John Pemberton was a brilliant pharmacist but a poor businessman.

In 1886, the Atlanta druggist created the formula for Coca-Cola, but never thought to sell it anywhere other than his own store.

For years it was little more than a local favorite.

Asa Griggs Candler (1851-1929) saw its potential. When Pemberton decided to retire, the rival pharmacist bought Coca-Cola and began to aggressively market it.

Within a few years, Coca-Cola Co. was growing exponentially as the soft drink conquered the South and the rest of the nation.

In the process, Candler blazed paths in marketing, advertising and branding that are standard business practices today.

"Candler wanted people to ask for his syrup by name, and he had done his utmost to make sure they knew that name," wrote Constance Hays, author of "The Real Thing: Truth and Power at the Coca-Cola Company." "With no other national cola brand out there, Coca-Cola developed a certain desirability that mushroomed over time."

Candler essentially created the soft drink industry. It wasn't easy. He had to build a public demand that didn't exist and overcome the considerable marketing and logistical problems of late 19th-century America. He conquered each obstacle by giving everyone a taste of Coke's success.

His business smarts stood side by side with a sense of civic duty. He helped to found Emory University, donating millions throughout his life. As mayor of Atlanta, he helped steer the city through a financial crisis and recover from a devastating fire in 1917.

Hardly A Rich Start

Candler, born in Villa Rica, Ga., arrived in Atlanta in 1873 as an apprentice pharmacist. He had nothing more than seven quarters in his pocket and the clothes on his back.

Druggists of the time offered a wide variety of tonics and cure-alls that made dubious health claims, but were usually harmless. To make the concoctions go down easier, the druggists watered them down and added sugar.

Over time, druggists downplayed the medicinal aspect and simply focused on making sweet refreshments. When people wished to relax and enjoy a drink without having to go to a saloon, the local pharmacy became the place to go.

It was with this in mind that Pemberton mixed still-secret amounts of kola nuts, caffeine, sugar and trace amounts of coca leaves to create Coca-Cola in 1886. The crowning touch, carbonated water, was added later in a happy accident.

Pemberton sold it only through his store, where he advertised it as a cure for headaches and "mental and physical exhaustion."

When Candler bought the rights from Pemberton two years later, he began marketing the syrup to other pharmacists. They were reluctant to take it on — they had their own sweet beverages already — but Candler made the deals irresistible.

He offered the initial barrels of syrup for free. At the same time he gave away coupons for free drinks to potential customers. In one swoop he overcame the reluctance of druggists to stock it and of customers to taste it. "After that first (Coke syrup) keg on which it lost money, (the company) usually had a customer to buy more kegs for life," wrote Pat Walters in "Coca-Cola: An Illustrated History."

Candler financed this by selling his pharmacy, plowing all his Coke profit into the business and living frugally in the company's early years.

Once the public got a taste, they came back for more. He soon had enough orders to compensate for the expenses. He repeated the process throughout the South, building the reputation of Coke.

In addition to the giveaways, he engaged in aggressive advertising campaigns. He had the distinctive cursive-script Coca-Cola name put on glasses, trays, calendars, signs and pretty much anything else he could think of.

Originally the ads were put up only in pharmacies where the drink was sold. That was soon expanded to include billboards, sides of barns and full-page newspaper ads.

The Coca-Cola advertising budget for 1892 was $11,401, a staggering sum for what was then still a Southern regional product. But it helped to build the brand. Soon customers would ask for Coke by name, and druggists felt obliged to carry it.

Candler made certain to use pretty girls in the ads. They were demurely dressed — this was still the 19th century — but conveyed the image of youth and happiness that he wanted associated with the beverage.

He also dropped the fiction that Coke was a medicine. He realized it got in the way of the message that Coke was "delicious, refreshing" and resulted in some customers seeking the drink out only when they didn't feel well.

Candler hired ambitious salesmen to pitch syrup across the region. They traveled among druggists and repeated the giveaway process that Candler pioneered. He made sure they did quality control too.

"The Coca-Cola salesman, when calling on a new customer, also showed the soda-fountain help how to mix a proper Coca-Cola, checked on the carbonated-water machinery (the stuff had to be cold for Coca-Cola to taste right) and put up display advertising in the store," according to Walters.

In the company's first year, 1889, it sold 2,171 gallons of syrup. By 1894, it sold more than 64,000 gallons. Candler claimed that Coke was available in "every state and territory in the United States."

Success breeds imitators, and soon other colas popped up. Candler aggressively engaged in copyright litigation each time an upstart tried too closely to imitate Coke's name. He did not want consumers confused, and fought to establish Coke's status as "the real thing."

Another way he did this was by zealously guarding the exact formula used to make Coke. The secrecy added to Coke's mystique.

When rumors spread that Coke contained more than trace amounts of coca leaves and thus was laced with cocaine, Candler immediately grasped the threat to his family-oriented brand.

He altered the formula in 1892 to reduce the coca leaves and went on a PR offensive to dispel the notion that the drink contained anything worse than confectioner's sugar.

Until 1899, Coca-Cola was still available only at pharmacies. Two entrepreneurs, Benjamin Thomas and Joseph Whitehead, persuaded Candler to contract the bottling exclusively to them. They in turn franchised it. Coca-Cola Co. focused on making the syrup, as well as advertising and branding.

Message In The Bottle

Candler's last act as head of the firm was to commission the hourglasslike design of the Coke bottle and press the bottlers to accept it. The design was simple, functional and instantly recognizable, further burnishing the brand.

Candler's generosity expanded beyond the business. He donated $1 million to defray the costs of establishing Emory University and remained close to the school until his death. His donations to it totaled $8 million, most of his fortune.

Elected as mayor of Atlanta in 1916, he steered the city through its financial crisis by balancing the budget and rebuilding 1,500 homes destroyed in the fire.

Candler served one term, then retired. He had a debilitating stroke in 1926 and died March 12, 1929.