From its earliest days, the Coca-Cola Company implemented a visionary approach to doing business and attracting consumers. This was especially true of the LaGrange and West Point Coca-Cola bottling plants, where George S. Cobb Jr. joined the company in 1930 as General Manager.
The Cobbs, Sr. and Jr., enhanced the appeal of Coca-Cola not just through the usual routes of promotion and advertising but even more through community involvement – especially in the schools.
The 1930s were very successful for the two bottling plants and school children of West Point, LaGrange and Troup County were beneficiaries of the success. In 1932, George Cobb Jr. initiated school sampling. He coordinated with the superintendents of local schools to make Coca-Cola Day a yearly event. Every student looked forward to Coca Cola Day when they received supplies – ruler, pencil, and tablet.
Those students who attended a school in close proximity of either plant were invited to come for a look at the bottling process and a free, frosty Coke. During the first School Week, Mr. Cobb led 2,000 students around the plant. Students in outlying areas counted on a visit from “the Coca-Cola Man” with his free Coca-Cola school supplies.
In 1937, an appreciative student from Lanett, Alabama wrote a poem in honor of the school visits from his local Coca-Cola plant. A brief excerpt of the poem, titled “Coca-Cola Day,” captured the excitement around these school visits: “Knowing looks and smiles all say: ‘At last it’s Coca-Cola Day!'”
On the booming business side, the LaGrange plant was extending a welcome to all visitors – from local to international – in 1933. In 1935, the West Point plant held a highly successful open house to showcase its sleek remodeled facility on 3rd Avenue and 9th Street. Around 2,500 people attended the open house and the plant gave away 608 pencils, 1,250 key rings and openers, 710 miniature bottles, and 107 cases of ice cold Coca-Cola.
The 50th anniversary of Coca-Cola was a milestone of 1936. Mr. George Cobb Jr. permitted his employees a two day leave in order to join in the Coca-Cola Company’s festivities in Atlanta.
Like his father, George Cobb Jr. understood the value of marketing. When he came to the company in 1930, he resolved, in his own words, to have “the best advertised plants in the United States.” To achieve this end, he had highway billboards, the sides of buildings, and free-standing signs painted with Coca-Cola advertising. A local artist and cartoonist, Leonard Hardy, worked as a professional painter for the West Point Coca-Cola plant.
Similar to premiums for returned crowns, Coca-Cola giveaway items proved another successful marketing method. Promotional giveaways during this and later periods ranged from playing cards to small purses and the invitation to two free Coca-Colas on your birthday.
By the late 1930s, the local plants were gaining in sales. So much so that in 1937, they made a national showing. In the Coca-Cola Company per capita sales report for 1937, the West Point Bottling Company ranked number 12, and LaGrange number 28.
Cobb Memorial Archives 