca-Cola's New Coke taste tests never asked consumers about replacing the original
“So it turns out that in all the research that they conducted for New Coke, all 200,000 people that they did the taste test with They never asked them how they would feel if this new beverage replaced the old Coca-Cola.”
Rosenthal: Coke hired Norman Rockwell and N.C. Wyeth for lifestyle ads
“Lee goes out and he contracts with all these famous American artists and illustrators of the day to create these like American lifestyle tableaus for the visual aspects of the Coke ads... They actually go get Norman Rockwell. Along with N.C. Wyatt and Haddon S…”
Rosenthal: Diet Coke cost significantly less to produce than regular Coke
“And Diet Coke costs significantly less for Coke to produce because it doesn't have sugar.”
Rosenthal: Diet Coke became America's #3 soft drink by 1984
“By the end of 1983, the first full year on the market, Diet Coke is the number one diet drink in America. And unlike Tab, which clearly from That commercial that you talked about earlier was exclusively marketed to women. 30% of Diet Coke drinkers, even in the…”
Early soda fountains generated $6.40 in revenue per $1.30 gallon of syrup
“Coke, when they were selling gallons of syrup to the soda fountains, they sold them for about a dollar and 30 cents per gallon. The soda fountains then sold drinks to customers at five cents a drink. They're 120 drinks per gallon. They're making six dollars an…”
Rosenthal: Coca-Cola was Monsanto's first customer, buying its entire saccharin supply
“So Monsanto started as a saccharin manufacturer and Coca-Cola was their first major customer and bought their entire saccharin supply.”
Coca-Cola's 'Hilltop' jingle was re-recorded into a best-selling hit single
“So then the band goes and re-records it as a real song to release on an album that has different lyrics than I'd like to buy the world of Coke. And it turns out to become a best-selling song also.”
Fanta originated in WWII Germany when bottlers lacked Coca-Cola ingredient supplies
“They would change the formula and they would launch it in the U S later in 1960, but Fanta has its origins as we can't get real Coca-Cola in Germany during World War II.”
1949 study showed over 99% of Americans recognized Coke bottle by shape alone
“And their rationale was, look, in 1949, we conducted a study that showed that less than one percent of Americans could not identify the bottle of Coke by shape alone.”
Woodruff fixed underperforming bottlers by buying, standardizing, and reselling them
“And so he changes course for the Coca-Cola company and says, I'm now willing to buy and own and operate bottlers. Oh, not because I want to, but as a way to like force standardization and clean up underperforming bottlers, I'll buy them out, fix them up, and t…”
Gilbert: Coca-Cola originally owned the land for Atlanta Airport and Zoo
“The Hartsfield Jackson Airport in Atlanta. Huge airport for anyone who's ever been there. That land was once owned by the Coca-Cola Company. Same actually with the Atlanta Zoo.”