捍衛自主權：被可口可樂收購之后

????大約10年前，人們還只能在小雜貨店和消費合作社中看到Honest Tea，就是那種販賣羽衣甘藍烤脆片和散裝營養酵母的地方。

????如今，Honest Tea已攜手一家飲料業巨頭取得了長足發展。2008年，財富100強公司可口可樂（Coca-Cola）以約4,300萬美元首次收購Honest Tea公司40%的股份，三年后又行權收購了剩余的60%股份（收購金額未予披露）。不過，有報道稱，Honest Tea首席執行官希斯?戈曼已回購相當一部分他的個人股份。

????不出所料，Honest Tea的一些老主顧并不樂意看到這家有機茶公司加入可口可樂。但Honest Tea的共同創始人、目前仍在馬里蘭州貝塞斯達總部負責公司運營的戈曼說，這是一個有益但也需要努力的過程。他向《財富》雜志（Fortune）講述了即便是在被全球最大的飲料公司收購后，一家小型綠色公司保持企業之魂的努力。

????被收購后，Honest Tea獲得了可口可樂廣大的分銷網絡。戈曼說，2008年約有1.5萬家商店出售Honest Tea，如今已超過了10萬家。

????可口可樂對廣告宣傳也很在行，幫助Honest Tea從游擊營銷（比如，在商店派發免費樣品或用幾箱茶換取雜志廣告位等）升級到了大型廣告牌和電視廣告營銷。今年夏天，Honest Tea播出了第一條電視廣告，一些茶葉和一只檸檬想擠進一瓶Honest Tea，結果沒成功，大概是因為它們都不是有機產品。

????Honest Tea出售的所有東西都是有機的，而且戈曼聲稱，公司努力做到透明，而不像母公司那樣?！拔覀冇杏《炔鑸@的視頻、短片和照片，我自己也去過那里，”戈曼說?！跋啾戎?，不是要貶低可口可樂，但它們有保密配方。大多數人都不知道可樂的成份來自何處，他們就是要這樣?！?/p>

????這種文化反差讓一些Honest Tea的消費者感到不太適應。他們告訴戈曼稱，雖然他們喜歡Honest Tea，但沒法認同可口可樂。戈曼表示，他將這一合作視為從內部改變可口可樂的一種方式?！拔蚁矚g小公司，有10年的時間，我們一直都是一家獨立的小公司?！钡曷鼘onest Tea設定了遠大的目標：“現在我們在討論改變發展中世界的農業格局。一旦你的規模達到了可以真正產生影響的時候，就可以做到這一點?！?/p>

????而且，Honest Tea似乎也在不動聲色地改變著母公司。2007年（在與可口可樂達成合作前的一年）， Honest Tea采購了79萬磅的有機配料。去年，它采購超過400萬磅，為全球可持續農業提供更多支持。在Honest Tea的要求下，可口可樂已將幾個灌裝廠進行了有機產品生產認證。

????但與任何合作關系一樣，雙方之間也存在一些沖突。2010年，可口可樂要求Honest Tea將有些產品標注的“不含高果糖玉米糖漿”的文字移除?？煽诳蓸氛J為，這可能對旗下其他確實含有這種成分的產品產生不利影響，但卻遭到Honest Tea嚴辭拒絕。最終，這項聲明得以保留，Honest Tea有機飲品也繼續得到極度不喜果糖人群的追捧。

????近期，這兩家公司又在加州37號提案（Proposition 37）上的立場產生了分歧。如果今年11月該提案獲得通過，將來加州所有食品都要列明含有的轉基因成份?？煽诳蓸芬殉赓Y數百萬美元來游說和抵制這一提案。Honest Tea并未參與其中，因為它不使用任何轉基因成分。但它還是收到了一些消費者的批評，戈曼表示：“Honest Tea現在勉強能夠盈利。我們不會往任何政治性事件上大筆投錢?！?/p>

????About 10 years ago, you could only find Honest Tea in small grocery stores and co-ops – the kind of joints that also hawk kale chips and bulk-bin nutritional yeast.

????Since then, the company has come far, having partnered with a beverage industry heavy-hitter. In 2008, Fortune 100 company Coca-Cola (KO) first paired up with Honest Tea by purchasing a 40% stake for about $43 million. Three years later, Coke exercised its right to purchase the remaining 60% of the company for an undisclosed amount, although Honest Tea CEO Seth Goldman reportedly bought back a significant amount of his personal equity.

????Unsurprisingly, some of the former Honest Tea patrons didn't take kindly to Honest Tea's entry into Big Beverage. But it has been a beneficial, if not always easy, process, says Goldman, who co-founded the company and still runs it out of its Bethesda, Maryland headquarters. He spoke toFortune about how a small green business can keep its soul even after being bought by the largest beverage company in the world.

????Since being acquired, Honest Tea has gained access to Coke's giant reach. About 15,000 stores stocked Honest Tea in 2008, Goldman says, and now you can find the product in over 100,000 places.

????Coke also knows its way around an ad campaign, and it helped Honest Tea scale from guerilla marketing tactics -- like giving away free samples at stores or trading cases of tea for a magazine spot -- to sporting big billboards and television ads. Its first TV commercial, released this summer, features animated tealeaves and a lemon trying to get into a bottle of Honest Tea. They fail though, presumably because they aren't organic.

????Everything Honest Tea sells is organic, Goldman says, and the company tries to be transparent, rather unlike its parent. "We have videos and footage and pictures of tea gardens in India that I visited," Goldman says. "By contrast, and not to put down Coca-Cola, but they have a secret formula. Most people don't know where the ingredients come from, and that's by design."

????That cultural gap has generated some cognitive dissonance among Honest Tea's customers. Consumers told Goldman that while they liked Honest Tea, they couldn't get behind Coke. Goldman argues that he's looking at the partnership as a way to change Coke from within. "Look, I love small companies and for 10 years we were a small independent company." But Goldman has big goals for Honest Tea: "We're talking about changing the landscape of agriculture in the developing world. That happens when you get to a scale where you can really make an impact."

????And quietly, Honest Tea seems to be chipping away at its parent company. In 2007, before working with Coke, Honest Tea purchased 790,000 pounds of organic ingredients. Last year, it bought over 4 million pounds, supporting more sustainable farming worldwide. Also, because of Honest Tea's demands, Coke has gotten several of its bottling plants certified organic.

????But like any relationship, this one has hit its roadblocks. In 2010, Coke asked Honest Tea to remove the text on some of its products that said there was no high fructose corn syrup inside. Coke thought it might reflect poorly on its other products, which do contain the ingredient. Honest Tea put its foot down though, and the claim stayed, keeping its organic drinks attractive to the fructo-phobic market.

????More recently, the two companies have diverged on their stances towards Proposition 37, which, if passed this November, would require all food products in the state of California to list any genetically engineered ingredients. Coke has spent millions to campaign against the proposition. Honest Tea doesn't really have a dog in this fight, since it doesn't use GMOs. But it still received flak from customers despite the fact that, says Goldman, "Honest Tea is barely at profitability. We're not pouring any money into any political anything."