I actually remember thinking of this in the 4th grade at Arnold Elem. I hated the taste of the water fountain water. This version is alittle different because I wanted to invent an acutal water fountain type machine just like this. Cool Huh?
Gene Farrell, a vice president in Coke’s food-service division, waves a badge over an electronic pad to unlock a room down a quiet hall at
Coca-Cola Co. headquarters in Atlanta.
Inside this room sits what
Coca-Cola calls the “fountain of the future.” The sleek red machine, about the width of a refrigerator, is protected by more than 20 patents and a host of non-disclosure agreements.
The inner workings borrow from micro-dispensing technology used in the medical industry. The looks were created in collaboration with an Italian car designer.
Most importantly, this machine seems to make people happy, Farrell said. In a field test, one woman kissed it on the side.
After years of six to eight choices from most restaurant dispensers, the fountain of the future can provide more than 100 different beverages. It spans the spectrum from orange
Coca-Cola to strawberry Sprite.
The machine connects people to Coke brands in ways not available before, Farrell said. “It gives them this place where it’s fun again,” he said.
For almost four years,
Coca-Cola has been working on the fountain machine. Last fall, guests at a Willy’s Mexicana Grill in metro Atlanta were part of an early pilot project. That’s where video cameras caught the woman kissing the machine.
Later this year, the fountain of the future will be tested in more restaurants in Atlanta and Southern California.
Coca-Cola has not made a decision about a broader roll-out.
The machine, though, has potential because it opens the door for Coke to provide fountain customers a wide array of beverages, said John Sicher, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest. Coke has about 70 percent of the U.S. fountain market.
In recent years, the beverage market has dramatically expanded with growth in segments such as teas, flavored waters, energy drinks and juice drinks. Fountain outlets have not kept up with the expansion, Sicher said.
“Consumers like experimenting,” he said. “They like trying new things. This allows Coke to do this in a very efficient way.”
To take a fresh look at the issue, Coke created in 2005 a small skunk works code-named project “Jet.” By limiting choices at the fountain, Coke believed it was missing opportunities with customers who chose to drink tap water, skipped ordering a beverage altogether or settled for something they didn’t want.
The goal was to allow this small team to explore ideas that might normally be overlooked by traditional corporate culture, said Farrell, who headed a Coke food-service division in Seattle before leading the program.
Working mostly in secret, the Coke team tinkered with equipment and interviewed more than 7,000 consumers about fountain drinks, Farrell said. One of the biggest surprises was the number of beverage choices Coke would need to satisfy consumer demand, he said.
“Our hypothesis was that as you added brands we’d reach a point of diminishing returns, probably somewhere in the 30 to 50 range,” Farrell said. “What we found was as you increased products, all the way north of 100, you continued to add volume. …They were interested in a lot more variety than we thought.”
During development, the team also received a suggestion from Muhtar Kent, who moved up last year to become Coke’s president and CEO. The team originally developed a dark, boxy machine dominated by a rectangular screen.
Kent suggested talking with industrial design firms to find ways to put some passion and character into the dispenser. He referred them to some Italian car designers.
“He said this is really cool, but it’s a little cold,” Farrell said.
The result is a fountain dispenser that’s distinctly
Coca-Cola. It’s been designed in three bold colors — red for Coke, silver for Diet Coke and black for Coke Zero. The company’s dynamic ribbon runs down the front.
The machine greets consumers with a touch-screen that displays a host of brands, including Coke, Vault, Powerade, Fanta, Dasani, Minute Maid and Mr. Pibb. When consumers pick a brand, the screen moves to a set of flavoring options. Want a raspberry Coke, vanilla Coke Zero or peach Fanta? This machine has it.
Ice and beverage are dispensed from the same place, a “center-of-the-plate” design, Farrell said. Consumers insert their cup in an opening in the middle, nudge a lever to drop the ice and then push a silver “pour” button to dispense the beverage.
Farrell would not open the machine to show its inner workings, but he said Coke engineers were able to put more choices in the same space as a current eight-valve fountain by using highly concentrated cartridges for ingredients.
The machine also has a computer brain that allows Coke and the food-service outlet to track usage. This could help restaurants decide when and how much beverage to order. It also could reveal trends.
The fountain of the future still has more hurdles to clear before wide-spread deployment, Farrell said. The initial reaction, though, has been strong, he said.
About two weeks into the test at Willy’s, Coke decided to uncover the old dispenser to see how the fountain of the future would fare, Farrell said. An interesting thing happened, even when a line formed behind the new fountain, he said.
“The second person would get out of line and go get their ice from the legacy machine,” Farrell said. “Then, they’d get back in line so they could get their drink from this machine.”
Alyssa and Trent were so excited to have their cousins from Texas come and visit us on their Spring Break. They always have so much fun together and Alyssa enjoys the girls company. Hopefully they will soon learn how to actually say each others names. It is quite funny. Trent can't say Jackson and it comes out Jackskin. Katie kept saying Melissa and Shrimp. We just love our Texas cousins!!!!!
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