Coca-Cola: The Complete History & Strategy (Audio)

The bottler contract, the coupon, the contour bottle, and the accidental marketing stunt that saved the company. How a $2,300 acquisition became a $300 billion system.

With Ben Gilbert & David Rosenthal

"Everyone who has anything to do with Coca-Cola should make money." — Robert Woodruff

Ben Gilbert & David Rosenthal, on the episode

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal spent a full episode dissecting the 140-year arc of the Coca-Cola Company, from a Confederate veteran's basement kettle to a $300 billion global system. The pop framing of Coke is that it won on taste and brand. The actual operating system is more interesting: a company that scaled the entire world by refusing to bottle its own product, giving away coupons before coupons existed, and accidentally running the greatest publicity stunt in consumer goods history. This protocol pulls the six decisions that built Coca-Cola, and the one catastrophic move that somehow saved it.