Raise your Can

Source: Quickmeme Did you ever wonder why athletes were drinking those weirdo drinks with bright colors during a competition ? Is it useful ? What are the ingredients ? Are they different ? We did, and that is why we created this blog. What is interesting here, is that this industry seems to be marketing-driven rather than product-driven. Day by day, we will try go deeper into sport drink brands strategies.  If you are following us and reading our articles, we are pretty sure that you will get more insights! Mai, Yoann, Jiali, Lingyu & Lucie

It seems that the war between Coke and Pepsi in every single area is going to last forever! COCA-COLA AND BODY ARMOR'S HANDSHAKING (thecoca-colacompany.com) The Coca-Cola Company, in August, 14th, 2018, has announced its acquisition of a minority stake toward BodyAmor, a sport drink brand which is backed up by basketball superstar Kobe Bryant. This acquisition let Coca-Cola be the second biggest investor of BodyAmor and also gives BodyAmor access to the distribution network of Coca-Cola. This movement of Coke is considered the huge step to challenge PepsiCo in competitive sport drink market. Looking back at the sport beverage industry big picture in recent years, Pepsi is sustainably holding its market leader position with more than 70% market share, followed by Coke in the 2nd place with around 20% and BodyArmor in the 3rd place. BodyArmor is just a newborn baby, compared to 2 big old giants Coke and Pepsi. It was founded in 2011 by Mike Repole, who is

Nowadays, even if Gatorade win a huge market share in sport drink market, they have to identify the new strategy in future because of threat from new competitors such as Bodyarmor which is acquired by Coca-cola. Therefore, there are some strategies suggestion in their future development. 1. Redefine Hydration Leadership The master brand, Gatorade, needed to be re-positioned back to its foundation in hydration. To reclaim its leadership of the hydration space, it needed to move beyond “thirst quenching” to “performance hydration.”  As part of its bid to reclaim leadership in hydration among competitive athletes, Gatorade launched G-Series – Prime, Perform, and Recover. This transformed the brand from a generic all-athletic-occasion drink that came in different flavors to a packaged solution covering specific athletic occasions with tailored nutrition ingredients, thus opening the doors to the sports fuel market. 2.Elevate the Brand from Hydration to Sports Fuel Anchored

It is interesting to build a perceptual map in order to position the brands and allow the consumers and marketers to understand the market composition. As defined above,  we decided to create the map according to the brand position either as an Energy drink or a Performance drink and either they target sport or healthy position. This axis takes under consideration various factors: sponsorship; communication; website content; distribution points; target. Being clearer, the more the brands get close to the top of the axis, Sport oriented, means that they are deeply promoting drinks towards performance sports and athletes whereas Healthy oriented where brands tend to promote healthy way of life towards a more common target (not only athletes). Also, we added a third dimension, the brand size in term of market shares and brand recognition. This dimension allows to analyse how complex is the market sides for the close competitors and for the new entrants if some wants to posit

Coca-Cola Company is one of the largest actors in the industry of the drinks and especially in the sport drinks. The group owns leadership positions across key categories. As seen in the article where we present the perceptual map of the sports drinks, Coca-Cola succeed to realise a very good marketing strategy. In fact, since years, the group is following a diversification strategy by increasing its portfolio through the creation and the acquisition of drink brands. Then, those brands are repositioned or more deeply placed in their position by the group using its knowledge and investing power.   In our analysed market we can mention Powerade, the performance drinks which has been launched by Coca Cola in 1988. The drinks historically compete with Gatorade, the Pepsi & Co brand. In 2007, Coca-Cola announced the acquisition of Glacéau, a maker of flavored vitamin-enhanced drinks, VitaminWater, and Burn energy drinks, for $4.1 billion. In 2014, the group acquired some s

Even if we blur their names, we would all be able to recognize a Coca-Cola, Fanta or Ice-Tea Bottle in a supermarket. Different color codes but also different shapes.  Well, for sports drinks, it's quite the same game! Each brand is trying to succeed, and to attract new consumers, by being different, attractive, meaningful and focusing on their packaging! I took a closer look at three famous brands in the industry:  VitaminWater, Powerade and Isostar. Believe me, the three stand out at 10 meters! Let’s start with the most fun: Vitaminwater. Source : James Wakefield Bright colors, ordinary bottle shapes and original labeling. Red, pink, orange, yellow, green, blue, white, purple, burgundy ... there is a color for everyone! A first particularity is that to design each of its products, the brand has given real name to each drink. Unlike its competitors which simply use the taste of the product as a name, VitaminWater has "Focus" "Essential

When people find that sports drinks are not as effective as they are in advertising, the demand will be greatly reduced, which is a threat to sports drinks. This is why its advertisement is not so reliable: Advertising: Sports drinks are a must-have item for sports. It not only can effectively replenish moisture, but also better promote electrolyte balance, replenish energy, prevent hyponatremia and water poisoning, and make athletes perform better. For non-athletes, sports drinks are also part of a healthy lifestyle, and sports drinks can make you healthier. Truth: Sports drinks are mainly composed of water, sugar (glucose, oligosaccharides, etc.) and electrolytes of sodium and potassium ions. The purpose is to supplement the water, electrolytes and energy substances lost by athletes during competition and training. Its biggest function is designed for athletes who are engaged in intensive, high-intensity sports. For ordinary people, sports drinks are not healthy daily drin