BUILDING A GLOBAL BRAND

Coca-Cola is the most recognized brand in the world. When the company began, it was very small. For the first year, it sold only nine drinks a day. Today, the company sells about 7,000 products every second. What could explain this extraordinary success?

John Pemberton invented Coca-Cola in 1886. He made it in his back garden and took it to a shop near his house, where he sold it for five cents a glass. He worked with a man called Frank Robinson. Robinson invented the name Coca-Cola and the writing that is still used on the bottles today.

In 1891, a businessman in Atlanta bought the Coca-Cola company for 2,300 dollars. He helped the company to grow, and soon people were selling Coca-Cola in every part of the USA. By 1917, the company was selling 3 million drinks a day. In 1919, the company was sold for 25 million dollars.

In 1923, Robert Woodruff became president of the Coca-Cola company. He stayed in the job for more than thirty years, and helped Coca-Cola to become one of the largest companies in the world. In order to make Coca-Cola into a global brand, they had to advertise. In 1930s, the company used film and radio, which were new and exciting, for their advertisements. They paid famous film stars and sportsmen to advertise their product. People began to think of Coca-Cola as a part of American life.

During the 1939-45 war, the company started to make Coca-Cola in other countries. They wanted American soldiers to be able to get Coca-Cola anywhere in the world – and the soldiers were happy to buy it because it made them think of home. By 1945, there were 64 Coca-Cola factories across the world.

If a product is going to become a global brand, one thing is very important: it must look the same everywhere in the world. Robert Woodruff realized this as long ago as the 1920s. He made sure that all the Coca-Cola factories used the same bottles. The colors red and white have also been an important part of the brand since those days.

The company has changed its advertising slogan over the years. In the 1950, it was ‘Coca-Cola, making good things taste better’. In 1970, this changed to ‘It’s the real thing’; in 1979, ‘Have a Coke and a Smile’; in 1993, it was ‘Always Coca-Cola’.

In today’s world, a lot of people travel from country to country for business or holidays. They often want to buy goods that they recognize and use at home, and they can do this with global brands. However, some people think that global brands are making the world less interesting.

 

( from Commerce by Paul A.Davies, Oxford Bookworms Factfiles, Oxford University Press 2000)

 

 

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