New Zealand Marketing magazine

Frucor vs goliath

Originally published in NZ Marketing November-December 2009, page 30

Frucor Beverages’ Mizone Rapid takes on the dominant global brand

Frucor’s Mizone brand is a minnow compared with Coca-Cola's Powerade. Responding to a casual remark captured in market research, Frucor relaunched Mizone Rapid, with the Leaner and Meaner campaign. The result: a 28 percent increase in sales and a dramatic 300 percent increase in loyalty measures.

Background

Sports drinks have been a standout performer in New Zealand fridges. They were the fastest-growing beverage category in 2006, and are still growing at 98 percent year-on-year.

The market is dominated by Coca-Cola's Powerade, a power-brand with 96 percent awareness, 93 percent market share, huge trial levels and endorsement by the gods of Kiwi sport—the All Blacks.

In 2007, Frucor launched an advanced product, Mizone Rapid, to extend its successful Mizone sports water range. With a lower sugar formulation providing the same performance benefits as existing drinks, Mizone Rapid was a world first and Frucor was confident of its success. However, by the end of 2007, Mizone Rapid was struggling to carve out a baseline market share of even ten percent.

It got worse. Sales dropped by half from launch, and its market share fell to five percent. By mid-2008, Mizone Rapid was a weak number two and unable to make any impact on the mighty Powerade.

And no one at Frucor really knew why.

The way forward became clear when during agency research a young Powerade loyalist said, "Mizone Rapid is just a watered-down Powerade". Everyone else in the room agreed.

While the marketing team knew that Mizone Rapid delivered the same performance benefits as Powerade with much less sugar, consumers perceived its lighter colour and taste as meaning not ‘a third less sugar’ but ‘a third less potent’.

What’s new

The Frucor marketers were confident they had a superior product. Distribution was strong and in-store placement holding well, especially given a poor market performance. Pricing was competitive. The issue lay with communications. To drive success Frucor had to convince consumers that Mizone Rapid was a superior sports drink.

The product had been specifically designed for sports hydration. However, around 50 percent of sports drinks are consumed during inactive periods, often by people who do little or no regular exercise. They are young, predominantly 14 to 30 years, male, and buy sports drinks for their sporty image.

But only elite athletes appreciated Mizone Rapid’s formulation superiority.

Messaging

The strategic solution was simple: make a virtue of Mizone Rapid’s ‘lighter’ solution. After all, in sports, lighter is better: the best shoes, uniforms, bikes, boats or racquets are always the lightest.

The creative solution was to articulate the value of the lighter formulation with the line ‘Leaner and Meaner’.

'Lean' was used to identify with New Zealand’s world champion athletes, who had inspired the New Zealand population. They described Mizone Rapid as having everything they needed and nothing they didn’t.

Television was used as the key medium.

Results

Case sales of Mizone Rapid started to grow, and by March 2009 the average weekly case sales were 28 percent higher than the average before the campaign. In mid-2008, trial (tried in the last six months) and loyalty (bought in the last two weeks) measures had dived to eight percent and three percent, respectively. The Leaner and Meaner campaign reversed these: Mizone Rapid’s trial measures grew by a massive 275 percent between May 2008 and March 2009 and loyalty increased by 300 percent.

During this time, both measures dropped for Powerade, as did its overall consideration, which declined by 20 percent (actual figures 56 to 46).

Mizone Rapid, which had always trailed Powerade on the ‘for sporty people’ image, pushed ahead: Powerade dropped from 76 percent to 69 percent and Mizone Rapid increased from 62 percent pre-campaign to 70 percent post-campaign.

The Leaner & Meaner campaign’s suggestion that Powerade was ‘heavier’ destabilised its ‘enhances my performance’ measure, which has been in free-fall since October 2008, when the campaign launched. Mizone Rapid held its own during this time, so that the gap between Powerade and Mizone Rapid was halved.

Mizone Rapid has overtaken Powerade for the measure ‘inspires my inner athlete’ for the first time. This is significant, given Powerade derives instant credibility from its All Blacks sponsorship.

The Leaner and Meaner campaign gave Mizone Rapid the credibility it had been lacking. The Colmar Brunton analysis showed that it exceeded norms significantly and outperformed the Powerade campaign.

The integration of insightful product formulation, depth of consumer understanding and relevant communication makes this brand story deserving of recognition.

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