3 ms·

Coca cola make millions of liters of the stuff every day, there must be so many people involved in actually making it that safeguarding the recipe doesn't reall

Coca cola make millions of liters of the stuff every day, there must be so many people involved in actually making it that safeguarding the recipe doesn't really matter? With all the people involved in that process.

lazide 3y ago
It’s a difficult question to answer. My understanding is the concentrate syrup is what everyone interacts with except a small set of people at the plants that make the syrup - and that is where the ‘magic’ happens. The actual product the public consumes is bottled at local/regional bottling facilities from the concentrate to save on unnecessary transport costs, which are significant for something which is 99% water and corn syrup, 1% ‘everything else’. However, there is also the reality of mass spectrometry and HPLC. That plus a large enough group of chemists, and I’m not sure ANYTHING except perhaps a more economic means of production can actually be a real secret. But that last part is… complicated, case law wise. clean room reverse engineering has a interesting history. And in the end, after spending all those millions, how will you get your ROI? Selling it as Monzanto-Cola afterwards isn’t exactly going to give you a higher margin, and frankly most of the value of Coca Cola comes from the brand, not the recipe directly anyway. And claiming it tastes exactly the same as Coca Cola would get a giant lawsuit target on you, which you’d almost certainly lose. So you only have half the puzzle at best, and a giant lawsuit aimed at your head. As long as they do what they need to do to reasonably protect their trade secret, even if it’s something like 15% basil, 25% phosphoric acid, and the balance corn syrup.
- wkat4242 3y ago
  Yeah that's what I mean. The 'secret' is not really in the composition but more in the know-how on how to make millions of litres of it consistently. And the brand like you say. After all a Nike shoe isn't really better than a Sketchers but that little tickmark costs you like $100 :) For this reason I don't really see the need to protect it so closely in this day and age.
  - lazide 3y ago
    They still protect it so carefully for the same reason Nike still goes after all the off brands with check marks, and Disney still sues anyone using their characters and renews their trademarks - it may not be the sole thing keeping their ‘moat’ working, but it’s still important.

lazide 3y ago

It’s a difficult question to answer. My understanding is the concentrate syrup is what everyone interacts with except a small set of people at the plants that make the syrup - and that is where the ‘magic’ happens. The actual product the public consumes is bottled at local/regional bottling facilities from the concentrate to save on unnecessary transport costs, which are significant for something which is 99% water and corn syrup, 1% ‘everything else’. However, there is also the reality of mass spectrometry and HPLC. That plus a large enough group of chemists, and I’m not sure ANYTHING except perhaps a more economic means of production can actually be a real secret. But that last part is… complicated, case law wise. clean room reverse engineering has a interesting history. And in the end, after spending all those millions, how will you get your ROI? Selling it as Monzanto-Cola afterwards isn’t exactly going to give you a higher margin, and frankly most of the value of Coca Cola comes from the brand, not the recipe directly anyway. And claiming it tastes exactly the same as Coca Cola would get a giant lawsuit target on you, which you’d almost certainly lose. So you only have half the puzzle at best, and a giant lawsuit aimed at your head. As long as they do what they need to do to reasonably protect their trade secret, even if it’s something like 15% basil, 25% phosphoric acid, and the balance corn syrup.

wkat4242 3y ago
Yeah that's what I mean. The 'secret' is not really in the composition but more in the know-how on how to make millions of litres of it consistently. And the brand like you say. After all a Nike shoe isn't really better than a Sketchers but that little tickmark costs you like $100 :) For this reason I don't really see the need to protect it so closely in this day and age.
- lazide 3y ago
  They still protect it so carefully for the same reason Nike still goes after all the off brands with check marks, and Disney still sues anyone using their characters and renews their trademarks - it may not be the sole thing keeping their ‘moat’ working, but it’s still important.