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> Ask Coca-Cola for its secret recipe and listen to a whole corporation laugh Coca-Cola is a highly vertically-integrated company with huge economies of scale,

> Ask Coca-Cola for its secret recipe and listen to a whole corporation laugh Coca-Cola is a highly vertically-integrated company with huge economies of scale, giving it a near monopolistic position. Even if you had the 'secret' recipe, there is little hope of being able to profitably compete on price. And if you could compete in some tiny segment of Coca-Cola's market, they could lower prices and run at a loss in that segment until you ran out of money. This is before you take into account brand value... Ask Berkshire Hathaway to invest in a sugary drinks company based on its secret recipe and listen to a whole corporation laugh.

Spooky23 10y ago
Reinforcing your point, the "secret recipe" has been revealed, to no ill-effect. :) http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/02/15/is-this-the-real-thing-coca-colas-secret-formula-discovered/ http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/02/15/is-this-the-real-thing-c... Of course the special arrangement to grow Cocoa in the US is a powerful barrier to entry as well!
- CapitalistCartr 10y ago
  Coca. Cocoa is for making chocolate. If they made their drink with that, I'd probably drink it.
  - Spooky23 10y ago
    "Damn You, Autocorrect!"
deleted 10y ago
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garrickvanburen 10y ago
Additionally, recipes change overtime to accommodate any number of environmental factors: better tech, lower or higher cost/availability of raw materials (e.g. bad harvest, war). One benefit of keeping the recipe 'secret' is ability to continually tweak it. So, it's more a question of the recipe from when (and perhaps even where). This is very evident in the history of beer. Here's just one small example: http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2013/02/tetley-porter-1858-1896.html http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2013/02/tetley-porter-185... Same beer across 38 years; changes in ABV, changes in hopping, changes in boil time.

Spooky23 10y ago

Reinforcing your point, the "secret recipe" has been revealed, to no ill-effect. :) http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/02/15/is-this-the-real-thing-coca-colas-secret-formula-discovered/ http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/02/15/is-this-the-real-thing-c... Of course the special arrangement to grow Cocoa in the US is a powerful barrier to entry as well!

CapitalistCartr 10y ago
Coca. Cocoa is for making chocolate. If they made their drink with that, I'd probably drink it.
- Spooky23 10y ago
  "Damn You, Autocorrect!"

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

garrickvanburen 10y ago

Additionally, recipes change overtime to accommodate any number of environmental factors: better tech, lower or higher cost/availability of raw materials (e.g. bad harvest, war). One benefit of keeping the recipe 'secret' is ability to continually tweak it. So, it's more a question of the recipe from when (and perhaps even where). This is very evident in the history of beer. Here's just one small example: http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2013/02/tetley-porter-1858-1896.html http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2013/02/tetley-porter-185... Same beer across 38 years; changes in ABV, changes in hopping, changes in boil time.