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Asa
Candler -- He Taught Coca-Cola to Walk
 Asa
Candler was born on December 10th, 1851.As a
young man Asa decided he didn't want to go to college, and
instead he decided to apprentice with Dr. Best & Dr.
Kirkpatrick in Carterville, GA so that he could become a
phamacist. After three years he left the doctors and went
to Atlanta with $1.75 in his pocket. He applied for work
at several establishments, including Mr. Pemberton’s drug
store, but was initially unable to find work.
Eventually he did find a position with George
Jefferson Howard, and quickly worked himself up to the stores
chief clerk. He also fell in love with his bosses 15 year
old daughter Lizzie. This caused a falling out with his
boss and Asa quit. Asa then found a partner in Marcellus
B. Hall, and the two of them founded their own wholesale
druggist shop. A year later he married Lizzie, and three
years after that he bought out his partner. Apparently in
a successful attempt to smooth things over with his father-in-law,
he sold him ½ his business. By 1888 he had one of the largest
drug businesses in Atlanta.
 It
was in 1888 that Asa consolidated all outstanding interest
in Coca-Cola, and took sole possession. After Asa bought
Coca-Cola he changed the formula several times to improve
taste, improve shelf life, and insure he had a unique product
(several people had known Pemberton's original formula).
Asa also had the cocaine removed from Coca-Cola (around
1903) when it became clear that cocaine was an addictive
drug and not as harmless as earlier drug journals had indicated.
Frank Robinson was once again in charge of
advertising, and he put together calendars, signs, ads in
newspapers and magazines, tickets for free drinks, and he
provided premiums to fountain operators to buy more syrup.
It was said that in 1890, advertising equaled or even exceeded
sales, and that by 1908 2.5 million sq. ft. of walls were
painted with Coca-Cola signs, and 10,000 windows displayed
Coca-Cola signs. Much of the success of Coca-Cola can be
directly attributed to Frank Robinson.
Asa Candler had a very strong belief in family,
and had many members of his family working for him. One
such family member was, his nephew, Sam Dobbs. Dobbs had
went to work for his uncle shortly after Asa bought Coca-Cola,
and Dobbs was in charge of the sales force. Around 1906
Frank Robinson and Sam Dobbs would start having disagreements
on how best to advertise. Finally, things came to a head,
and Asa had to make a decision on which person to support.
Asa's loyalties leaned toward family, and Robinson was replaced
by Dobbs as head of advertising. Frank Robinson took the
slap in the face in stride, and continued to work for Coca-Cola
until he retired in 1913. Asa Candler would later find that
he made a mistake in trusting Dobbs, as he would later stab
him in the back.
 One
of the smartest things that Asa Candler did was to give
the bottling rights of Coca-Cola to Benjamin Franklin Thomas
and Joseph Brown Whitehead. These two lawyers would be allowed
to buy syrup at $1 a gallon, Coca-Cola would provide the
advertising, any bottling companies that were created could
also buy syrup for $1 a gallon, and this deal had no time
limit -- it would go on in perpetuity. The reason Asa gave
the bottling rights away was because he didn't want to do
the bottling himself, he didn't have the time, knowledge,
money, or desire, and was afraid that others would put forth
an inferior product, injuring the name of Coca-Cola. The
two lawyers were able convince Asa they would retain the
purity and integrity of Coca-Cola, and further its name
-- taking Coca-Cola to areas that didn't even have soda
fountains. These men then sold franchises to others interested
in doing the actual bottling of Coca-Cola, and by 1919 there
was a bottling plant in every major city in the United States.
By 1917, Coca-Cola was being attacked on various
fronts. A huge number of lawsuits were being pursued in
an effort to protect their trademark & product, and
the bottlers had a contract to buy the syrup for $1 a gallon,
but the cost of producing a gallon of syrup had gone up
significantly since that contract had been drawn up. Coca-Cola
was also constantly battling with their product being referred
by the early nickname of "Dope." Even worse, was
liquor lobbyist convincing local and state legislatures
that Coca-Cola was a health risk (due to cocaine), forcing
Coca-Cola to constantly fight to keep their product from
being banned. However, even this problem was minor when
compared to the lawsuit brought against Coca-Cola by the
Federal Government. The government reasoned that Coca-Cola
had to be breaking the 1906 Pure Food & Drug laws by
either containing cocaine, or by having the word "Coca"
in its name and not containing cocaine. Court testimony
revealed that Coca-Cola was now flavored with a decocanized
coca leaf.
 Around
1917 Asa Candler was not only busy with these problems faced
by Coca-Cola, but life outside Coca-Cola also contained
complications. In 1916 Asa Candler was elected Mayor of
Atlanta, but the most devastating complication for Asa Candler
was the fact that his beloved wife Lizzie was dying of breast
cancer. Given these facts, it is remarkable that when Asa
was approached in 1917, by two New York Lawyers representing
a hidden syndicate, with an offer to purchase Coca-Cola
for $25 million he turned them down. A couple months after
turning down the offer to sell Coca-Cola, on Christmas Day
1917, Asa decided to give Coca-Cola to his children. He
felt that it was important to show his dying wife that their
children would get their inheritance, and that it wouldn't
be going to some charity or another woman.
Asa's oldest son Howard took full control
of Coca-Cola, and his brothers and sister took seats on
the board. Howard was probably not the best person suited
to run Coca-Cola, particularly with a board composed of
constantly bickering and complaining siblings. A solution
to this problem would be found in 1919. Sam Dobbs, Asa's
nephew, and the same nephew that Asa backed when disagreements
between him and Frank Robinson arose, turned what many consider
traitorous. Apparently, Dobbs secretly met with Earnest
Woodruff to discuss the sale of Coca-Cola. Woodruff was
universally despised as a corporate raider, and it is also
probable that Woodruff was responsible for the earlier 1917
offer. Dobbs was able to convince Asa Candlers children
that the best thing to do was to accept the $25 million
offer. After the sale was consummated, Dobbs was given the
presidency of the company and a 1/3 voting block.
Asa was not told about the sale of the company
by even one of his children -- he read about it in the paper.
To a man that family meant everything to, this hurt him
deeply, and when talking about it to one of his daughter-in-laws,
this very proud and strong willed individual, even broke
down into tears. Asa would live for another 10 years, and
would devote himself to philanthropy.
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John
Pemberton was born in 1831 in the town of Knoxville, Georgia.
He attended pharmacy school, and owned a drug store in Columbus,
Georgia. He fought for the confederacy during the Civil War,
were it appears that he became addicted to morphine after
being wounded. After the war, Mr. Pemberton moved to Atlanta
and started making and selling of patent medicines such as
Globe Flower Cough Syrup, Extract of Stillingia, Triplex Liver
Pills, and Lemon & Orange Elixer. One of Pemberton's biggest
selling items was French Wine of Coca.
French
Wine of Coca was a drink very similar in nature to Vin Mariani,
a cocaine laced Bordeaux wine that was immensely popular throughout
the world. At the time cocaine was not thought of harmful,
and doctors such as Sigmund Freud even touted its virtues.Pemberton's
formula also contained caffeine from the kola nut (which is
actually a seed from a tree in Africa). Pemberton sold his
"French Wine of Coca" as a cure for nervous disorders,
disturbances of internal plumbing, and impotency.
A
couple months before Pemberton settled on a formula for his
new creation, he was approached by Frank Robinson and David
Roe. They tried selling Pemberton a printing device that produced
two colors at one impression, but instead Pemberton sold these
two men on his product, and the three men formed a partnership
along with and old partner of Pembertons named Ed Holland.
It was Robinson who was responsible for the white spencerian
handwriting on red background that would become the most famous
trade mark in the world. Frank Robinson also took over manufacture,
promotion, and advertising of the new product.
Ernest
Woodruff had a son named Robert, and it appears Robert
was somewhat of a disappointment to his father. Robert
was a terrible student, he flunked out of high school,
and ended up going to military school. After flunking
out of college Woodruff went to work as a laborer for
the General Pipe and Foundery Company. He started working
his way up, but was fired a year later for no apparent
reason. He went to work for another company as a salesman,
and once again he was doing great, but again he was fired
for no apparent reason. His father then offered him a
job with one of his companies, and since Robert was planning
to get married he took the job. He later found out it
was his father who had gotten him fired from his previous
jobs. Robert quit his job with his father and went to
work as a salesman for White Motor Company.
Some
of Woodruff's early accomplishments were the pioneering
use of service stations as major new retail outlets. He
also pioneered the use of the cooler. He forced bottlers
to comply with company standards that insured a uniform
drink. Bottlers that did not conform to the standards
lost Coca-Cola sponsored advertising in their area, or
were simply bought out by Coca-Cola. As in the past, advertising
remained a big part of Coca-Cola, and this was the era
of "The Pause that Refreshes." By the 1930's
Coca-Cola was taking advantage of new media. They advertised
on radio, gave Coke away at movie sets, employed movie
stars, and sports hero's, and even Santa Claus. In 1931,
artist Haddon Sundblom actually helped create Santa Claus
as we know him. Until this point, Santa Claus had often
been depicted wearing blue, and he was usually tall and
gaunt. Haddon's illustrations always depicted Santa Claus
as the fat, jolly man, dressed in red.
Up
until W.W.II Coca-Cola was offered worldwide, but was
only popular to any real degree in Canada, Cuba, and Germany.
After the start of W.W.II Robert Woodruff proclaimed that
he would insure that no matter were the soldiers were,
they would always have Coca-Cola available to them. Coca-Cola
was already thought of as something American, and the
military believed that Coca-Cola would be an excellent
means to boost morale. Coca-Cola bottling plants were
built all over the world to help supply the soldiers,
and by the time the war had ended there were 64 bottling
plants that spanned across every continent except Antarctica.
When the war ended Coca-Cola had made huge inroads into
markets throughout the world, and they also had many loyal
customers in returning soldiers.
Roberto
Goizueta (pronounced Goh-SWET-a), a native of Cuba,
was appointed president of the Coca-Cola Company May
30th, 1980. Goizueta had started as a chemist with Coca-Cola,
and in fact was one of the few people who actually new
the formula. Asa Candler had passed the secret to his
son Howard, who taught it to Dr. W.C. Heath, the company's
first chemist. As each chemist retired, he in turn taught
his successor.
In
response, Coca-Cola decided to change the formula, and
they simply couldn't just introduce a new product, because
the product known as Coca-Cola had to be the "Best"
on the market. Before this formula change could occur,
the "Boss" still needed to be consulted. At
this time Woodruff was 95 years old and was dying. Woodruff
agreed with Goizueta, that taste were shifting and the
public now preferred a sweeter beverage, and the bite
of Coca-Cola was now a drawback -- he gave his permission
to change the formula. A couple of months later, before
the New Coca-Cola was released, the "Boss"
died.
Secondly,
they had not considered the conditions of the Pepsi
Challenge. People were given a swallow or two of each
soda, and given this it is not surprising that many
picked the sweeter of the two beverages (that is the
way our taste buds work). However, the majority of consumers
have continued to buy Coca-Cola over Pepsi. The reasons
for this may result from the fact that over the coarse
of a whole bottle (or can), the bite of Coca-Cola is
preferred. Just think of those hot summer days where
the extra bite of Coca-Cola is a major benefit, as too
sweet of a beverage can be sickening.