What company kept a key product the same price for more than 70 years?
Rolex
General Electric
Ferrari
Coca-Cola
34%
Correct
From 1886 to 1959, you could buy a bottle of Coca-Cola for five cents — pretty incredible, since that time period spans two world wars, Prohibition, and the Great Depression. In 1899, Coca-Cola agreed to let third-party bottlers buy its syrup for a fixed price in perpetuity. Apparently, the people running the company didn’t think bottling would ever amount to much of a business. In hindsight, this was a spectacular miscalculation: Sales of bottled Coca-Cola skyrocketed while the brand’s previous primary source of income (soda fountains) stayed relatively flat. Still, the terms of the contract were unambiguous — the price of the syrup was fixed, and Coca-Cola had no direct control over the price bottlers charged for the finished product. So, the company did something ingenious, launching a lavish advertising program that promised that a bottle of Coca-Cola cost five cents, and let the bottlers either abide by the promise or risk the wrath of customers. This kept the price of Coca-Cola low, which didn’t necessarily increase profits for them directly, but did increase the amount of Coke that was sold, which in turn increased the amount of syrup the company could sell.
Source: NPR | Date Updated: June 23, 2021
