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.