ACADEMIC ABSTRACT
The Honest Tea case is about an entrepreneur, Seth Goldman, who built a successful social venture in the alternative beverage industry. After building Honest Tea to become an industry leader, Seth faced with the decision of whether to merge with Coca-Cola and how to successfully manage the post-merger transition. Information about the alternative beverage industry and
Seth’s use of social media is presented to help determine how Honest Tea can continue to grow after merging with Coke yet maintain the core principles that their stakeholders value.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Seth Goldman believed that building a successful brand meant that the company would need to demonstrate that a …show more content…

Seth speaks of his experience at Yale asthe point at which he recognized corporate responsibility as a competitive advantage. "The first case study at Yale awakened me to the potential that business has to shape our society in a positive way — extend

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economic opportunity to disadvantaged communities and protect the environment” (Zmuda,
2008).
In 1997, Seth realized that between the soda and other sugar filled alternatives there was nothing to meet the needs of the healthier consumer, other than water. It was then that Seth realized where his passion and destiny was, in the healthy alternative beverage industry. He remembered the common taste preference he had with his Yale professor Barry Nalebuff and immediately emailed him about his idea. It seemed the timing was perfect for this pair to come together. Seth had a passion for finding the perfect alternative drink combination and Nalebuff was just returning from India where he had gone for a case study to analyze the tea industry. In
India, Nalebuff discovered that most American iced-tea makers used cheap tea leaves. So with
Seth’s passion and Nalebuff’s knowledge, they decided that there was a potential market for an an all-natural brew that used only high-quality tea leaves in the newly developing ready to drink
tea