What Gatorade Got Wrong...

If you read my lost post, I praised Gatorade's launch of G Series as an initiative with very strong business building potential because it helped reduce consumer confusion and increasing the brand's shelf presence. This post, however, takes a harsher stance on Gatorade's push to take their brand re-stage one step farther by also launching a premium priced line-up "G Series Pro". http://www.gatorade.com/default.aspx#gseriespro?s=gseriespro

G Series Pro is marketed as:

"Only available in pro locker rooms... until now. Originally developed
exclusively for pro athletes and grounded in years of hydration and sports
nutrition research at the Gatorade Sports Institute (GSSI)."

Now I get where Gatorade is coming from...trade in/across with G Series and then leverage G Series Pro to trade consumers up and capture a piece of the higher margin speciality market. I'm sure the consumer research shows very clear and distinct consumer segments that they believe they can better target with two line-ups.

That said, I think the positioning of the premium line-up has serious flaws that risk undermining the entire brand. By positioning G Series Pro as the line-up for pro athletes - where does that leave the base G Series line? Wasn't Gatorade's entire image built off of the fact that this is what the real pro's drank?

Recall the TV ads Gatorade built it's entire equity such as "I want to be like Mike ad". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0AGiq9j_Ak

Well, evidently real athletes don't drink Gatorade anymore they only drink G Series Pro. Actually, what Gatorade is saying is real athletes haven't drank regular Gatorade for quite sometime. It may be good enough for you and me, but it's not good enough for real pro athletes anymore.

At the heart of Gatorade's flaw is that by lifting up the "Pro" line, they are degrading the base line - which is worrisome because it's always going to be the bulk of their business. Critics will say it's only on sale (at least for the time-being) exclusively at GNC (because evidently that's where 'real' athletes shop) and it will be marketed towards a small, specific niche, so it shouldn't interfere with the base line.

Maybe I'm being too tough, but it's not too often you see a business knock itself off the top of a mountain. To me, Gatorade or G Series or whatever they want to call the base business has lost some of it's magic, lost some of it's flair, and it's on the verge of being just another generic sports drink ala Powerade.

Gibberish Grade = D.

What Gatorade Got Right...

Recently Gatorade has been investing big behind the launch of G Series under their "The Game Has Evolved" campaign. G Series is the commercialization of a 3 step drink regime program established to maximize the performance of athletes by helping athletes (1) "Prime" before their competition, (2) "Perform" during the competition, and (3) "Recover" after. Each of the 3 types of drinks is suppose to be specially engineered to contribute as advertised.

http://www.gatorade.com/default.aspx#gseries?s=gseries

Now the instant reaction to watching this campaign is natural skepticism. Isn't Gatorade getting a little greedy here? Shouldn't they just be happy if athletes buy 1 Gatorade? Does Gatorade really expect us to believe if we drink all three we will actually see a noticeably better result? Is this all just marketing gibberish?


However, taking a step back the move is brilliant on a couple of accounts - regardless of if consumers buy into the regime push or not. The move instantly has two enormous benefits to Gatorade.


First, from a consumer perspective, it helps add clarity to what had become an increasingly difficult brand to understand. For years Gatorade's growth strategy had been to launch new line extensions to drive trial. However, all these line extensions, from a consumer standpoint had become very confusing, difficult to differentiate, and ultimately navigate when they got to shelf.


Second, from a trade perspective, it's a classic shelf grab tactic. By spending millions of dollars in advertising of the regime program Gatorade's retail partners are forced to dedicate more of their shelf space to bring the 3 step program to life. Even a few extra distribution slots at retailers and convenience stores around the country will translate to millions and million of dollars. This shelf space push is even more important following the collapse of Gatorade's Tiger Woods line extension.


So, regardless of whether or not consumers buy into the concept of a drink regime, or not; G Series will be a win for Gatorade.

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