Coca-Cola Begins to Grow

When Coca-Cola first appeared in 1886, it was brought out as a soda fountain beverage. It sold for 5 cents a glass. An average of nine glasses a day were sold that year.
In 1988 Asa Candler bought a part of the company off Pemberton as he was in a state of poor health. Over three years from 1888-1891, Asa Griggs Candler secured the rights to the business for $2,300. Candler took a very innovative marketing approach to increase sales and get the brand known. He hired traveling salesmen to pass out coupons to people for a free glass of Coke. His goal was for people to try this new drink, enjoy and like it, and buy it the next time they are at a soda fountain. In addition he put the logo on countless novelties. It was one step in trying to make Coca-Cola a national brand, rather than just a regional brand.

Coca-Cola Coupon

From: www..wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola

The business continued to grow with Candler's new ideas and innovative marketing strategy. In 1894, the first Coca-Cola syrup factory outside Atlanta was opened in Dallas, Texas. Others opened in Chicago, Illinois, Los Angeles and California in the following year.

In 1895 Candler announced in his annual report to the shareholders of the Coca-Cola Company that, "Coca-Cola in now drunk in every state and territory in the United States."

The soda's popularity and success meant that it needed to keep having new marketing strategies to keep the company and brand growing. In 1894, Joseph Biedenharn, a businessman from Mississippi put Coca-Cola in bottles for the first time. He sent twelve bottles of Coca-Cola to Candler who didn't respond in the way that Biedenharn would have hoped. Even though Candler was a brilliant and innovative businessman, he didn't see the brilliance and potential of bottled coke at that moment in time. He didn't realise that the future of Coca-Cola would be in portable glass bottles that customers could enjoy anywhere. In 1999 two Chattanooga lawyers got exclusive rights from Candler to bottle and sell the beverage.

The first bottling plant under the new contract opened in Chattanooga 1899. Another opened in Atlanta in 1900. They realised though that they could not raise enough capital to build bottling operations nationwide. So they started to distribute Coca-Cola syrup to independent bottlers. The Coca-Cola Company makes and sells the concentrate. This concentrate is then distributed to beverage distributors who hold a Coca-Cola Franchise. They have a contract with the Coca-Cola Company that allows them to produce the finished product and put it in bottles and distribute it. The concentrate they have been supplied is combined with filtered water, sweeteners and carbonated water, to give it it's fizz.

 The Contour Bottle

From: www.hashtaghashtag.com

In 1916 the contour bottle was introduced and became one of the few packages ever granted trademark status by the U.S. Patent Office. Today it is still one of the most recognised icons in the world.
Coca-Cola needed a new bottle design to distinguish itself from other competitors and imitators who were proving to be a huge problem. This new contour bottle was a great change from its previous straight-sided bottle that was easily confused with other brands trying to imitate Coca-Cola and declare they are no different from the official Coca-Cola brand, when in fact they are very different.

In the 1920s there were over a thousand Coca-Cola bottlers operating in the U.S. In 1923 six-bottle cartons were introduced and proved to be very popular. By the end of the 1920s, bottle sales well exceeded fountain sales of Coca-Cola. 

Timeline of the Coca-Cola bottle

 From: www.thecoca-colacompany.com