How did a famous Ghazi drink in Peru “finger to the soles of the feet” went with Coca -Cola | Features

There are a few countries in the world where Coca -Cola is not the most popular soft drink. But in Peru, this position is occupied by INCA Kola-is a drink of approximately 100 years old guaranteed in depth in the national identity.

The yellow soda – which aims to evoke the greatness of the ancient Inca Empire and its sanctification of gold – was the creation of Joseph Robinson Lindley. The British immigrant started from the city of Doncaster in coal mining, Peru in 1910, and after a short period of establishing a beverage factory in a working class in the capital, Lima.

Small gas drinks began to produce and gradually expand. When INCA Kola was created in 1935, with its secret description of 13 herbs and aromatic, it was just one year before Coca-Cola reached the country. In recognition of the threat posed by the soft drink giant, which was launched in the United States in 1886 and made steps across Latin America, Lindley invested in the emerging TV advertising industry to promote Inca Cola.

Advertising campaigns that include Inca Cola bottles with their mysterious original decorations and slogans such as the “flavor that unites us” appealed to the multi -ethnic society in Peru – the roots of Inca.

Andres Makara Chevele, Professor of Marketing at Peruvian University of Pontier, explains at the University of Peru. “Inca Cola was one of the first brands in Peru, which was linked to a feeling of Peruanidad, or what it means to be Peruvian. I spoke to the Peruvian about what we are – diverse.”

But it was not just the attractiveness of the drink of the Peruvian identity or its unique flavor (which some described as a taste like BubbleGum, by others as a chamomile tea) that strengthened the brand awareness. Amid the unrest of World War, Inca Cola would have become prominent for another reason.

Finding an opportunity to boycott wartime

At the tail of the nineties of the nineteenth century, Japan sent about 18,000 contract workers to Peru. Most of them went to the country’s sugar and cotton farms. Upon their arrival, they found themselves exposed to low wages, exploitative work schedules, and unhealthy and overwhelming living conditions, which led to a fatal outbreak of dysentery and phosos. Unable to buy traffic to Japan after completing their contracts for four years, many Japanese workers in Peru-moving to urban centers where they opened business, especially Bodga, or small grocery stores.

They refused to reach the loans provided by the Peruvian banks, where their community grew in the number and economic status, they established their savings and credit cooperatives.

“From their community, the money began to circulate, yet they raised the capital to open small companies,” said Alejandro Valdez Tamashiro, Japanese immigration researcher to Peru.

In the twenties and thirties of the twentieth century, Japanese society It appeared as a huge commercial class. However, the hostility came.

By the mid -thirties of the twentieth century, the anti -Japan feelings began to fade. The nationalist politicians and community media accused the community of monopoly of the Peruvian economy, and in the accumulation of World War II, from espionage.

By the beginning of that war in 1939, Peru was home to the second largest Japanese community in Latin America. The following year, one incident of attacks and attacks against society resulted in at least 10 deaths, six million dollars of damage and the loss of property to more than 600 Japanese families.

Since its release, INCA Kola has been widely sold in Japanese -owned Bodga.

With the outbreak of the war, its opponent, Coca-Cola, received a big batch at the international level. The American company, which has been used for years, has become political links to expand its scope abroad, has become an actual envoy of American foreign policy, which burned its image as a symbol of democracy and freedom.

The Soda giant obtained profitable military contracts that included that 95 percent of the soft drinks stored on the American military bases were Coca-Cola products, as they mainly placed coke in the midst of the American war effort. Cook coke appeared in wartime stickers, while war photographers seized soldiers drinking bottles.

Once again in Peru, following the 1941 Japanese attack on Perl Harbor, Coca -Cola stopped the distribution of soda to Japanese Peruvian merchants, who are now Bodgas, one of the main suppliers of US soft drinks.

By realizing an opportunity for a copper opportunity to increase sales, the Lindley family-which was already outperformed the Coca-Cola, full of soft drinks for the rejected community. With the formation of Japanese-owned Bodegas, a large distribution network across Lima, INCA Kola quickly intervened to fill the shelf space that he left empty with the exit of Coca-Cola.

In War Time gave Inca Cola a stronger foothold in the market and laying the foundation for a permanent sense of loyalty between the wild Japanese society and the Inca Cola brand.

Enemies intensified towards society during the war. Throughout the early 1940s, the US -allied Peruvian government hosted depth an American military base along its coast, the diplomatic relations with Japan have graduated, the Japanese institutions closed and began a government deportation program against the Japanese Peruvian.

Nevertheless, more than 300,000 Peru claims Japanese origins, and the footprint of society can be seen in many sectors, including in Asian fusion restaurants in the country, where the Inca Cola is the basic pillar of the menus.

Take a giant – then join efforts

Inca Cola will continue to overcome Coca -Cola with a slight difference. But by the late 1990s, the company was mired in debt after decades -long effort to contain its main competitor.

After heavy losses, in 1999, Lindleys sold a 50 percent share of its company to Coca-Cola for an estimated $ 200 million.

“I was a gas drink that went to the soles of the feet with this giant international establishment, then I sold it. At that time, he was not forgiven,” reflects Makara Chevele. “Today, these feelings are not intense. They are in the past.”

However, Coca-Cola allowed the recognition of the regional value of the invading drink, to Lindley Corporation to retain the local ownership of the brand and retain packing and distribution rights within Peru, where INCA Kola continues to communicate with the local identity. Unable to overcome the brand directly, Coca-Cola sought a deal that allowed it to an angle of market without a local favorite displacement.

Josel Luis Houamani, a 35 -year -old tattoo artist, sits in a grocery center with two friends in the historic Lima Center, a 35 -year -old tattoo artist, in a large glass of golden soda to three cups.

“We are used to flavor. We have drank our whole life.”

“It is a tradition, just like Inca,” Maria Sanchez, 45 -year -old, announces a late soup lunch in cow soup in one of the notice of the main square in Lima.

Eating with family and friends in the Hayland region of Gasamao, Tsinaki Samanego, 24, a member of the original Ashaninka group, drinks a gas drink with her meal and says: “He is like an old friend.”

This article is part of “regular elements, unusual stories”, a series of sudden stories behind the well -known elements.

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