As soon as the ambitious woodruff took office, he raised such a slogan loudly: Let people all over the world drink Coca-Cola! He set up the international market development department in the company, trying to push Coca-Cola to the world. However, it is not easy to sell this slightly medicinal beverage to the international market and make it acceptable to people with different eating habits and tastes all over the world!
The resistance first came from the conservative elders on the board of Coca-Cola Company. I know you want to show off as soon as you take office, but you can't satisfy your vanity at the expense of all shareholders, can you? Woodruff argued: British food can be sold abroad, so why can't we export such good drinks to the United States? Dujil plausibly retorted that food and drink are completely different. People mainly consider the nutritional composition of food. As long as there is nutrition, they will let their tastes accommodate food. And drinks are just for quenching thirst, and it makes no difference whether you drink them or not. How do foreigners give up traditional habits to accommodate drinks? Woodruff still insists on his view that the unique flavor of Coca-Cola will stimulate people's curiosity and then change people's original habits. Coca-Cola sells well in the domestic market. I believe foreigners will like Coca-Cola as much as Americans.
After some talks, woodruff has strengthened its confidence in exploring the international market. At the same time, he also realized that he must pay more attention to sales methods and the art of promotion. Only in this way can he open the international market.
So, he first launched an innovative activity in the domestic market, that is, selling Coca-Cola with vending machines. In this way, the sales area of Coca-Cola has been greatly expanded, and customers can buy Coca-Cola anytime and anywhere.
This sales promotion method quickly won the unanimous praise of the directors, but woodruff was not satisfied, because the export market he was bent on exploring was always unsatisfactory.
194 1 year, after the Pearl Harbor incident broke out, the United States participated in the Second World War. The war made Coca-Cola's domestic market depressed, and the development of overseas markets was at a loss. Woodruff, trapped by internal and external troubles, fidgeted all day, and his old problems recurred.
One night, he was about to see a doctor when the phone rang. It turned out to be his old classmate, true colors. Spencer, the staff officer of the current Colonel of MacArthur Corps, has just returned from the Philippines and specially called his old classmates.
After a few commonplaces, woodruff asked, Will you still think of me in your busy schedule? I don't miss you, I miss your Coca-Cola every day. I haven't drunk your wine for a long time! Especially in the sweltering jungle of the Philippines, I can't wait to fill a bucket with your brown refreshing drink. Woodruff quickly said: Welcome to the company, be sure to drink enough! I replied humorously, unfortunately, I am not a camel, otherwise I would have mended a skin and taken it to the Philippines to enjoy it for a week.
True colors inspired woodruff: If all the soldiers in front can drink Coca-Cola, wouldn't it be a living advertisement in overseas markets? Affected by it, local people will naturally drink this drink. Doesn't this mean indirectly opening up the export market?
Early the next morning, woodruff rushed to Washington to discuss the supply of Coca-Cola in front of Pentagon officials. Despite his hype, the officials of the Department of Defense who were confused by Pearl Harbor incident were unwilling to listen to his advice. How much morale can a bottle of coke improve? This idea is ridiculous.
Undaunted, woodruff immediately returned to the company to discuss countermeasures. He assigned several people to write a propaganda draft, which looked like a picture book with pictures and fabricated voices of the soldiers in front.
Woodruff personally deleted and revised the propaganda draft, named it "The Importance of Completing the Hardest Combat Task and Rest" and printed it in color. This pamphlet particularly emphasizes that we should try our best to adjust the lives of soldiers in fierce battles. How comfortable it is for a soldier to drink a cool and delicious coke when he is tired and thirsty after completing his task! For those soldiers who risked their lives on the battlefield, Coca-Cola is not only a leisure drink, but also a necessity, as important as guns and ammunition.
He also held a press conference and invited many distinguished guests, including members of Congress, families of frontline soldiers and officials of the Ministry of National Defense. At the meeting, he took pains to publicize his point of view: Coca-Cola is a munitions, which is a fact that everyone should admit. We sent Coca-Cola to the soldiers, which is a sincere concern for our soldiers who fought bloody battles overseas and a contribution to the victory of the war. What we are doing is not commercial behavior, but fighting for the welfare of soldiers.
His words really touched people's hearts. When he stepped down from the podium, an old lady in her 60s greeted him and hugged him with tears, saying: Your idea is great, and your love for the soldiers in front will be supported by God!
Woodruff, a talented propagandist, fascinated members of Congress, military families and the entire Pentagon. After consultation, Pentagon officials not only listed Coca-Cola as a necessity for frontline soldiers, but also supported woodruff to set up factories for production in the battlefield. Obviously, it is extremely risky to build a factory in the Expeditionary Force, which is in danger of being destroyed by enemy gunfire, so woodruff said that he would not invest alone. He pointed out that since Coca-Cola has been listed as a necessity for frontline soldiers, this huge equipment investment should be the responsibility of the Ministry of National Defense. At this time, the news of supplying Coca-Cola to the front has spread overseas, and the vast number of soldiers in front unanimously demanded that the Ministry of National Defense implement it as soon as possible. Although the Ministry of National Defense knows that it will increase a lot of expenses, it can't stop. The U.S. Department of Defense soon publicly announced that in any corner of the world, no matter where the U.S. military is stationed, every soldier must be able to drink a bottle of Coca-Cola for 5 cents. The Ministry of National Defense will fully support all the expenses and equipment required for this supply plan.
Coca-Cola Company has benefited greatly from the full support of the Pentagon. In just two or three years, the company has exported the production equipment of 64 Coca-Cola factories overseas. The consumption of military Coca-Cola has reached 5 billion bottles. At this point, Coca-Cola Company successfully opened the international market, laying the foundation for a new leap after the war.
After the end of World War II, a large number of American troops who fought overseas returned home one after another. Woodruff realized that without such a large number of Coca-Cola volunteer salesmen and new tricks as soon as possible, the foundation he worked so hard to lay overseas would be uprooted.
One day, worried woodruff went to the hospital to see a doctor, and then dropped in to see his old classmate. At this time, Bansai has returned from the front and transferred to a welfare institution of the Ministry of National Defense. When meeting, woodruff asked about the overseas sales of Coca-Cola. According to his years of experience in Southeast Asia, Ban Sai pointed out that people in Southeast Asia are completely influenced by the US military and have become addicted to drinking Coca-Cola. As long as you can guarantee the supply, sales will not be a problem. Hearing this, Woodruff's spirit did it one brace up. But he is also worried that the company cannot set up factories overseas alone. This competition, with its flexible mind, puts forward its own view: you sell the manufacturing rights of Coca-Cola to local people and let them build factories at their own expense. This method is completely feasible in Southeast Asia.
Inspired by his old friend Ban Sai's suggestion, woodruff put forward a new idea of overseas business strategy: using local manpower and material resources to open up Coca-Cola's overseas market, which is called nativism. The specific implementation plan is as follows: 1. Establish a local company, and all employees and responsible persons are local; Two, the funds raised by the local people, the head office in principle does not pay; Three, in addition to the concentrated juice provided by the head office to make Coca-Cola, all equipment, materials, means of transportation and sales are made by local people; Four, sales policy, production technology, staff training are handled by the head office. Later, woodruff added two more items: the advertisements of factories in various countries were uniformly produced by the head office; All foreigners who set up a company to produce Coca-Cola must pay a deposit.
In this way, woodruff caught the foreigners' fanatical worship of American goods at that time, and in the process of expanding overseas markets, not only did he not pay any fees, but he gained considerable deposits. It can be said that his application of business strategy has reached a superb level.
According to the statistics of the post-war 25 years, in addition to the development and income in the United States, Coca-Cola Company only wholesales raw juice which accounts for 0.3 1% of the beverage weight, with an annual total turnover of 979 million US dollars and an average annual net profit of/kloc-0.50 billion US dollars. Coca-Cola has finally become the world's number one soft drink.
Coca-Cola Company can become the eternal kingdom of the international beverage industry, not only by virtue of the unique taste of this beverage, but also by advertising. Woodruff himself attaches great importance to the role of advertising and often does it himself. He emphasized to the directors that 99.7% of our cola is sugar and water. If we don't advertise well, maybe no one will drink it. In order to do a good job in advertising production, woodruff hired experts with high salaries. In his advertising production department, there are psychologists, sociologists, psychoanalysts and advertising professionals. He put forward three principles of advertising production: pleasing to the eye, concise and powerful, and refreshing. In order to ensure the quality of advertisements, he also stipulated that advertisements of all branches should be uniformly produced by the head office. Today, Coca-Cola advertisements, trademarks and even red refrigerators with Coca-Cola logo all over the world are authentic American goods shipped from the United States.
As early as the initial stage of Coca-Cola, it paid special attention to advertising. 19 1 1 year, the advertising cost of Coca-Cola is as high as 1 ten thousand dollars. After 30 years, it soared to $6.5438+million, and after another 8 years, the advertising fee doubled again. To 1958, up to $40 million. Through huge advertisements, Coca-Cola's unique red and white logo has been deeply imprinted in the hearts of consumers around the world. Coca-Cola is a household name all over the world, and its trademark has become the most famous trademark in the world. 1990, an image consulting company in San Francisco, USA, surveyed tens of thousands of consumers in the United States, Japan and Western Europe, and selected the world's top ten brand-name trademarks, namely Coca-Cola, Sony, Mercedes-Benz, Kodak, Disney, Nestle, Toyota, McDonald's, IBM and Pepsi. Coca-Cola topped the list.
According to the evaluation of authoritative organizations, the brand of Coca-Cola can be worth $24.4 billion. With such a huge intangible asset, woodruff, the father of Coca-Cola, once proudly said: Even if all the Coca-Cola factories in the world were reduced to ashes overnight, I can use the brand of Coca-Cola to get a loan from the bank and make a comeback!
1955, woodruff announced his retirement at the age of 65. However, as the former chairman of the Coca-Cola Company and the largest shareholder of the company with 3.5 million shares, he still often participates in the company's major decisions after retirement. Until the 1980s, when he was 90 years old, he still had a great influence on the Coca-Cola Company. His never-ending spirit of struggle has become the symbol of Coca-Cola Company.