Squirt

Squirt - Nature of industry, market, and buyer behavior
In the United States, people consume more carbonated drinks than tap water. Research has shown that the average American drinks about 53 gallons of soft drinks

per year. However, soft drink consumption has declined over the past few years (Kerin & Peterson, 2004).
The soft drink industry has three major participants in the production and distribution; concentrate producers, bottlers, and retail outlets. Concentrate producers are responsible for consumer advertising and promotion programs, product development and planning and market research. The bottler’s responsibility is to set up local and retail trade promotions. Among this is selling and servicing retail outlets, placements and
Diet Squirt and Diet Ruby Red account for 20% of Squirt’s total sales. Previous to a positioning review in 1995 by Foote, Cone, and Belding, Squirt focused its advertising on the 18 to 34 year old target market. Squirt advertised through newspapers inserts, cable TV spots, spot radio, and consumer, retail, and trade promotions. Squirt’s promotions exceeded the advertising expenditures. Squirt has been attributed with having the highest brand loyalty amongst competitors even though Mountain Dew was the most heavily advertised. At this time, the positioning of the company was to target Squirt to adults and Ruby Red to teens and young adults. The company was shooting commercials involving Rollerblading and Mountain Biking. Advertising messages emphasized how Squirt was beyond the ordinary taste, but also that it’s incredibly exciting. Throughout the five years, Squirts creative execution and positioning were revisited three times. Each time though, no changes were made. In the meantime, Coca-Cola announced that Fresca would be available in 95% of the United States Bottler Markets (Kerin & Peterson,
Taking this into consideration, it is obvious that Squirt should start a campaign that offers advertisements, television commercials, and banners in Spanish. According to www.hispaniccallcenter.com, Hispanics have an increasing amount of disposable income, and the number one thing they spend their money on is food and beverages in the home (Hispanic Affluence, 1996). Knowing this and knowing about the increasing population, management at Squirt should devise plans to get advertisements into every Spanish speaking news publication in Texas and California. In these two states alone, more than 50% of the Hispanic population lives (Kerin & Peterson, 2004). They should also focus their television and radio advertisements on the interest of the Hispanic