Powerade Case Study

Executive Summary POWERade has traditionally focused on targeting bodybuilders and athletes. However, the target demographic is now shifting to more mainstream athletes and non-athletes; the marketing mix does not reflect these changes. We present a revised marketing plan that should increase revenue by 49% to $250 million a year. The marketing plan addresses the flagship product POWERade and POWERade Zero. Research
Through market research, we have discovered two key findings about this target market that will shape a new marketing strategy for POWERade.
Our first key finding addresses what factors are important when choosing between sports drinks. Due to its focus on serious athletes, POWERade advertising has focused on the ingredients and benefits of its sports drink, touting itself as superior to rival Gatorade. This is ineffective for mainstream consumers – the most important factor in the buying decision is taste. This will come into play with promotions for POWERade. The second key finding involves the bottled water market. Bottled water is a $9 billion industry domestically, and expanding into this market could result in substantial financial benefits. However, survey data indicates that over 70% of respondents do not consider sports drinks a substitute for water. Thus, we propose marketing two different products: one aimed at the bottled water market and one at the sports drink market. Marketing Strategy
We present a dual-pronged marketing strategy. POWERade will concentrate on solidifying its position in its current market and aggressively targeting more casual athletes, non-athletes, and women. POWERade Zero will be marketed as a fitness water to the more mainstream health-conscious demographic
POWERade. For POWERade, we know that we want to focus on taste. While no changes are needed to the POWERade formula, we propose clearly identifying the flavor on the label of the bottle (Mountain Blast, for example, is ambiguous). Promotions