Frucor - Living De Tropical Life

Category: Agency: Advertiser:

Sustained Success Colenso BBDO Frucor

SUMMARY

Approaching its 25^th birthday this year, Just Juice will be celebrating its continued brand success. This brand is still growing and demanding a premium despite many other brands which find themselves declining after such a long period. Just Juice's success is reflected in the fact it is now the second most recalled beverage brand in New Zealand – second only to Coke.

This is a major achievement given the challenges faced by the brand. Competition has increased dramatically with many new beverage categories emerging. Health is also constantly under the spotlight meaning Just Juice needs to be consciously aware of this issue. Just Juice has also needed to stay aware of competitor activity with competing brands developing strong badge value and emotional connections.

In 1998, a decision was made that a stronger brand connection was needed. This key judgment has resulted in the continued success of the brand that can still be seen today. The brand moved from a more functional platform of “tropical taste” to a more emotive one of “Living De Tropical Life”. It was a distinctive, ownable and compelling position for the brand. Living this life was all about escapism, being happy, and laid back and carefree. A highly emotional aspiration for many New Zealand families.

The campaign has changed very little from 1998 to today resulting in over eight years of solid, consistent brand strategy and communications. The key to sustained success for Just Juice is the strong continuity of the brand and a creative strategy that is relevant, compelling and aspirational.

MARKETING CHALLENGE

Within four years of its launch, Just Juice was leading its category¹ and despite the challenges facing it, this success is still being enjoyed 25 years on.

As times have changed, different issues have been raised in the minds of consumers. Just Juice was traditionally focused on health and goodness. While this functional territory is still relevant, a stronger emotional brand equity had to be built to ensure long-term, sustainable success in a changing and highly competitive market. In the late 90's, competition was increasing dramatically among emerging categories:

• Bottled waters were even more natural and hydrating and were growing quickly.

• Energy drinks had a clear, powerful benefit and used new ingredients like guarana or taurine

• Fruit drinks were being developed with new, exciting blends and flavours and fortifications

• “Real” juice bars were showing up shelf stable juices as being “fake” in comparison

• Many brands had developed strong emotional territories leading to greater badge value and stronger loyalty

• Price competition both in supermarkets and route was fierce

An increased awareness around obesity, especially amongst children led to changes in the beverage industry. For instance, New Zealand schools set strict guidelines on what is allowed to be sold.

New products were developed by Frucor to help counter these health-based issues. Just Juice Plus and Just Juice Bubbles were launched. Just Juice Plus contained extra health benefits via added vitamins. Just Juice Bubbles was a healthier soft drink option aimed at mums who were becoming more conscious of what their kids were drinking.

Heavy discounting of 3L juice in supermarkets was leading to a decline in brand loyalty and pricing was driving people's decisions and driving down category value. The challenges facing Just Juice were huge. The brand could not just trade off tropical taste and goodness if it was going to survive. A more emotive connection, driven by brand advertising was needed. One that could weather the storm surrounding health debates, fierce competition and vicious price-cutting.

From agency research, Colenso BBDO understood that Just Juice needed to play up its fun loving side, which people enjoyed and connected with. Its tropical heritage provided a distinct and compelling point of difference versus other juices. The thought of the tropical lifestyle was also incredibly aspirational for New Zealand families.

The major change for the advertising strategy came in 1998. The move was made from the literal dimension of the Just Juice brand to a more emotive connection. The strategy moved beyond just the taste of tropical fruits into a positioning based on the tropical lifestyle, attitude and outlook on life.

Focusing on the tropical lifestyle was the right way to go. It drew on existing brand heritage, was highly distinctive and motivating for consumers. The essence of the brand became “Live De Tropical Life”. This was all about being unhurried, down to earth and happy!

The tropical world of Just Juice was full of sunshine, warmth and a carefree existence. Just Juice could provide an emotional escape for household shoppers via the carefree, relaxed lifestyle of the Caribbean. The brand refocused on 'living de tropical life' and the continued success of Just Juice was ensured.

CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVE

The Just Juice campaign objectives were updated in 2003 given that the campaign had been running since 1998. The three year strategic plan had the following targets:

• Maintain and defend market leadership

• Maintain price leadership in a price driven market

• To increase Total Spontaneous Awareness and maintain prompted awareness at 100%

• Increase emotional connection with consumers via key image statements

  • “Popular with all the family”

  • “Tropical flavours” which is an important sub component of “Living De Tropical Life”

  • “A fun brand”

TARGET AUDIENCE

Given the objectives, it was clear Just Juice had to target those currently buying juice (both Just Juice and competitors) from supermarkets as well as drinks from the route trade (service stations, dairies, smaller stores).

The two identified target audiences were:

Core grocery target:

• Household shoppers with kids (aged 0 – 14)

• Aged 25–44

• Heavily female skewed

Core route target:

• Both genders, aged 15–29

• Young bias (school students, university students, first jobs etc)

• Busy lifestyles, few structured mealtimes, often eat alone, high “on the go” consumption, a wide purchase portfolio

CREATIVE STRATEGY

While the original Just Juice campaign contained some focus towards the tropics, the new campaign was directed towards the more functional aspects of tropical fruit and taste.

From 1998 onwards, “Living De Tropical Life” became the essence of the brand, the main focus of the advertising campaign and was at the heart of all communications. It was a distinctive, ownable and compelling position for the brand. Living this life was all about escapism and adopting the laid back, carefree attitudes and behaviour that people who lived in the tropics enjoyed every day.

The television commercials themselves were now being set in a Jamaican scene rather than a Polynesian setting. The music was clearly more Jamaican in its rhythm and these factors were important in building the aspiration of the tropical life via Just Juice.

The campaign has changed very little since 1998. With over eight years of solid, consistent brand strategy and communications, it shows quite a contrast to the rest of the beverage world where brands are continually reinventing themselves via their advertising.

The brand campaign roll out over this eight year period has been:

• “Duel” – 1998

  • The Jamaican hero enjoying the tropical way of life, playing in a guitar duel with a younger boy

• “Happy accidents” – “bike” and “plane” – 2001

  • Everyday tropical life involving uniquely tropical fruit, showing how things are done in a relaxed way on a tropical island

• “Rhythm” – 2003

  • Getting into the relaxed rhythm of tropical island life

• “Dasher” – 2005 to today

  • Life on a tropical island with Just Juice at its centre

OTHER COMMUNICATION PROGRAMMES

Television, radio and magazines.

MEDIA STRATEGY

Television has been the core part of the media strategy over the past eight years. Just as the advertising strategy was consistent, so too was the media strategy. Television was excellent for mass market reach as it had the ability to strongly convey the emotional proposition.

It was unbeatable from a cost efficiency perspective with its low cost way of extending reach and frequency. Whilst television built ongoing brand equity, secondary media drove relevance. Out of home, radio and magazines were used to extend reach to lighter television viewers and aid impulse purchase decisions for the younger route target.

MEDIA

The campaign was initially launched as a 60 second television commercial with 30 second variants. A 30/15 second combination was rolled out in 2002. The role of the 15 second advertisement was to enhance frequency.

Environmental placement is an important part of media planning so Colenso BBDO jumped at the opportunity to sponsor TV2's 2003 season of “Celebrity Treasure Island”.

This programme delivered on many levels:

• A tropical island setting – consistent with the creative strategy and reinforcing tropical cues

• Top ratings and dual appeal to household shoppers, kids and the more cynical 15–29 audience alike

• Relevant product placement within the show – Just Juice was used in games as a reward at the end of a tough challenge

As a measure of its success, this sponsorship followed up with product placement in Celebrity Treasure Island in 2004.

Targeted radio was used to support local events and an out of home combination of bus-backs and adshels took the brand message to the streets. Colenso BBDO was able to focus on schools, shopping areas, sporting areas and main arterial routes. This provided impact and support for impulse purchasing with a highly mobile audience.

RESULTS

Just Juice has managed to maintain and defend market leadership by being New Zealand's leading juice brand after 25 years. Just Juice enjoys 100% brand awareness,² and is New Zealand's most recalled juice brand.

Many mature brands tend to decline after 25 years but Just Juice has experienced year-on-year growth since 1999.³

Just Juice has managed to maintain price leadership in a price driven market especially in supermarkets. In a market where price discounting is rampant, consumers are still willing to pay a premium for Just Juice. This is a strong achievement and shows the depth of the emotional connection household shoppers have with the brand. Without strong brand equity and the connection this brings, consumers would not be prepared to pay more.

Market leadership and share has been maintained over time, despite the heavy discounting of fruit juice in supermarkets.

Total Spontaneous Awareness for Just Juice has remained consistently strong since 1998, when the campaign strategy was changed. The trend line since 1998 has been steadily moving upwards.

In terms of image statements, which are driven by the advertising, consistent success has been enjoyed.

• “Popular with all the family” wasn't just maintained, it was increased by 8%

• “Tropical flavours” increased by nearly 20%

• “A fun brand” didn't just increase, it nearly doubled

Strong loyalty through bonding has also been achieved. Within bonding, popularity is the key component and advertising heavily influences popularity perceptions of a brand. Bonding is vital for a brand's connection with consumers. Just Juice needed to have strong bonding scores in order to achieve its goal of a stronger emotional connection.

In Colmar Brunton's Brand Dynamic study,⁴ Just Juice had over eight times the bonding levels of its nearest competitor, Keri. Colmar Brunton research shows that a brand with strong bonding drives sustainable future growth.

All these results across a variety of measures show how successful Just Juice is, 25 years after its launch. The key to this sustained success is a strong continuity of the brand and the creative strategy.

Just like life on a tropical island, Just Juice's future is sunny, happy and upbeat.

ENDNOTES

1. ACNielsen, scan sales data 1981–1985

2. Colmar Brunton, Juices Tracking Research, prompted brand awareness, July 06

3. Frucor Beverages Ex-Factory Sales 1998 – 06 YTD

4. Colmar Brunton Brand Dynamics Nov 2005

Grand Central Station stunt:::bikinis and bathing suits hit grand central

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.

Crowdsourced

Crowdsourced creations already form the foundation of sneaker brand Ryz, which sells high-tops featuring graphic designs created and voted into production by consumers. Now, a similar concept is being used to createExuve, a new line of clothing "where the designer and the consumer are one and the same."

California-based Exuve is a new fashion label for women and men that sells dresses, tops, skirts, jackets and bottoms designed and voted on by the crowds. Users can submit their designs for any of the site's monthly competitions using any combination of pictures, illustrations, words and specs. Submitted designs then get posted for critique and review by other members of the Exuve community; the designers, meanwhile, are encouraged to promote their work on their own blogs, social networks and personal pages. The designs in each category that get rated the highest are put into production for purchase in the company's online boutique, and winners are rewarded with USD 500 in cash, a USD 200 Exuve gift certificate (redeemable for USD 100 cash) and 5 percent of net revenue royalties from sales of the item through Exuve.com and its affiliate retailers. There are currently some 70 users registered on the site.