Sketchy marketing. Most evil: Coke People take Harvard seriously. The Heartland Institute, not so much. Edible Apple. In , the company made a startling announcement that would end up being remembered as its biggest mistake in history. So what could have possibly been so detrimental to the brand's unrivaled success?
According to the latest episode of Business Movers , a Wondery podcast investigating stories behind successful businesses, the Coca-Cola Company faced swift and intense backlash when it announced plans to change the recipe for Coke on April 23, At the time, the company's namesake beverage had reigned supreme among soft drinks for almost a century. So, he decided to buck conventional wisdom and mess with a good thing—Coke's signature flavor. A quarter-pound hamburger requires gallons of water if you take into account the water required to grow the cattle feed.
Whole countries and corporations can calculate their own Water Footprints. People can, too: in the United States, we have a per capita Water Footprint of 2, gallons a day.
The Water Footprint challenged people and companies to think more critically about water usage. Greg Koch, then a Coca-Cola executive tasked with global water stewardship, contacted Hoekstra.
Hoekstra was thrilled at the idea of helping Coca-Cola genuinely assess and reduce water usage in every part of its supply chain — not only the water used in its bottling plants, but also the amount it took to grow the sugar and other ingredients and to produce every plastic bottle and aluminum can. Back in , Hoekstra and other experts were already sounding the alarm. Hoekstra thought Coca-Cola was ready to come to grips with reality.
But Coke would follow a different plan. At first, the idea seemed to be gaining momentum. In Beijing, Isdell had said the company would not start with water used in its supply chain but would address it eventually. In attendance at the first meeting were Hoekstra, Ndebele, and executives from Coke, World Wildlife Fund, and several international agencies. Around the same time, water neutrality and the Water Footprint headlined at international businesses conferences; JPMorgan featured the Water Footprint in a report on corporate water risk; and companies began to commission Water Footprint Assessments.
The Verge asked Coca-Cola why the company excluded its supply chain from its original plan to replenish all the water it takes to make its products, but the company did not respond. SABMiller is now part of a new company called Newbelco. Kuiper recalled growing misgivings among corporate executives in the group. Take the Water Footprint assessments Hoekstra and his team carried out for Coca-Cola beginning in Legend has it that half is known by one person, and the other half by someone else, and the two will never travel together to assure the flavor can live on forever.
Of course that's bunk , and completely impractical, but rest assured the 7X secret is still a mystery. Or it isn't. In , a photo accompanying an Atlanta Journal-Constitution story on Coke hid a tiny detail, perhaps the 7X formula in the hand of Pemberton himself.
So what's the formula? Coke naturally laughed it off , and then waved their arm and the general public moved on. Scientists tried to recreate it, and it was close — but something was off. But how far off? Coke can laugh off the 7X formula all they want, the alleged formula is close, very close. There is one ingredient that is now percent confirmed that previously was unknown: alcohol.
In , scientists found trace amounts of alcohol in Coke Pepsi too, but that's for another story. Remember, the alleged 7X combination only uses 2 ounces for 5 gallons of syrup, so the trace amounts would be, well, pretty trace.
The important thing is that if you truly thought you were averting from alcohol, you're not. In certain religions, that's an issue. Islam forbids alcohol, but Coke insists it is naturally occurring — they don't add alcohol to their soda and the soda is in acceptance with Islamic law. The only certainty is there is indeed alcohol in Coke. How it got there is up for debate. Despite the bombardment of seemingly omnipresent advertising, soda is in a lull.
It wasn't too long ago that Diet Coke arose to number two in sales, surpassing Pepsi. But that seems like a long long time ago now. By , Diet Coke global sales fell 8 percent , and in alone Diet Coke dropped another 5 percent. What in the world happened to Diet Coke? The biggest problem is the artificial sweeteners — 83 percent of consumers believe the same thing that saves calories is bad for them. The ascension of bottled water has cut directly into the diet soda market, as people replace artificial sugar for artificial exotic water.
The majority of all soda declines are in the diet market — 94 percent, to be exact. Diet Coke is still floating between second and third in sales of all sodas, but it's rapidly becoming akin to the cable television industry; something else came along and beat it at its own game. With the introduction of the Coca-Cola Freestyle machines that feature eleventyteen bazillion flavors of Coca-Cola products you can pretty much have a Coke a day for about a year and a half and try them all.
But for some reason, a Coca-Cola Freestyle doesn't feature every flavor Coke has to offer. There are flavors available exclusively to certain countries.
Coca-Cola Citra is a citrus cola available in Japan and Mexico. Providing you didn't drink around the world a few times and show it they'll pretty much let you sample sodas until your bladder can't take it anymore.
Obviously if Coke could just do to Pepsi what they did to Thums Up in India, they'd pretty much own 99 percent of all non-alcohol kinda carbonated beverages in the universe.
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