This site includes a nice chronologically-arranged assortments of pre-Coca-Cola illustrations of Santa Claus. One cannot say that Coca Cola invented Santa Claus. The corporation did have a role in helping secure the popular image of Santa Claus, the way he is perceived in North America, and, by strength of that image, by the rest of the world, to the extent that the diffusion has occurred. This Snopes article provides a good synthesis answer for the question you ask. Complimenting the existing image is not a matter of invention.