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Sport drinks in French market - Selective distribution or brand health problem?

If you have time walking around Auchan, Carrefour or any supermarket in Paris finding some kinds of sports drinks, the only brand you may see is Powerade, a product from Coca-Cola. Where are Gatorade, VitaminWater, PocariSweat, and the other competitors? Is this the selective distribution strategy of Pepsi (the mother company of Gatorade) or it's just because Coke has overpowered Pepsi in the French market?

Standing in a specific zone in a supermarket, you can easily see that some brands really dominate the shelf while some others only take a small space. This arrangement partly depends on a rule in distribution, the rule of “fair share". Base on this rule, brands which have more market share can take equivalent space in the shelves. For example, in Auchan, if you see more products of P&G than Unilever, it means P&G are winning bigger market share than Unilever. Is the story the same with sports drink industry?

Let's get back to talk about how main players in sports drinks industry are distributing their products. In general, on international scales and in terms of distribution, sport drinks could be mainly found in these following places
  • Supermarket/ Hypermarket: Auchan, Carrefour in France, Walmart in the US, Woolworth in Australia,..
  • Sport supermarkets/ Specialised shop: Go-Sport
  • Fitness club, Gym
  • Pharmacie
  • Convenient stores: so popular in the Asia-Pacific market, which is the 2nd largest market of sport drink
  • Vending machines
  • Others (e-commerce, sport nutrition chain,...): Amazon in the US, Europe, Lazada in Southeast Asia,...

Distribution of sports drinks retail channels in Europe in 2015, by consumer profile (Statista)
Supermarkets is the largest and also the most massive distribution channel of every kind of beverages. As mentioned above, the presence of products in supermarket partly show the strength of brands. However, in the French market, the only brand you can see in supermarkets is Powerade while Gatorade is the market leader in the world with more than 50% market share (Forbes) Could it be said that PepsiCo is using selective distribution strategy on one of its fastest growing product? It sounds not so “PepsiCo" style as Gatorade almost dominates supermarket in Energy zone in other supermarkets in the US. It can be concluded that right now, in France, the Coca-Cola company with Powerade is doing better in terms of branding by distribution.
Energie zone in Auchan, La Defense, Paris
In addition, selling at specialized shops, sports supermarket is also a good approach which helps brands reach exactly target customers. Target customers here can be defined by professional athletes of people who do sports. These people are likely to have the right perception about sports drink, which is usually got wrong with energy drinks. However, if brands want to increase its presence among consumers, they have to choose the more massive distribution channels. Look at Gatorade in Walmart, it definitely shows its power and strong brand health compared to the French market.
- Mai Do Quynh-


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