the secret to the success of these products is believed to lie in their formula of ingredients.

Because companies keep these formulas a guarded secret and no one from outside of the company can get hold of these recipes,

these products⏤and their tastes⏤can simply not be replicated by another brand, making them unique and thus, irreplaceable in the market.

In 2011, Cola-Cola surprised the world when they announced that they would share the confidential formula of their world-famous drink with the public during an NFL commercial.

Turned out, it was merely a marketing ploy where the company teased a "comical" formula for a fraction of a second.

In 1977, the company even pulled out of India because they would've been legally required to divulge their ingredient list to the government.

In another case, they managed to stall a divorce case when they suspected that some of the Coca-Cola founder's handwritten notes were being shared as a part of a divorce settlement.

All of these incidents created the buzz in media which, in turn, worked as a free advertisement for the Coca-Cola.

The company apparently believes that if you've got a secret of this much importance, you got to protect it with best of your capabilities.

That's why the only printed copy of the full formula lies inside a secure vault on the grounds of the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta.

Apart from that, only two employees are privy to the complete formula at any given time, and they're not permitted to travel together.

The identity of these two employees is itself a secret.

Alright; makes sense.

But the question that comes to mind is: How does Coca-Cola manage to manufacture and sell 1.7 billion drinks in more than 200 countries around the globe every single day,

when the ingredients to produce the product is only known to a handful of people?

If it really is the center of Cola empire, why hasn't any Cola employee been successful in leaking the formula yet?

That, too, in a history of more than a century?

And why doesn't one just find out the components of the drink in a lab through scientific methods?

Quite contrary to these, in 2006, a former employee of Coca-Cola attempted to sell some confidential documents that possibly included the secret formula and a vial of unreleased drink to Pepsi for 1.5 Million dollars.

Instead of breaking a deal, Pepsi contacted the FBI and helped the police in a plot to arrest the man red-handed.

Pepsi could've used this opportunity to sell the taste of Coca-Cola under their name and become the sole player in the market.

They didn't do so because, first, this would've been illegal, and second, it's not worth the risk or effort.

The reality is that the Coca-Cola secret formula isn't really a secret, so spending millions of dollar to get this doesn't make sense.

The exact formula is known to many people around the world, and any talented chemist can recreate the formula to an extent that's indistinguishable from the real one in a blind taste at a much lower cost.

For decades, Coca-Cola has used these rumors about a secret formula to enhance consumer perception of Coca-Cola's specialness.

By insisting that the recipe is a trade secret, Coca-Cola creates a mystique around the product that helps maintain a certain image in the minds of customers.

While what's really special about Coca-Cola is its branding, the nostalgia behind its history, and its chain of distribution which can't be copied.

People may buy fake Gucci bags because the original ones may cost a liver and kidney,

but why would anyone buy a slightly cheaper Coca-Cola drink from a nameless brand when one can easily afford the real one?

Not many people would buy something that tastes like a Coca-Cola drink in a Pepsi bottle, either.

Similarly, a newly-founded SideNote's Big Mac may have the same recipe as McDonald's, but [it] doesn't give you the happy clown guy and the billions of dollars of marketing power.

In fact, Coca-Cola's taste is so tightly tied to its name after years of marketing that even the company itself can't easily change it.

In the 1980s, the company attempted to change the formula of the drink⏤a new, better-tasting coke even passed a blind test against the old one.

But when it was brought to the market, the company faced a massive backlash from the public.

People still preferred the old coke because of its familiar taste, and the company gave in to protests and returned to the old formula.