Case Study : Gatorade 's Competitors

Gatorade is a flagship brand of PepsiCo and has a commanding 75% market share of the sports nutrition beverage marketplace globally, being sold into 80 different countries according to the latest PepsiCo annual report published in late 2011. Gatorade's success in branding and product marketing has actually expanded the global market for sports nutrition beverages during the late 1990s and into the 21rst century. Recently however the company has faced many channels including product line extensions of the last decade which failed to deliver strong results (Pollack, 1997) and a more critical analysis of their ingredients as many of their beverages are sold in public schools (Tallon, 2009). Despite these challenges however, Gatorade continues to experience strong market share and growth. The intent of this analysis is to evaluate and provide recommendations for each of the four areas of the marketing mix including product, price, promotion and place or distribution.

In the Powerade commercial, the video shows a young kid with a basketball who shoves a Powerade bottle into his backpack. Then the boy goes on a long bike ride through a poor neighborhood to shoot ball at a gym. The sky is gray and overcast. The neighborhood seems lonely and bleak. The focus is solely on the boy. Early in the

Gatorade is a company that has been making sports drinks since 1965. In 2001, they eventually branched off into making other sports nutrition products like energy drinks, energy bars, and nutrition shakes. Some of the company’s newest products include energy fruit chews. Gatorade advertisements reach millions of Americans every day, which undoubtedly increases their sales. My analysis will focus on a Gatorade ad featuring Dwayne Wade.

Gatorade is a sports drink that is used to put electrolytes back into an athlete’s body after a long workout. Athletic trainers, for most sports teams, make two ten-gallon coolers full of Gatorade for the athletes after practice. To make Gatorade in a ten-gallon cooler you will need, a ten gallon cooler, 30 ounces of Gatorade powder, a long spoon or Gatorade stirrer, water, and ice.

Have you ever gotten a sports drink instead of a soda thinking you were choosing a healthier option? Well this might change your perspective. Powerade and Gatorade are just watered down soda; yes,  it gives you electrolytes which is what you lose when you sweat, but that does not mean it is good for you. There are many other healthier ways of getting electrolytes than by just drinking a sugar drink. In the Powerade article written by the company does not argue about how water is not helpful to athletes and does not have the opposing argument. Although the gatorade article written by David R. Lamb they make it more persuasive than informational.

The Meredith Corporation is a public held media and marketing company and part of their mission defines its target market. Meredith seeks to understand home, family, food and lifestyle markets and wants to be completely understood to their customers (Our 15). These are the main variables that Meredith focuses on to market its brand. If you look at some of the publications such as Parents, Family Fun, Better Homes and Gardens, and Family Circle you can see how they are indeed trying to capture not only just home and family, but also to a gender related target in females (Bra15). By touching on popular topics like health, weddings, and parenting they are reaching out to very personal issues as health, getting married, and having children are life changing events. What I find very interesting is the amount of variety that Meredith has with its products. While they do focus on certain popular fads, trends, and needs they also have the unique ability to reach out to individuals regardless of culture as they seem to have a little bit of everything to offer even in other languages. That being said the main variables that Meredith has focused on would be gender, life-cycle, geographic, demographic, and

| Weaknesses: * Pays extra payment for new flavor. * More expensive to produce than other sports drinks. * Deciding the segment to target. * How to position the product in the mind of its potential consumers

The highest percentage of the company sale is as a result of making impulse purchases; hence this requires a good point of sale support team. The market is very competitive. There are a couple of competitors that offer the same products as Gatorade, for example, MW, M.I.T and A.U.I. The experience that the firm has in the

Gatorade has emerged as the global leader in sports nutrition beverages by continually managing their brand to signify high energy, athletic excellence combine with one of the most efficient new product development and introduced processes in the beverage industry. As a result of being able to consistently synchronize these many components of their business so well, Gatorade today holds a 75% market share in the sports nutrition market globally today. Gatorade is owned by PepsiCo, which has made it possible for the company to sell in 80 countries today. Gatorade relies heavily on the PepsiCo distribution and retail network globally. Gatorades' revolutionary approach to managing branding for beverages has served to increase the total market size for this product category globally (Huang, Sarigöllü, 2012). Despite the continued widespread adoption of Gatorade as a healthy energy drink, the company has encountered resistance to its brand and the ingredients used for creating the many variations of Gatorade energy drinks (Tallon, 2009). Despite these setbacks the Gatorade brand continues to experience exceptional growth and stability over time.

Lucozade sport is an isotonic sports drink aimed at the active and the health conscious, as well as athletes. Its unique selling point is its hydration qualities which are designed to increase the endurance of athletes. It has established itself as the clear market leader in the sports drink industry in Ireland over the past ten years.

In 2012, a report found that 44.6 per cent of adults in the UK participated in sport or exercise, which has increased from 2006, at 41.2 per cent. Figure 1.1 shows this, as well as the percentage increase throughout all of the years from 2005. This shows that it is a perfect time to release an isotonic sports drink into the market, as the number of people participating in exercise is constantly increasing.

Lucozade has managed to promote Lucozade Sport by segmenting, targeting and positioning Lucozade Sport. Lucozade Sport has been scientifically proven to benefit athletes to give them more energy and due to this Lucozade Sport targets sport enthusiasts by advertising it through athletes and on sports programmes. It is sold at a similar price to competitors and therefore doesn’t have competition for price. Lucozade Sport is stored in most shops that sell drinks across the country therefore strengthening the positioning of Lucozade Sport. Finally, Lucozade Sport has a strong consumer awareness which has helped it become UK’s most recognised and most popular sports drink.

This report will critically be discussing the marketing strategy, position and the marketing mix employed by LUCOZADE and the use of some principles. Therefore, the analysis will help to identify how brand is positioned in the energy drinks market and how company promotes its product. After analysing existing marketing strategies, recommended future strategies will be given to advice companies of where the brands are leading to and how they will get there.

- Not only producing Coke, Coca Cola own more than 500 brands in over 200 countries or territories in the beverage markets. They consider the customers’ needs and sell products for each group of people in each period of time. For instance, Coca Cola introduced Tab (1963) drinks to meet the needs of customers who are in the diet and then developed it into a new successful brand – Diet Coke (1982). Another example is that during the 1990s, the company responded to the growing consumer interest in healthy beverages by introducing several new non-carbonated beverage brands. These included Minute Maid Juices to Go, Powerade sports beverage, flavored tea Nestea (in a joint venture with Nestle), Fruitopia fruit drink and Dasani water, among others.

Long before now has branding been considered as one of the peripheral aspects of business. Manufacturers, investors and other key players focused on the product without paying much attention to the consumer. But as the business landscape got tougher, marketing became not just an integral part of business but one of the fundamental principles of success.