Sports Drink and Gatorade

In the spend of 1965, a university footb distri moreoverively coach began to question why his players were suffering from heat related illnesses. They were imbibitioning plenty of water. University researchers soon find that players were losing electrolytes and fluids through their sweat, and water couldnt replace what they were losing. The researchers took their findings into their lab and began to create a drink that would help the Florida Gators feel rehydrated, replenished, and refueled during their most(prenominal) in ten dollar billse athletic events.Thats exactly what the yield now guarantees to achieve-rehydration, replenishment, and refueling. They called this spick-and-span drink Gatorade. By 1969, Gatorade was named the formalised drink of the NFL (History of Gatorade, Retrieved celestial latitude 2, 2006). Today, Gatorade has r to each superst bed beyond the narrow market of elite athletes. They wipe out umteen yield lines designed to appease the most particu lar of sports drinkers. No matter what your gender, your occupation, or your age, they make a drink that you scum bag enjoy. Gatorade has many different product lines indoors their Thirst Quencher Series.They distribute Gatorade Rain, Frost, Lemonade, Original, X-Factor, Xtremo, and Fierce. Within each of these different sub-categories come many different fruity whole tones. from each one flavor also chemical chains from a 12oz bottle-6 pack to a gallon jug. Gatorade also has a line of fitness water called prompt. Any consumer can purchase Propel Fitness Water or Propel Fitness Water with Calcium. whatsoever(prenominal) come in a wide deviate of flavors quasi(prenominal) to those constitute at bottom the Gatorade Thirst Quencher Series, but with a few more. All purchases range from a 12oz-8 pack to a 1 liter bottle.Now we ricochet into the Gatorade Performance Series products. This series of products has specially designed formulated livelihood and hydration in recite to aid the most intense athletes in their performance. Each product is packed with nutrition in show to replace the electrolytes befuddled by each athlete through exertion. Gatorade has an energy bar that comes in 2 different flavors, chocolate chip and peanut butter. This 2. 3oz bar is the completed snack for athletes on the go, or anyone getting doctor to do around physical activity for that matter.Then thithers the nutrition shake. This product comes in the obvious flavors, chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla. These 11oz shakes ar a perfect mood to meet an athletes stomach without s number 1ing them down. And last, but non least, in that respect are the Gatorade Performance Series Energy Drinks. These drinks are very similar to those of the Gatorade Thirst Quenchers. However, the Performance Series drinks contain a whopping 200mg of sodium. This is so that electrolytes and frame fluids impart be replaced within each athlete each time they take a drink.These drinks, h owever, come in limited flavors and are only operable in 12oz bottles (Gatorade Products, Retrieved celestial latitude 2, 2006). Gatorade has become the most hot sports beverage. It is widely known and is easily distinguishable among its competitors. First of all, its packaging hasnt changed in courses. Gatorade looks the same today as it did a decade ago. Because of this, Gatorade has re mained popular and not forgotten. Its easy for a consumer to remember something that is always at that place and never changes.Gatorade also remains recognized due to the number of contracts they capture with several major sports leagues. As of now, they pretend contracts with the matter Football League, study League Baseball, National Basketball Association, Womens National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, United States of the States Basketball, Major League Soccer, United States Soccer, domain Championship Series, and the Association of Volleyball overlord persons (http/ /www. gatorade. com/athletes/leagues_and_teams/, Retrieved December 2, 2006). The NFL is also known for execute the Gatorade Dunk.This ritual is performed after a game by the lovely team. Players pick up the Gatorade Barrel and dump whats left oer their coachs head. This gives free publicity because its done by the teams without any prompting by Gatorade. Gatorade works on new products all the time. Theyve even created a special lab where their scientists can continually essay new products to ensure the safety and abilities of all athletes. The most recent accomplishment Gatorade has produced is called G. I. D. S. (Gatorade In-car Drinking System). This system was specifically designed for NASCAR drivers.A special pouch, that guarantees to hang on any liquid cold for hours, is filled with the drivers favored flavor and is then placed in a secure compartment within the vehicle. at that place is a pipage with a special coming from within the pouch and into the drivers helmet. At the end of the pipage is a mouthpiece that is securely fastened to the drivers mouth. When the driver is ready to take a drink, they bite down on their mouth piece, to capable the tube, and push a button, to pump the cold liquid through the tube and into the drivers mouth.When the drivers lets go of the mouthpiece the tube closes and the pump automatically reverse pumps the Gatorade back into the pouch in order to stay cold for next time. NASCAR track down cars can make it up to 130 degrees and their drivers can lose up to ten pounds within a single race just by sweating. Gatorade keeps their body temperature down and helps replace the electrolytes and body fluids lost (http//www. gatorade. com/science%5Fand%5Finnovation/product%5Finnovations/gids/ Retrieved December 2, 2006).Product Life CycleGatorade falls within the maturity stratum of the Product Life Cycle. I do believe that Gatorade is still evolution however its growth has slowed. According to the text, the maturity stage is reached when the gross sales of a generic product category continue to increase (but at a decreasing rate), profits decline largely because of determine competition, and some firms parting the market (Etzel, 674). Table 9. 1 in the text gives an opposite description to help define a products feeling cycle stage. In order to be in the maturity stage, the product must fork out a mass market of consumers, which Gatorade does.They grant megs of consumers. The competition is somewhat intense and their growth has slowed down. Their profits, however, are still pretty strong. They arent as strong as they were in the growth stage, but are still significantly strong. They substantiate their product against competitors, water being most mentioned when addressing the health of athletes. Gatorade costs charter remained stable and their prices are reasonable. If its too expensive to acquire each drink unmarriedly, you can always buy in bulk from a grocery store or a wholesale r like Costco.There is extreme loyalty to Gatorade as considerably. Because they were the only specialty sport drink when it was created in 1965, they didnt have to worry about winning their consumers external from a similar product. All the athletes and athletic trainers wanted this drink and became qualified on it after seeing the effect it had. By the time different brands came out everyone knew Gatorade and trusted its products. Most consumers would rather purchase a product they know works than try a new product that claims to do what everyone already knows Gatorade does.So its obvious that Gatorade has brand loyalty, another way we know Gatorade has reached the maturity stage. Although they have made to the maturity stage, they still have more growth to obtain. As long as Gatorade continues to produce new products, they will continue to grow. It may not be a chop-chop as it was when they first introduced themselves in 1965, but they will grow (Etzel, 674). price Gatorade has a very simple pricing strategy. Even though Gatorade is the attraction in the sport drink market, they still use the going-rate for their pricing level.The general market does not have a large difference mingled with competitors so Gatorade prices its products relation to the market pricing structure. An increase in price could lead to a loss in sales because the consumer could start to buy a competitors product and have the same relative advantage that Gatorade can provide. This is evident by visiting a topical anaesthetic supermarket store. A 20 oz. Gatorade is priced at $1. 59 its main competitor, PowerAde, is priced at the same. It could be said that the market is demonstrating non-price competition (Etzel, 349).Gatorade has chosen market penetration as its pricing strategy (Etzel, 351). Some characteristics of market penetration distinctly name the market for sport drink. The market has an elastic demand curve and low initial price for new produces (Gatorade has come out with Propel and Fierce, twain coming into the market with identical or lower prices than competitors). For consumers that buy Gatorade on a regular basis, it can become an expensive habit compared to some alternatives (I. e. water). One way that a consumer can cut down on prices is by buying in bulk.Consumers will get more Gatorade for their blame when buying in bulk. Other than that, Gatorade does not have any promotions or coupons to induce sales. Distribution A distribution channel consists of the set of race and firms involved in the transfer of title to a product as the product moves from manufacturing business to ultimate consumer or business user (Etzel, 380). In short, a distribution channel will show the journey that a product or service takes from the producer to the consumer. It seems that everywhere someone goes, there is Gatorade for sale. How did it get there? PepsiCo. handles all the distribution for Gatorade.They have chosen to go with direct-store-distributio n (DSD) (Annual Report of PepsiCo, Retrieved December 1, 2006). One advantage of DSD that PepsiCo. uses is having their delivery teams merchandise their product. This allows them to presentment Gatorade in a way that will induce high sales. A way they attempt to increase sales is by placing Gatorade in places that will influence impulse purchases (placing Gatorade by checkout stands at a supermarket is an example). Their retail stores are the middlemen for Gatorades journey to its consumers (Etzel, 379). This is what is called indirect distribution (Etzel, 384).Supermarkets are not the only place where Gatorade can be found Gatorade is available for sales in liquor stores, department stores, supermarkets, and any place where drinks are sold. Since Gatorade is available in such a wide variety of places, Gatorade can be categorized as being intensively distributed (which means a producer sells its product through every available outlet in a market where a consumer might reasonable lo ok for it) (Etzel, 393). Gatorade has been the staple in the sport drink market. Their overwhelming consistent market share can point to a strong assumption that their distribution channel is at peak efficiency.Promotional Mix Within Gatorades promotional mix, advertising believably uses the most funds on an annual basis. PepsiCo spent 183 million dollars for Gatorades advertising campaigns in 2005 which is a large increase compared to the 135 million dollars spent only two years before (Hein & Beirne, 6). The most parking lot form of advertising for Gatorade is TV commercials (MacArthur, 51). There are four main types of advertising campaigns on television. The first type highlights the history and origins of the company as easily as the scientific research that goes into the product.The second type highlights individual players that endorse Gatorade or groups of competing individuals. The third type highlights teams or leagues that Gatorade sponsors such as the NFL or the Mens National Soccer Team (MacArthur, 22). Professional endorsements are also most-valuable to Gatorades advertising campaign. They endorse 22 skipper American athletes and over twenty intertheme athletes (MacArthur, 22). Equally important to Gatorades promotional mix is their public relations. They sponsor ten professional leagues. Among the list are some of the most popular sports in America such as the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and MLS.They also affiliate themselves with 60 division one universities and 11 division one conferences. In addition to this they are connected to eleven professional organizations such as the American College of Sports Medicine (MacArthur, 22). Their superior Player of the Year program is another way that they can reach out and recognize many outstanding high school athletes of the year around the country. This is a large program that has a state and national selection process. There is one succeeder for each sport. For example, Peyton Manning was the national winner for football in 93-94 (Gatorade in the Community, Retrieved December 3, 2006).Gatorade makes a large international public relations effort. They are affiliated with many international professional soccer clubs such as Juventus and Manchester United but they extend their efforts to other sports besides soccer such as basketball, water polo, rugby, volleyball, and swimming (Hein, 5). The Gatorade Sports lore Institute is another effect tool for their public relations campaign. through and through this organization they put out study results from a wide range of sport related topics and on the dynamics of specific sports.This part of Gatorade is most easily accessed through their own GSSI website (www. gatorade. com). The Gatorade website is another address that is very well done and depicts a very good image of the company. They also have 12 other country specific websites that are in the domestic language of the country. Sales promotions are also important to Gatorades pro motional mix and it is substantially occupied by event sponsorships. Most of these events are marathons throughout the world including the famous Boston Marathon and the Gatorade Triathlon Series (Hein, 5).At these events they provide free Gatorade to the competitors throughout the race and for some events they offer the Gatorade recuperation Area where all competitors can be weighed before and after the race to monitor the level of fluids lost during exercise. The area later supplies food/recreation bags, Gatorade drinks, massage and qualified dietitians (Hein, 5). To supplement this, they also print newsletters about future events. The Annual Gatorade Junior Training Camp is another example of sponsoring athletic events.This is a summer camp that combines football instruction and teaching of life skills that focus on self-improvement and motivation and is hosted by the Seattle Seahawks (Gatorade in the Community, Retrieved December 3, 2006). Limited to the Canadian website, ther e is a direct link to crave Gatorade to sponsor an event. This all leads to the conclusion that event sponsorship is a highly utilise tool for Gatorade to get its product out and into the hands of many athletes. Gatorade doesnt use many discount sales promotions in the United States but does use promotions in a number of other countries.Last summer there was a big Indian promotion in which customers who bought the hexad pack received an instructional soccer CD with Rinaldinho (Buy 6 Gatorades, promote Ronaldinho CD). A number of European countries are having soccer promotions as well (Gatorade e lo Sport, Retrieved December 3, 2006). Canada is having a hockey promotion in which consumers have a chance to win professional hockey gear. I suspect that Gatorade also uses a number of sales promotions directed at their retailers otherwise we wouldnt see the large discounts that cut the price of Gatorade by around in half in some of the large supermarkets.