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The Real Thing

Truth and Power at the Coca-Cola Company

Constance L. Hays

Random House, 2004

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Coca-Cola is the world’s most famous brand, but reaching that pinnacle wasn’t easy. Leading the globe in a commodity product requires exceptionally hard selling, negotiating and tough leadership. Coca-Cola hit those marks by turning its sales operation into a mission: make Coke the most popular soft drink in the world. Author Constance L. Hays tells Coca-Cola’s story with exactitude. As a reporter, she is good at mixing gallons of detail with individual stories and anecdotes, even if they make the book seem long. This makes her chronology a bit slow and disjointed, because she does not hesitate to explore intriguing tangents - such as the history of the cold soda vending machine - whether or not they deflect her momentum. This calculated trade-off, which many readers will appreciate, happens particularly when she recounts the company’s actions against its bottlers and describes its marketing. The book captures an important sales story about a global marketing powerhouse that fought for shelf space and control of its bottling plants at any cost, and about the men in charge. getAbstract.com recommends these hard insights into the business of soft drinks to strategists and sales executives...it makes for an interesting brew.

Summary

"Brain Tonic"

The power of Coca-Cola is ubiquitous. An affordable, core part of the American social experience, it offers a more complex taste than other soft drinks. John Pemberton invented Coca-Cola in 1886. His original concoction contained cocaine. In 1888, Asa Candler bought the recipe with the grand intention of making it available at soda fountains, where pharmacists served it by mixing an ounce of syrup with five and a half ounces of carbonated water. As they had once pushed soda water, they offered Coke as a remedy for various ailments, even touting it as a "brain tonic."

Pharmacy soda fountains served as social gathering points for men, women and children. Their long counters were often ornate, carved from wood, clad in marble and armed with numerous spigots that dispensed carbonated drinks. While Coca-Cola was popular, it had many competitors (such as Afri-Cola, Ko-Kola and Bicy-Cola). But, by 1896, Candler could boast that his syrup was now being dispensed in every state in the union.

In 1899, Benjamin Franklin Thomas and Joseph Brown Whitehead, both lawyers, thought they could dramatically expand Coke’s nascent bottling operation. To act on their...

About the Author

Constance L. Hays worked as a reporter for The News and Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina. She also covered the food and beverage industry as a reporter for The New York Times.

The Real Thing

Truth and Power at the Coca-Cola Company

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"Brain Tonic"

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