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 Click 7-Up Bottle for Golden Age
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Charles Grigg's lithium laced clear soda bested an estimated 600 competing, similar citrus flavored sodas to become a market leader by 1936. Such was the success of the product that Howdy Company changed it's name to The Seven Up Company in 1936. Just as the successes of Coca-Cola, Orange Crush, Hires Root Beer and Dr Pepper could be traced to nationwide distribution, Seven Up's commanding success in their niche was directly attributable to a 25-year, highly aggressive, creative national advertising campaign. This accomplishment shouldn't be discounted. Remember that there were no 'big-box' supermarket chains when 7Up was trying to get off the ground. The midwest, as with most of America was a collection of Mom & Pop stores to negotiate with on a one to one basis from town to city to town, as Howdy Company's sales reps fanned out across the Midwest, and then West and East to create more distribution outlets for 7-Up. The Great Depression was clearly a hinderance, but may also have been very helpful in negotiating with individual outlets. Charles Grigg wasn't above marketing his product to the vast network of underground speakeasies during the Prohibition Years. Just as seltzer water and dry ginger ale, 7-Up was also becoming a very popular mixer. Indeed, once prohibition was repealed, Grigg started promoting 7-Up as a mixer. By the end of the 1930's, Mr. Grigg had made 7-Up one of America's most popular sodas.
As with The Stock Market Crash and The Great Depression, World War II also helped 7-Up extend it's popularity even further. In addition, most soft drink companies struggled to survive throughout the war since sugar rations dramatically reduced the volume they could produce. Seven-Up required significantly less sugar for their soft drink than other companies, giving them a marked advantage during both the World War II years, as well as the three years immediately following, as their competitors ramped back up after the War. Cadbury Schweppes acquired 7-Up in 1995, 9 years after Dr Pepper and 7-Up merged. 7-Up remains the third most popular soft drink in Cadbury Schweppes soft drink lineup. In 2006, the company reached another milestone with the acquisition of Dr Pepper/Seven-Up Bottling Group, the largest independent bottler in the United States. It's happening everywhere, folks. The corporatization of America and the corporatization of the world. Note that there's more of their brands' Soda History on our three pages of Soda Tributes than on the whole new Corporate Website altogether. Kinda shows how proud Corporate America is of it's history, doesn't it.
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