Just Juice Bubbles launch

Category: FMCG

Agency: Colenso BBDO

Advertiser: Frucor Beverages (Just Juice)

SUMMARY

Just Juice was a brand in a category being squeezed by heavy discounting, it had to radically rethink what it did. It launched Just Juice Bubbles. Taking the brand out of juice and into the competitive carbonated soft drinks (CSD) category.

To successfully do this was a big job for Colenso BBDO - announce a brand new product, in a brand new category, in a completely different part of the supermarket and against mega brands.

How would Colenso BBDO and Frucor Beverages do this?

By:

• Charging a price premium (53%)

• Keeping true to Just Juice's taste with 50% juice content (five time's the level of any other CSD)

• Tapping into known consumer behaviour (mixing 50% juice with 50% lemonade)

An integrated mix of mainstream television with radio, Ad Trolleys and Adshels was used to generate mass awareness and also to touch consumers when they were out and about – close to point of consumption.

The campaign cut through using two simple truths:

• CSDs make you 'burp'

• Consumers already mix juice and lemonade.

The results:

• Advertisement awareness and brand awareness were above the Millward Brown norms for a new product launch

• Total Just Juice sales increased by 29% - seven times category growth.

(Source: Ex-factory data; ACNielsen & Millward Brown)

MARKETING CHALLENGE

Just Juice is a 24 year-old brand competing in the juice segment of the second largest beverage category worth $200m. It has market leadership in its category through its 100% tropical family juice positioning and its 'unique tropical taste' articulation of this strategy.

However it was leadership in a mature market experiencing growth at just 4% per annum and low profitability.

The market had changed dramatically and was now been driven by two factors, a growth in premium brands and heavy price discounting.

The average price per litre of juice had plunged from $1.74 down to $1.61 over the past five years – an unsustainable position.

Competition at the premium end of the market was significant too. Charlies had taken the high ground, claiming 'not from concentrate' as its unique point of difference. Juice wasn't just juice anymore; research showed consumers saw it as either 'real juice' (not from concentrate) or plain juice. Attributes critical to the Just Juice brand - flavour and brand values - mattered less and less.

The result was that the market was being ravaged by two factors, massive discounting on juice in the mainstream (mainly on the core 3ltr juice range) and expansion of premium products at the top end.

The overall effect was that Just Juice was being squeezed and profitability was under pressure.

Competition from within the parent company was substantial too, with much newer brands in faster growing categories like energy and water elevating growth rate targets and making it increasingly difficult for Just Juice to meet its financial objectives.

It was clear a major rethink was in order to prevent Just Juice having to abandon its core values and fight it out with poorly differentiated brands through price discounting.

In the search for growth opportunities, the carbonated soft drink (CSD) market was seen as a potential source of volume given the fact it comprises over 50% of the non-alcoholic beverage category. However there were two significant barriers to entry:

• The market was relatively price sensitive, low value and dominated by one player, Coca-Cola, whose stable of established and successful brands accounted for over 90% share of the category

• How could 'Just Juice' launch a CSD?

A series of market trends and insights provided a key to the solution:

• There was a rising popularity of 'hybrid' beverages internationally - beverages that combined mineral water or soda with fruit juice – although the maximum juice content of these hybrids was around 13%

• Among traditional soft drinks, lemonade was identified as being one of the most 'natural' with consumers believing it has relatively little or no colours or preservatives*

• Where the CSD and fruit juice categories intersected was around consumer needs of 'fun' and 'enjoyment'

• One third of consumers were already mixing Just Juice with lemonade*.

(*Source: Focus Research)

In combination, these led to the concept and development of Just Juice Bubbles – a 50/50 blend of Just Juice and lemonade.

Being squeezed in its traditional core juice category, under pressure to generate higher returns and growth, this combination, while seemingly a massive shift from the brand's traditional 100% tropical juice platform, looked like a real possibility. The secret was to stay true to the brand, both its image and product performance (unique tropical taste), in doing it.

CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES

Overall the campaign objectives were to get the Just Juice brand back into growth and improve profitability, without compromising the brand's values or its essence of tropical family fun.

Sales Value

1. Increase sales value of total Just Juice by 8% (double the category growth rate)

Profitability

• Increase value and profit in the CSD category for the retailer (a key selling point with the trade)

Market Share

• Achieve 7% value share of the fruit flavoured CSD segment in grocery and 18% value share in total Service Stations after 12 months.

• Grow Just Juice Bubbles through the creation of new consumption occasions without cannibalising the parent product

• At least meet new product norms in six months for Awareness (54%), Trial (19%) and Recent Purchase (8%) (as measured by Millward Brown).

Brand

Possibly the most strategically problematic; it was imperative that the launch of Just Juice Bubbles did not detract from Just Juice's perceived naturalness or undermine the foundations of the brand.

Advertising needed to portray that the new product added something to the Just Juice brand rather than detracting from it. It also had a big job to do in cutting through the clutter to announce a new product, in a new category and in a new part of the supermarket. Shelf facings and product presence in the CSD aisle were very low for Just Juice Bubbles. The advertising had to work doubly hard to make sure consumers knew what Bubbles was and where to find it. Consequently, brand objectives were to:

• Create strong advertisement recognition for Just Juice Bubbles and correct message outtake as being 50% lemonade and 50% Just Juice (brand recognition of Just Juice Bubbles and understanding that it was a CSD were essential)

• Improve consumers' perceptions of the Just Juice brand as a whole

• At least maintain top of mind recall for the Just Juice brand, measured by its status as the third most recalled beverage brand in New Zealand.

Essentially if this campaign did not establish the functional difference of Just Juice Bubbles relative to other CSDs or reinforce the brand's tropical family juice credentials, it would fail.

TARGET AUDIENCE

The Just Juice target market is mainstream, basically Kiwi mums with kids. Just Juice Bubbles' market was defined as being largely similar, with a slightly broader appeal because of its CSD format and the combined strengths of both the juice and soft drink markets.

• Primary target was the Household Shopper with children 0–14. They are busy parents (more often Mums), buying mostly from supermarkets. They buy Just Juice for its taste, its soft health benefits, its appropriateness for the whole family and its relaxed tropical values. They would also buy Bubbles because it built on these foundations and added an appealing sense of liveliness - both functionally in taste sensation and emotionally, in attitude.

• Secondary target was Teens / Youth (15–24) who buy mostly on-the-go from service stations and dairies. Again the appeal of Bubbles was to come from the unique combination of Just Juice (taste, goodness and tropical 'escapism' values) and Lemonade (bubbles and liveliness) – communicated in an appropriately lively and playful personality.

CREATIVE STRATEGY

The creative idea rose out of the need to reinforce Bubbles' Just Juice heritage, but also clearly establish that it was a CSD.

The strategy:

• Leverage the Just Juice heritage - the tropical island, fruit and family cues

• Dial-up the cheekiness and fun aspects of the brand, to match CSDs rules of engagement – liveliness, vitality and socialability

• Maximise cut through and stand out.

The last point was critical as this could not afford to be a wallpaper communications exercise. It was essentially a new product, in a highly competitive and crowded category. It had to gain cut through in the CSD category and clearly differentiate itself, but also still feel like a Just Juice campaign.

Three elements underpinned the creative:

• Traditional Just Juice tropical island and family cues

• A highly visual '50/50 Just Juice & Lemonade' device was designed and used in all communications

• The 'burp' as a shorthand for CSD.

The 'burp' device was a brilliant way of achieving cut through, but also in one simple gesture it clearly signaled that this was a CSD product – burping is a universal truth about CSDs.

A visual 50:50 device was also effective in communicating the actual product offer. This was important since 50/50 was the mix that consumers were most likely to use when creating 'bubbly juice' at home and the blend that performs best on taste. Also, because it had five times the juice content of any other CSD product available, it was a major differentiating factor for Bubbles that had to be clearly established. Thus, communicating the half and half detail was important to support brand values and distinguish Just Juice Bubbles from lesser product offerings.

OTHER COMMUNICATION PROGRAMMES

Given that this was a mainstream launch, into a mainstream category (CSDs), in the grocery channel, it was essentially a fully integrated mass media launch. However, two important aspects marked the activity:

• No price discounting or heavy promotion was employed. In fact, Bubbles was launched with on average a 68% price premium - $1.87 per litre in comparison to the CSD average of $1.11 in grocery!

• Distribution used all existing and established Frucor channels of grocery and direct – except it was into a new category of CSDs. As such, Just Juice Bubbles endured relatively poor levels of facings and disproportionately low share of shelf space because of competitive pressures, particularly in grocery.

In-store point-of-sale and in-store sampling activity was an essential media strategy as Just Juice Bubbles was going to be ranged in the CSD aisle. It was important consumers knew where to find the product, since it was not going to be where they were used to finding Just Juice.

The only other significant level of support other than mainstream media was a sampling campaign on the launch of the product.

MEDIA STRATEGY

Given the highly competitive CSD category all Just Juice media activity for August to December was put behind the Just Juice Bubbles launch.

The challenge was to launch Bubbles with minimal cannibalisation of the Just Juice Brand.

Over the August to December period Just Juice Bubbles achieved a 31% share of spend in the CSD category. This was ahead of the 20% category forecast.

The single-minded strategy was to hit them hard as the product would only be new once and it was imperative to create immediate awareness.

Television was chosen as the core medium for the campaign. It was valued for its high mass-market reach, responsiveness and the fact that it was the category battleground

Whilst television built ongoing brand equity, layers of secondary media drove relevance and supported impulse occasions.

The resulting strategy used layering of messages to ensure that frequency was high, and that these messages were seen in different contexts.

MEDIA

The campaign employed a mix of:

• TV

• Adshels

• Cinelights

• Radio

• Ad Trolleys (at point of purchase)

TOTAL MEDIA EXPENDITURE:

$500,000 to $1m

RESULTS

Sales Value

1. Total sales value achieved 116% of the launch objective

2. Sales value of total Just Juice increased by 29% – achieving 235% of the objective set

3. Just Juice Bubbles has become the most successful launch in Frucor's history, exceeding one-year sales of both V and Mizone

(Source: ex-factory sales, Aug '04 – June '05 vs. prior year)

Profitability

Just Juice Bubbles has increased profitability for both the company and the retail trade. Just Juice brand profitability increased significantly. Profit for the retailer has increased too with the average price per litre in Grocery of $1.81 for Just Juice Bubbles compared to $1.15 for all other CSDs – a massive 58% premium.

(Source: ACNielsen 26 weeks ending 26/06/05)

1. The launch of Bubbles has helped explode the fruit CSD segment – it is currently the fastest growing segment in CSDs with 19% growth. At current rates it is anticipated to overtake lemonade to become the number two segment in the next 12 months.

   • In service stations the launch has sparked growth for the total CSD category that was previously in decline

   • In Total Supermarkets Just Juice Bubbles accounts for 30% of Total fruit CSD growth.

Market Share

1. Just Juice Bubbles is the number two fruit CSD brand in Total Service stations with 34.9% share (more than double the set target).

2. Just Juice Bubbles is the number two fruit CSD brand in Total Supermarkets with 15% value share of the Fruit CSD segment.

3. Just Juice Bubbles doubled Millward Brown new product norms for brand awareness, trial and recent purchase.

(Source: ACNielsen 26 weeks ending 26 June 2005)

Brand

1. Just Juice Bubbles has had a positive impact on consumer perceptions of the Just Juice brand as a whole. (Source: Post launch qualitative research, Focus Research)

2. Just Juice is now the second most recalled beverage in New Zealand behind Coca Cola – but more importantly ahead of Fanta for the first time in the brand's history.

Advertising Recognition

1. The television commercial “Burps” outperformed Millward Brown norms for advertisement recognition and consumer key outtakes were clearly on strategy.