Current Issues in Marketing Strategy

COCA-COLA is becoming increasingly desperate to crack the booming energy drinks market, with the company announcing the relaunch of its energy drink Mother after a spectacular flop last year. Next month, a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign will signal the return of Mother and the company's fifth attempt to establish a beachhead in a market dominated by V and Red Bull.

Early last year, a $15 million marketing campaign saw ads featuring a cast of wide-eyed animals proclaiming Mother's energy-boosting properties, underscored with the line "100 per cent Natural", positioned the drink, which contained a potent Amazonian berry, acai, as an all-natural alternative to the caffeine- and taurine-loaded rivals.

The campaign by one of its agencies, Publicis Mojo, failed because the core target market of 18- to 24-year-old males was not looking for a "natural high" but a "chemical one", according to sources. Those who tried it didn't come back largely because of the taste. "It [the drink] lacked the efficacy of potency and that's exactly what the market wants in these drinks," one source close to Coke said.

Yesterday, Coke put out a short statement admitting it had got it wrong - unusual for a company that rarely, if ever, acknowledges defeat. "It will taste nothing like the old one and will deliver double the energy kick, making it the most potent energy drink in Australia," it said. Even the top of the can will be emblazoned with: "Tastes nothing like the old one."

The sources said Coke will not step away from a market that has grown by 62 per cent in the three years to 2007, of which Red Bull and V have about 90% share. Beverage analyst for IBIS World, Audrey Riddell, said: 'energy drinks are an innovative product, as such, first mover advantage has raised the barriers of entry, making it hard to rival the market leaders.

Coke is not alone. Foster's Torque bombed and its successor, Battery, is making little headway.

Josh's Opinion
I think there is room in the market for more competitors, but will this product be the one? I think hanging on to that previous brand is going to damage image and make it harder to attract early adopters. Energy drinks are very image dependent, I'm not sure how the mother brand is viewed right now, but my opinion of it does not see it even appraoching the 'cool hurdle' let alone bounding over it.

Sam's Opinion
Tried it, hated it, I'm sticking with Red Bull. Enough said?

View another article on Mother here