Asa Candler Coca Cola Owner Created The Blessing We Call Discounts

Asa Candler (Sumber: Commons Wikimedia)

JAKARTA - For consumers, the concept of a discount or discount is a blessing. For entrepreneurs, discounts are one marketing strategy. Often successful, discounts are even used as a strategy to sell many things, whether goods or services. With this discount concept, there is no such big dream. Presumably, that message was what Atlanta, United States (US) businessman Asa Candler wanted to utter in 1887. In his hand, the world's first discount coupon was born.

Candler, who is also listed as the owner of a soft drink company, Coca-Cola Company, wants to immediately increase his product marketing figures. To that end, Candler began to think about the right strategy for promotion. After a long struggle, finally the idea came up to do a simple sales technique, namely making a coupon.

The word coupon itself is taken by Candler from French: Couper, which means to cut. For this reason, the Coca-Cola coupons which were distributed for free were born, as well as being the beginning of the concept of discounting. As reported by Cuoponsherpa, to distribute coupons, Candler distributed the coupons on the streets of Atlanta. The rest, Candler sent coupons in the mail and some of the coupons were distributed through magazines. Unexpectedly, Candler's simple technique was successful. In two decades, coupons have been accessed by 8.5 million Coca-Cola consumers.

Coca Cola Coupon (Source: Commons Wikimedia)

This achievement made Coca-Cola begin to penetrate and dominate the world sales market. All of that again, thanks to an idea from Candler. Because of his popularity, Candler began to adjust various forms of coupons. Whether it's a coupon that offers Coca-Cola for free to a discount. Which, it adjusts to the value of the currency in each country. The goal is clear, so that the Coca-Cola Company can reap the maximum benefits.

Today there are lots of discounts, right? Let's get to know Asa Candler first, thanks to him that discounts were created in the world. The first discount was made by Asa Candler in 1887, as the founder of Coca-Cola he promoted his beverage products by giving discounts in the form of coupons. 📸 By Wikimedia Commons pic .twitter.com/2otFhuE5sQ

- Mazzini (@mazzini_gsp) November 11, 2020

Gradually, the discount coupon technique developed by Candler began to inspire other companies to do the same. At its peak, the use of discounts reached its peak when the world was hit by the economic crisis in 1930. We have reviewed in detail the article "Merapi Eruption Marks Recession and Worthless Rice Fields".

Because of the low purchasing power of the world community. The presence of discount coupons is like a hope to survive in the midst of an economic crisis. Then, naturally, the economy then increases. Because of that, a variety of products or services can survive the economic crisis.

The popularity of discount coupons continues. Ten years after the economic crisis, not only large producers are using discount coupon marketing techniques. Small shops in shopping centers began to adopt discount coupons to increase their sales. Therefore, not only Coca-Cola is affected by the success of the discount technique, but hundreds to thousands of other products have also been splashed by the benefits of the technique created by Asa Candler. However, not only all of them were successful, there were even more failures.

Discounts are not always a solution

Asa Candler (Source: Commons Wikimedia)

Thanks to the discount technique created by Asa Candler, the echo of discount coupons also penetrated Indonesia. Discounts do not only apply to large companies or business people (small, medium, or large scale), the Indonesian government has also adopted technical discounts in introducing and marketing superior tourism in the archipelago.

Inevitably, even though the tourism industry seems in shambles hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, ticket discounts are in fact given to domestic flights. Policy owners hope that with the discount on ten top Indonesian tours, starting from Seribu Island (DKI Jakarta) to Komodo Island (East Nusa Tenggara), it can be crowded again.

"We have decided to provide a 50 percent subsidy to 10 tourist destinations so that areas such as Bali, Jogjakarta, North Sulawesi, Bintan, Tanjung Pinang and others that were tourists from China are replaced with local tourists," said the Minister of Transportation, Budi Karya to Last February, quoted from Kompas.com, Wednesday, November 11.

In fact, discounts are not always a solution. Promoting tourism without thinking about the security sector is a problem that has an impact on the sluggishness of tourism. Not even lucky but lucky. Quoted from Bandung Mawardi in the book Omelan: Village, Village, City (2019), the government's steps to eradicate all forms of complaints with discounts are ingrained, even in local governments. Solo City Government, Central Java, for example.

“Sluggish cities are eradicated at a discount. It is said that Solo is often sluggish in February, offering a bucket of sadness to businessmen and the government. They agreed to turn languid with the crowd. Oh, busy means shopping. Businesses are labeled a discount or a percent dollar bill. People visiting Solo will be hit by the common sense and the most powerful word for people who like to shop: discounts. Solo, a city of discounts. Solo, a city with a low price. Shop! Shop! " wrote Bandung Mawardi.

Even so, the owner of the article realizes that discounts do sometimes bring benefits. However, the profit narrative is only temporary. It could be that someone becomes a “discount human” for only a month's duration. After knowing what was purchased or the service used had no principle of benefit, people would languish and remember regret for life.

“People are persuaded to dream of gifts (discount coupons) by following a condition: shopping. Shopping events are counted in the amount of rupiah. Shopping is complicated. Shopping was even approved by officials in Central Java. Ganjar Pranowo said: giving discounts to boost the economy is a bold step. The governor forgets that if there are people who are lazy to shop and are ashamed of the gift, it is brave I see, "he added.

In the end, the technical discount coupons that originally brought benefits in the past, are not necessarily effective today. Therefore, be a smart consumer. Namely, consumers who are able to protect themselves from harmful goods or services.