Brand Audit: Gatorade

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2011 in the subject Communications - Public Relations, Advertising, Marketing, Social Media, grade: A, University of Florida, language: English, abstract: The

Gatorade

Brand

is

a

dominating

force

in

the

sports

drink

industry.

Throughout

the

past

forty

years,

this

company

had

created

a

sustainable

competitive

advantage

by

developing

their

marketing

mix

which

include

product

strategy,

pricing

strategy,

promotional

mix,

and

distribution

strategy.

This

brand

audit

aims

to

analyze

Gatorade¿s

marketing

mix,

and

examine

how

it

varies

when

it

targets

on

multicultural

consumers.

Or

in

other

words,

how

its

marketing

strategy

varies

when

it

applies

to

an

international

market.

Executive

Summary

Gatorade

is

an

extremely

popular

sports

drink

brand

and

has

outstanding

brand

awareness

and

loyalty.

It

markets

its

unique

products

mainly

to

pre-¿adult

group

who

ages

from

13

to

24.

As

what

John

Sicher,

the

editor

of

Beverage

Digest,

said,

¿the

pre-¿adult

years

are

the

cutting

edge

of

where

those

sports

drink

brands

are

competing¿.

This

is

a

tough

market

for

any

company

to

communicate

with,

since

the

youth

people

nowadays

prefer

to

avoid

traditional

media

outlets.

In

order

to

overcome

this

obstacle,

Gatorade

tends

to

be

not

only

a

sports

drink

distributor

but

also

a

¿lifestyle

company¿,

promoting

an

active

and

self-¿improvement

lifestyle.

In

order

to

reach

its

target

market,

Gatorade

adopts

a

very

competitive

marketing

mix

to

get

its

products

sold.

First

of

all,

Gatorade

spends

lots

of

money

on

the

product

innovation

and

development.

Secondly,

its

low-¿pricing

strategy

makes

the

products

more

welcomed

by

the

consumers.

Thirdly,

by

using

its

parent

company¿PepsiCös

distribution

system,

Gatorade

can

get

its

products

sold

in

the

supermarkets,

liquor

stores,

department

stores,

and

so

on.

Besides,

Gatorade¿s

promotional

mix

which

includes

advertising,

public

relation

planning,

sales

promotion

and

sponsorship,

and

personal

selling,

also

contribute

much

to

its

dominating

80%

market

share

in

the

whole

industry. [...]