Coca-Cola stresses product innovation in China

However, 35 years later, a new breed of savvy Chinese consumers is driving changes in the beverage maker's offerings.

Soda trailed drinking water and juice in market share in China in 2012, according to statistics from China's National Bureau of Statistics.

Meanwhile, the rise of Chinese beverage makers like Wahaha and Jiaduobao has also prompted Coca-Cola and other foreign brands to come up with new products to stay relevant in the increasingly crowded beverage sector.

For nearly a decade, the company has been aggressively marketing a line of juice-based soft drinks sold under its Minute Maid brand. The line was developed in 2005 exclusively for the Chinese market.

Pepsi, another US-based soft drink maker, introduced its Tropicana line to China with similar juice products amid signs over the past decade that competition in the Chinese beverage sector had expanded from traditional segments to a broader range of products, including juice, water, tea and herbal drinks.

Brooks said the company remains committed to developing soda drinks in China, but he admitted that innovations in other products and marketing strategies are priorities in the years ahead.

He added that innovation in both Coke and other drink products will help the company take advantage of opportunities in an economy where market forces will play a more decisive role.

"(At Coca-Cola) we held internal meetings to review the implication of the policy documents of the Chinese government," Brooks said, adding that the slew of reforms that Chinese authorities have vowed to carry out are not slogans, but something the company takes "very seriously."

Brooks said he clearly underestimated 35 years ago what China would look like today. With the rise of e-commerce and social media, the future of the Chinese market could be yet another wild guess.