Brooke Ford
Business 82
Final Project
7 April 2013
The King of Beverages
It's the “Friendly Pepper Upper”, “Always One of a Kind”, and “Just What the Doctor Ordered”. Being the oldest major manufactured soft drink in America (History of Dr Pepper), Dr Pepper is all of those past slogans, and more. It's the greatest soft drink on the planet, and it will stand the test of time.
Dr Pepper has come a long way from Morrison's Old Corner Drug Store in Waco, Texas back in 1885. According to the Dr Pepper Museum website, under “History of Dr Pepper”, the inventor was Charles Alderton, who was a young pharmacist working in the drug store. In his spare time, he had a hobby of mixing carbonated beverages for customers. Apparently, he
They did some research and found that people needed a pick me up at 10:30, 2:30, and 4:30.”
Indeed, Dr Pepper used to claim the hours of 10 o'clock, 2 o'clock, and 4 o'clock as “Dr Pepper time”, according to Roger M. Grace in his article “At 10-2 and 4 O'Clock, It Was Dr Pepper Time”. The background of this ad stems from a 1920's study by Dr. Walter Eddy at Columbia University. His study claimed that the body's natural energy drops at 10:30 am, 2:30 pm, and 4:30 pm everyday; however, if you eat or drink something at 10:00 am, 2:00 pm, and 4:00pm everyday, the drop in energy can be avoided. Dr Pepper then took that research and turned it into an advertising theme, with a slogan that said “Drink a bite to eat at 10, 2, and 4” (Grace).
In 2003, Dr Pepper joined forces with Snapple, a tea and juice drink, and became Dr Pepper Snapple Group (Our History). With all of their products in the Dr Pepper Snapple Group industry, they reportedly made a net income of $179 million in 2011, which averages to 84 cents per share, and has been only growing in profit since (Murray).
Today, Dr Pepper can be found in almost all stores that sell groceries, and anyone can typically buy a Dr Pepper in any place that has a soda machine. In the past 127 years, Dr Pepper has come from a simple experiment in a small drug store in Waco, Texas, to a beverage sold nationwide, as well as worldwide in Europe, Asia, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and