Word: coke
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...Atlanta. Mayor Andrew Young plans to set the tone for the monster bash by belting out, with the help of a 60-piece orchestra and a 1,000-voice choir, one of the biggest hit tunes of the 1970s. The title? I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke, of course...
...which will cost somewhere between $10 million and $20 million, is fitting for the Coca-Cola Co. (1985 sales: $7.9 billion) as it turns 100. A century ago, according to corporate lore, John Styth Pemberton, 55, a surgeon and analytical chemist, whomped up the first batch of Coke's magic elixir in his Atlanta backyard, using a three-legged brass kettle and an oar. Now, almost exactly a year after the seemingly disastrous flip- flop decision to change the formula of the world's best-selling soft drink, Coca-Cola has emerged bigger, wealthier and vastly more diversified than ever...
Despite the disappointing performance of new Coke, sales of the many other Coca-Cola drinks have been so strong that the company's share of the $26 billion-a-year U.S. soft-drink market has grown this year to 39%, vs. rival Pepsico's 29%, according to Beverage Digest. A year ago Coke's lead was 29% to 23%. A move to license the Coca-Cola name on designer clothing, which began badly last year, now seems to be humming along nicely. Most important, Coca- Cola is reaping benefits from its biggest image change of all, a controversial $1.4 billion...
...Goizueta, 54. Says he: "My job is not to be right. It is to produce results." The Cuban-born executive, trained as a chemist, has generated criticism aplenty since he took the helm in 1980. Some of that controversy began well before he tampered with Merchandise 7X, the secret Coke formula that has been kept under corporate lock and key ever since the soft drink's invention...
Among other things, Goizueta unleashed the blizzard of mega-brand marketing that produced Diet Coke, Cherry Coke and (still being tested) Diet Cherry Coke, not to mention new Coke and the hurried reincarnation of old Coke as Coca-Cola Classic. He shook up the company's mostly franchised bottling operations, causing about 100 of the outlets, supplying roughly 70% of the U.S. market, to change hands. Goizueta's most radical step has been to overturn the cash-heavy financial management championed by longtime Coca-Cola Chairman Robert Woodruff. During Goizueta's reign, Coca-Cola has borrowed $1.3 billion, mostly...