Indiana,
got the job, with their prototype, it was a
. . . jolly-looking, sort of squat attempt that didn't fit the bottling equipment. But with some modification, the pale-green, bell-shaped design we all know and love was born. It's said to have been inspired by a cocoa bean illustration from the Encyclopaedia Britannica. And soon it was dubbed "the Hobble-skirt design," because people said it reminded them of the skirts worn by the popular Gibson girls -- the ones in long skirts and leg-of-mutton sleeves that kept turning up in the pen-and-ink drawings of American illustrator Charles Dana Gibson (Watters, 1978, 34).
Simply having a beautiful bottle is not enough to turn a company into a world-wide presence owning one of the three most powerful brand names in the world (the other two are McDonald's and Marlboro). Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton invented Coke in 1886 (Louis & Yazijian, 1980, 22)
His bookkeeper, Frank Robinson, named the product after two ingredients, coca leaves (later cleaned of narcotics) and kola nuts. During its first year, sales of Coca-Cola averaged six drinks a day -- adding up to total sales for that year of $50. Since the year's expenses were just over $70, Dr. Pemberton took a loss. Today, Coca-Cola products are consumed at the rate of more than 900 million drinks per day.
By 1891 druggist Asa Candler had bought the company, and within four years the soda fountain drink was available in all states; it was in Canada and Mexico by 1898. Candler sold most US bottling rights in 1899 to Benjamin Thomas and John Whitehead of Chattanooga for $1. With the backing of John Lupton, these men developed the regional franchise bottling system, creating over 1,000 bottlers within 20 years (Watters, 1978, 34).
A part of the product's acceptance was the "buzz" obtained by the tiny remnants of cocaine from the coca leaves, an ingredient which was removed in 1904 with no appreciable reduc...