Some Cola Formulas Aren't Secret, But the Barrier is the Branding
The founder of GNU (or GNU/Linux) makes it widely known that he loathes Coke and boycotts the company, Coca-Cola, citing its murder of its own employees.
Last year it was reported that Coca-Cola Insider Tried Selling Secrets To Pepsi. It was not the first time.
See, those companies keep their formula (not ingredients though) secret, hence proprietary. But with Pepsi, the original formula came out 102 years ago, as noted by the East Carolina Manuscript Collection. "Typescript of original Pepsi-Cola formula developed by Caleb Bradham, obtained during bankruptcy procedures," it says.
As somebody put it last year:
The “secret formula” is a marketing gimmick.Even if you knew the exact recipe, how would that help you?
If you tried to sell the recipe to anyone else, you would get sued.
If you suddenly start making sodas that taste surprisingly like a Coke or a Pepsi, you would get sued.
Coke and Pepsi are not successful because of any secret formula. They are successful because they have market dominance that makes it very difficult for any other soda company to beat them (no matter how good a soda they may have).
Consider this. If you go to any restaurant in the US and maybe Western Europe also that serves sodas, it is close to a 100% probability that they either serve a Coke or a Pepsi.
That's the power of the channel/distribution, marketing, and brand recognition (accomplished through endless marketing). █
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Credit: Richard Stallman speaking in Oslo. 2009-02-23. Photo by Carl Henrik.
