Coca Cola is absolute marketing genius. Think of it as a world wide
franchise whose product is perfect. Consider:
- The central Coca Cola factory produces concentrate. This is a thick syrup which is diluted a zillion times to produce the drink.
- The syrup is shipped all over the world in barrels.
- Coca Cola plants add the syrup to water (cheap), add carbonation (just CO2), and bottle or can the stuff.
- The finished product can be stored for years, and it is stable (because after all it is sterile water with sugar and gas).
- It can be sold at a profit at nearly any price.
I claim to no insider information, but consider that what Coca Cola spends on when making and shipping Coke to customers is mostly local
labor. So the drink can be sold at a price which is always accessible.
Basically, they price it at whatever they can get away with, because there is no competition. And how do they assure that? Through
advertisement, of course. And they have a lot of dollars for ads.