Yes, they have shifted from pure number crunching (which is Graham's approach) to a system that values future growth potential more. In Graham's style you can only judge a company on its past dealings, cash in hand, inventory, equipment, etc. But Buffett knows that companies also have other qualities that are very valuable, but not commonly considered as such. He went from a pure quantitative approach to one that is quantitative and qualitative. Hence, when he talks about moats, he is talking about those qualities that you cannot price, but are still very valuable. One great example of this is his investment in Coca-Cola. Not a great investment in terms of financials (dont get me wrong, it makes him money) only, but also in terms of all the goodwill that the Coca-Cola company enjoys (they invented Santa Claus!). So investing in it made sense because their long term prospects were positive given the past history and goodwill status.
Coca-Cola is seen to have invented what Santa Claus is today - mainly through helping to change public consciousness of him. They did so initially through Haddon Sundblom’s depiction of him for The Coca-Cola Company’s Christmas advertising in the 1930s[1][2][3] & he is constantly used in their campaigns at Christmas.
My friends etc always say "It's not Christmas until you see the Coke ad" in reference to the build up to Christmas.
However, they weren't the first company to do so as in 1915 and 1923, White Rock Beverages used a today's version of Santa (Red & White) to sell mineral water and ginger ale respectively.[4]
No, they didn't. I am on an android and having trouble searching. But they apparently popularized a particular image of Santa. Off the top of my head, Santa is originally based on a real person but the modern image doesn't much resemble Saint Nicholas of actual history. Modern commercialization has had a huge impact on Christmas and pushed gift giving over more traditional spiritual celebrations and, iirc, modern commerce invented Rudolph the red nosed reindeer (though I think it was a different company, not coke).
Google it yourself. You probably are in a better position to verify it than I am, with my wonky android browser freezing up and saying "bite me, bitch" on a regular basis.
You are correct, and I stand corrected. They didn't invent it, they just made it what we today know as Santa Claus. In other news, Pepsi is known to have invented festivus. News at 11. :)
Santa already had a red coat with white trimming - at some unspecified point in the past he did have a green coat.
Coke took an already-popular meme with no trademark and co-opted it for their own marketing, popularising it even further. The expansion of the Coke-themed Santa led to the belief that they invented it.
Something to absorb for those who are trying to work out how to market things.
I know all this because up until 10 days ago I also thought that Coke invented Santa, until I realised I should fact-check that, and found out I was wrong.
