Strategic Marketing: Case of Dr Pepper Seven Up, Inc. - Squirt Brand

Thèmes abordés

Dr Pepper, Seven Up, Marketing, Marketing mix

Résumé du document

SSquirt is a carbonated soft drink that belongs to Dr Pepper / Seven Up, Inc. It is one of the leading brands that dominate market shares in the soft drink segment in the USA. Squirt is one of the best selling brands among citrus flavored drinks and its sales volume tends to stagnate faced with the huge marketing budgets allocated by its two main competitors: the Coca Cola Company and The Pepsi Company. The market is witnessing tremendous growth due to the arrival of new consumers, new behaviors and also the introduction of new organizational capabilities.

Integrating the best marketing techniques, enhancing reputation and brand image of the product, providing a good positioning in order to remain competitive and raising the level of sales in this market where competition is fierce are few of the measures required for the development of the brand.

Commonly, we can say that the US inhabitants are heavy consumers of carbonated soft drinks. In 2000, there was more consumption of carbonated soft drinks than water. Their consumption amounted 849 eight-ounce servings per year, which represents about 2.3 eight-ounce servings per day.

Furthermore, we can notice that the consumption of carbonated soft drinks also depends on the age factor. The biggest consumers are in the age group of 20 to 49 years who constitute the largest part of the US total population. People over 25 years seem to consume diet carbonated drinks, It has also been observed that regular sugared drinks are heavily consumed by the African and Hispanic American teenagers.

Extraits

[...] Squirt's brand management requested a formal positioning review for Squirt in the early 2001 by FCB. Two general options existed: The first option for Squirt: FCB proposed a refinement in Squirt's target market and positioning. Citing research that featured Squirt's consumption by racial/ethnic group and age relative to carbonated soft drink users, FCB recommended that Squirt be targeted at multicultural, 18- to 24-year-olds to tap into this heavy carbonated soft drink user segment. Squirt positioning would continue to emphasize its “thirst-quenching” benefit. [...]

[...] Sources Aaker, D.A. & McLoughlin, D., Strategic Market Management Dr Pepper/Seven Up. [...]

[...] The only brand who focuses on this attribute too is Citra but they have a lot smaller sales volume (exhibit 6 of the case). W2-O2: As mentioned before, the Hispanic market is a growing market. If Squirt wants to gain a bigger sales volume and market share, they should adapt the advertising and promotion of their brand. In fact, they have to turn their weakness into an opportunity, for example by advertising in Spanish language. W1-T1: Marketing is very important in the CSD market. So if Squirt wants to compete with their competitors, they maybe should increase their investments. [...]

[...] Case of Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc. - Squirt Brand Introduction Squirt is a brand of soft drink, which belongs to the Dr Pepper / Seven Up. This group is one of three giants that dominate market share in the USA. Even if Squirt is one of the best selling brands among brands of citrus, its sales volume tends to stagnate in the face of huge marketing budgets allocated by its two main competitors: the Coca Cola Company and The Pepsi Company. [...]

[...] Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola, the two big competitors of Dr Pepper/Seven Up Inc. on the Carbonated Grapefruit and Citrus-Flavored Market, spend more on media advertising and promotion than does Dr Pepper/Seven Up Inc. for its major carbonated grapefruit and citrus-flavored brands. Exhibit 7 Estimated Media Advertising Spending As we can see in Exhibit 7 of the case, Mountain Dew (Pepsi-Cola) is the most heavily advertised brand in this category. Media advertising expenditures for Squirt are typically less than competitors. [...]