Coke are having another crack at it, 'Mother' is back! If we count this as another energy product, this will be Coke's 6th attempt at cracking the Australian energy drink market. It reminds me of a cover-band I once saw, no matter how loud the crowd booed, they just kept saying thank you and then launched into another song!
What is new?
Taste - As I mentioned in a previous blog, the previous taste was horrible, hopefully they have rectified this problem for good. I mean even protein shakes attempt to flavour their product in a mildly acceptable taste.
Size - They have trumped Red Bull's new 355ml cans and gone the whole hog, all the way up to 500ml. This is very interesting given that Red Bull offer the small cans at a special 2 for $5 (and V follow a little cheaper) price that has seen turnover increase dramatically. I can't believe that anyone is going to buy 1 litre of energy drink.
Note: I do love that the poster boasts a "double hit of energy" when compared to a can half its size. Must have spent some coin getting the mathematicians from NASA to figure that one out.
Marketing Campaign: Despite the boast that $3M is a large campaign, rummours are that their previous launch cost $15M and that was a flop that would have sent Hugh Hefner racing for the little blue pills.
Will the new relaunch be Coke's little blue pill?
The domestic energy drink market is worth around $1 Billion per annum with annual growth figures of about 25%. With this in mind, the market is still in a major growth stage (see: product life cycle graph), indicating that now is the time for competitors to flood into the market.
Coke have some strengths - As I mentioned previously, they have the distribution chain, they have brand awareness, huge amounts of capital, now all they have to do is get consumers to try it again and gain a foothold in the market.
Josh's Opinion
Despite me rubbishing their previous attempts, I think this is a worthwhile venture for the worlds largest soft drink provider. Red Bull are going through distribution changes with Schweppes, V are not doing anything original and all the other brands are kidding themselves. I think they just might pull one off.
Note: I wouldn't want to be one of the fringe energy drinks right now!
Kelv's Opinion:
Give me $3M and at least I'll spend it wisely on blackjack and hookers, I think at the end of the day we'll see a similar result.
If you are interested in this article, make sure to read Room for Home Brand Energy Drinks?
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