????可口可樂誕生源于一個藥物問題。

????可口可樂（Coca-Cola）品牌的創始人是亞特蘭大藥劑師約翰?彭伯頓。他在美國內戰中參加過保衛佐治亞州哥倫布市的戰斗，據很多人猜測，因為參戰導致傷病纏身，他染上了吸食嗎啡（一種麻醉劑）的惡習。19世紀80年代，彭伯頓的健康狀況非常糟糕，同時經濟上也遭受打擊。1872年，彭伯頓申請破產。幾年后，他又眼睜睜地看著自己在亞特蘭大的生意在兩場大火中被付之一炬。1886年，他終于擺脫債務纏身的窘境，但是手頭依然缺錢。

????就在這一年，彭伯頓在亞特蘭大推出了可口可樂。19世紀70年代末，一種叫做Vin Mariani的法國專利藥物在國際市場非常暢銷，這種藥是由混合了古柯樹葉的波爾多葡萄酒制成。彭伯頓的可口可樂就是仿照這種藥物飲料而來。為什么不呢？這種藥物飲料實際上是一種帶可卡因成分的葡萄酒，習慣了這種味道的消費者對其趨之若鶩。眾多大牌名人認為該飲料有滋補復元之功效，其中包括美國總統尤里西斯?辛普森?格蘭特和羅馬教皇利奧十三世。

????為錢所困的彭伯頓看到了商機，認為仿制這款熱門飲料一定是個不錯的生意。而他真就這么做了，1885年，他開始售賣自己的飲料品牌：法國古柯葡萄酒（French Wine of Coca）。但是問題是，當時的清教徒呼吁禁酒，導致亞特蘭大全城推行禁酒令，于是彭伯頓不得不將葡萄酒換成汽水。于是在1886年，就有了這種無酒精飲料可口可樂。

????換成汽水不僅僅是應對禁酒令的權宜之計，這也讓彭伯頓得以將約80%的產品生產外包出去。冷飲店的經營者們需要做的，僅僅是按一定比例將水兌入彭伯頓制成的飲料（至少五盎司水兌一盎司糖漿）。如此一來，彭伯頓出售的就只是黑色的濃縮糖漿，從而可以節省大筆運輸費用。當然，冷飲店冰柜里的水就是自來水。

????1899年，亞特蘭大藥劑師艾薩?錢德勒與可口可樂簽訂了首份裝瓶授權合同，并接管公司，之后沿用了這種經營模式。錢德勒開始并不同意采用這種分銷模式，因為當時大多數裝瓶業務很不成熟，但是他后來認識到，裝瓶分銷可以讓產品深入遠離市中心的農村市場。這種經營模式更大的好處在于：位于小城鎮的獨立企業主們自掏腰包助力市場擴張。裝瓶公司們墊款購買機器，支付包裝、市政用水以及卡車和輪胎的費用，可口可樂的糖漿也由此迅速滲透到全國各地的商業大動脈。

????然而，可口可樂的外包戰略并沒有就此止步。在供應方面，可口可樂還盡量避免持有工廠和廠房。比如，該公司既沒有在加勒比海擁有糖種植園，或在中西部持有高果糖玉米糖漿的濕磨廠，也沒有在東南部持有脫咖啡因的設施。相反，公司依賴大量獨立的企業，如孟山都化學公司（Monsanto Chemical Company）、嘉吉公司（Cargill）、好時公司（Hershey Chocolate Company）等等，來對成品飲料中的關鍵成分進行采掘、加工和提煉。總之，可口可樂不喜歡垂直的業務整合，而是作為某種商品經紀人，通過在獨立經營的生產商和分銷商之間傳輸材料來賺錢。

????From the very beginning, Coca-Cola had a drug problem.

????The brand’s founder, Atlanta pharmacist John Stith Pemberton, was addicted to morphine, a narcotic many suspected Pemberton began using after suffering a series of debilitating wounds while defending the city of Columbus, Georgia, during the Civil War. By the 1880s, Pemberton was not well, and he was also hurting financially. In 1872, Pemberton filed for bankruptcy and a few years later watched helplessly when two fires ravaged his Atlanta business. In 1886, he had finally clawed his way out of debt but was still strapped for cash.

????That was the year Pemberton introduced Atlanta to Coca-Cola. Pemberton patterned his drink after a French patent medicine called Vin Mariani, a Bordeaux wine mixed with coca leaves, which had become quite popular in international markets by the end of the 1870s, and why not? Here was a drink that was essentially cocaine-laced wine, inducing quite a buzz for the habitual consumer. All sorts of luminaries testified to its restorative properties, including U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant and Pope Leo XIII.

????Cash-poor Pemberton believed it made smart business sense to create a knockoff of this popular beverage, which is exactly what he did, selling his own French Wine of Coca in 1885. The problem was, Protestant clamoring for prohibition led to citywide restrictions on alcohol consumption in Atlanta, forcing Pemberton to replace the wine with carbonated water. Thus, Coca-Cola became a kind of temperance drink in 1886.

????The decision to switch to water was more than just an expedient solution to a prohibition problem: it allowed Pemberton to outsource roughly 80% of his product’s volume onto others. That’s because it was soda fountain operators who mixed the water—at least five ounces per one ounce of syrup—into Pemberton’s finished beverages. All Pemberton sold was a dark, syrupy concentrate, which allowed him to save enormous amounts of money on transportation costs. Of course, the soda fountain water ultimately came from the municipal tap.

????This model continued under Pemberton’s successor, Atlanta pharmacist Asa Candler, who signed the first bottling franchise contracts for Coca-Cola in 1899. Initially hesitant to approve this distribution method—considering the rudimentary nature of most bottling operations at the time—Candler came to see that bottling enabled Coke to reach rural markets far removed from city centers. What made the deal even sweeter was the fact that independent businessmen in small towns covered the tab for this expansion. Bottlers fronted the capital to buy the machinery, packaging, and municipal water, as well as the trucks and tires that spread Coke’s syrup through the nation’s commercial arteries.

????But Coke’s outsourcing strategy didn’t stop there. On the supply side, Coke also shunned ownership of factories and plants. The company did not own sugar plantations in the Caribbean, high-fructose corn syrup wet mills in the Midwest, or decaffeination facilities in the Southeast. Rather, the company relied on a host of independent businesses—the Monsanto Chemical Company, Cargill, Hershey Chocolate Company, among many others—to mine, process, and refine the critical ingredients that went into its finished beverages. In short, Coke was averse to vertical business integration, and instead acted as a kind of commodity broker, making money by transferring materials from independently owned producers and distributors.