This analysis, like many from Charlie Munger, is worth considering carefully but misses two curious aspects of the Coca-Cola story.

First, the price of a 6.5 fl. oz. bottle of Coca-Cola was set at 5¢ in the 1880s and remained 5¢ through the 1890s, the 1900s, the 1910s, the 1920s … all the way until the 1950s when the price was finally raised. The dynamics that led to this remarkable phenomenon is described in a Planet Money podcast [1] and on Wikipedia [2].

Second, “starting in Atlanta, then succeeding in the rest of the United States, then rapidly succeeding with our new beverage all over the world” is much easier said than done. Coca-Cola somehow hit this jackpot, but Munger himself would cite See’s Candies as a counterexample of a brand that, for whatever reason, does not travel as successfully from its place of origin.

[1]: https://www.npr.org/transcripts/456410327

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed_price_of_Coca-Cola_from_...