1. Introduction
Innocent is a non-alcohol beverage company, which makes smoothies, juices, juices for kids and veg pot. Innocent started in 1999 from selling smoothies in music festival. Now Innocent, one of the subsidiary brands of Coca-Cola, has become UK number 1 smoothies brand. Innocent sales in 2012 increased significantly by more than 35% while Coca-Cola, majority stakeholder in Innocent, increase merely 0.8% in the year. Another beverage market leader, Pepsi sales rose gradually by 7.4%. It seems possible that these results are due to the extraordinary marketing management of Innocent founder. Innocent has been a unique-identity healthy and social responsible brand. The increase in innocent sale could be attributed to its unique marketing strategy.
This essay would investigate marketing schemes of Innocent that could contribute to this success. This will include background of the brand, marketing schemes based by demography, company social responsibility and recommendation from this study
Background
Innocent was started in 1999 after selling their smoothies in a music festival. (Innocent,1999) It began with smoothies and expanded into food, juice and juicy water for kids. The name Innocent comes from the main characteristics of drink, which are pure, fresh and unadulterated. (Cheesman,2007) In 2009, Coca Cola Company bought stake from Innocent with 18% stake, Coca-Cola has then gradually increased its share, into 58% in 2010, and a more than 90% shareholding in 2013. (Price,2013) And since the deal with Coca- Cola, “Innocent has flourished: we’ve doubled in size, improved the social and environmental standards of how fruit is grown, got our natural, healthy food and drink to more people across Europe and donated millions of pounds to charity” (Innocent, 2013) , (mintel,2013) Innocent is the number-one smoothie brand in the UK and in many of the European territories where the product is sold. (Williams,2014) Now Innocent is available in UK and other 14 countries. Consumers could find innocent products in Supermarkets and coffee shops. With the good responsible to society, Innocent has donated 10% of profits everyyear to charity since 2004.
The Essay on Innocent Smoothies
What is branding? Branding is the process involved in creating a distinctive look for a product or company to create desire and trust from the customers for the product or company. A way a company can use branding is by having a unique logo or motto because it’s a way for the public to recognise the brand. The name of the company is another method of branding, because if your company has a name ...
Main competitor of Innocent is Tropicana, which own by PepsiCo. Tropicana and Innocent have been ranked as top brand of juice and smoothie over this century.
Figure 2‑ Leading manufacturer’s shares in the UK’s off-trade fruit juice, juice drink and smoothies market, by value, 2011/12 and 2012/13 (mintel,2013)
Figure 2‑ Pie chart of numbers of users of juice and smoothies (Kantar Media,2013)
3. Analysis
SWOT analysis of Innocent Brand
STRENGTH: S
Leading smoothies brand in UK
100% from pure fruit – healthy brand identity
Wide distribution channel
Ethical brand
environmental, social
Various product ranges
WEAKNESS: W
High price compare to other brands
Coca-Cola hold share –> negative effect to healthy brand image OPPORTUNITY: O
Lower the price to expand consumer market base
Promote innocent as ‘quick and easy smoothies’ instead of ‘do it yourself’ smoothies. Expand market to emerging market
THREAT: T
Price sensitive market instead of premium product image
Substituted products e.g. green tea
High competition
Table : SWOT analysis of Innocent Brand
Table 1 shows the main characteristics of the innocent company, based on SWOT analysis. Segmentation and Target market of Innocent
The Business plan on Market Segmentation, and Product Positioning
For the purpose of this assignment, I am assuming myself as the owner of a plastic molded toy company in United States that manufacturers, and distributes plastic molded toys through retailers across the country and around the world. The company is capitalizing on the strong growth in the children’s toys segment and planning to expand in an aggressive manner throughout the nation. The company ...
Consumer market segment
Innocent main target market
Product for target market
Concern for Audience
Innocent Marketing Approach
Children
Parents
Kid’s beverages
Child’s health and well-being
Labeling, TV advertisement,
Olympic sponsorship
Children
Fun, Toys
Outstanding packaging (plus magnet) ,
game
Teenagers
X
Juice, Smoothie
Sports, Music
Olympic sponsorship
Young professionals
Professional
Health (Nutrition)
Labeling
Online Marketing
Olympic sponsorship
Middle ages
Health (Nutrition), Ethical
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) ,
Online Marketing
Olympic sponsorship
Seniors
Seniors
Labeling ,
TV advertisement,
Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
Table Analysis of marketing approach by marketing segment
From the Table 2, it illustrates the variety of product line and the target customer ranges. Each specific marketing approach could get into most of the target segments. The Innocent product lines consist of smoothies, juice, kid’s beverages and food. From the table, main market target could be divided into 4 groups, which are parents, children, professionals and seniors. Marketing approaches are used differently regarding to the concern of each target segments.
Healthy product, or a ‘healthy’ brand identity is a concerned issue for most of Innocent’s target market. Not only do adults buy themselves, Innocent, healthy brand identity products, but adults who have child will also buy their child Innocent because of its healthy brand identity. Promoting the product, which is good for health, can bring a trust to parents. (Mae, 2011Smith,2011) Mothers has also been the innocent target on television advertisement in order to significantly boost on the sales growth of children range . (O’Reilly,2011) With the strong brand identity, Innocent has got the hearts and wallets of the British public. (William,2013)
Another outstanding marketing approach of innocent is corporate social responsibility (CSR).
CSR has become an essential part of a social-institutional framework. More and more people has experience growing interest in CSR (Berger, Steurer, Konrad, Martinuzzi,2007)
The Term Paper on Brands Page Brand Product Mcdonald
Assess the issues about branding raised in this unit in the light of ethical or responsible design. We are all branded ourselves to a certain degree, we announce ourselves through the clothes we wear, the products we buy and the car we drive, but why? The aim of this essay is to discuss how branding effects us a consumer society, what makes us remember particular brands and what moral issues are ...
Figure 3‑ Fruit juice ,juice drink and smoothies usages 2013 (mintel,2013) From figure 3-1 brand usage(mintel,2013) , the number of ‘simple the best’ group is the majority of ‘fruit juice, juice drink, and smoothies customer. This group of people, with greater financial freedom than other groups, worries about their look and status. CSR create the positive brand image to consumer, which leads to the positive personal identity of this group customer. (Naqvi,Ishtiaq,Kanwal,Ali,Inderyas,2013) The CSR is then adding more prestige to the product, which this target group loves to buy. Innocent became an official sponsor of London 2012 Olympic game with Coca-Cola, its stakeholder. Smoothies and juices were served to athletes and to visitors in London 2012 Olympic game. (Baker,2011) As the result of the Olympic game, one of the most world popular event, Innocent took advantages to promote their unique brand to great number of people. Within a year of being an Olympic sponsorship, Innocent sales had boosted by more than 35%.
Innocent also provides fun to kids. Children could be attracted naturally with fun games and activities. Not only does Innocent provide entertainment activities to kids but it also provides fun learning resources to perfectly capture parent’s hearts. For instance, Innocent offered one of the various 6 easy to grow seeds within every box of kid’s smoothies and fruit tubes. (thedrum,2012)
Compare strategies with competitors
Cooperate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Cooperate Social Responsiblility (CSR) might not be the most important of every business, although 97% of people would be more positive with the company. From MarketingWeek research(Tesseras,2013), more than 50% of people will buy product or service from a business that are contributing more to the communities.
“Big Knit” the campaign since 2003 thatInnocent work with the Age UK, which is a charity for the aged, to keep elderly people across UK warm & healthy during winter. There has been a fundraising event in every year, which Innocent has provided the pattern for consumers to knit the tiny hats. Then Innocent puts the hats on the smoothie bottles and sells in supermarket normal shelf. Every bottle sold, 25p goes to age UK.
The Term Paper on Creating a Brand Using the Low-Budget Route: Choco-Energy
1. Introduction According to Mintel (2012), 49% of chocolate users stated that if the price of their favorite bar rises they would cut back on chocolate. In addition, 68% of 16-24-year-olds full-time students consider that everyday low price is one of the main factors that they would consider for a brand (Mintel, 2012). Furthermore, for those DEs and households are also the most likely groups to ...
On the other hand, Pepsi and Coca-Cola focus on eco-conscious consumers. Both Pepsi and Coca-Cola have invested significant resources in order to develop and launch environmentally friendly bottles. These two companies try to prove their method to tackle waste and improve renewability. (packaging gateway,2011)
Although Innocent, Pepsi and Coca-Cola are all beverage brand, they use different Corporate Social Responsibility dimensions as analyzed in the below parameter table
Innocent
Pepsi + Coca-Cola
Product
Juice/smoothies/veg pot
Cola drinks
CSR dimension (Dahlsrud,2008)
Social dimension
Environmental dimension
Who involve in this activities
‘- Everyone who want to knit
‘- Consumers who buy smoothies with tiny hat
‘- Company’s employee
How does the CSR promote
‘- Social media
‘- Company’s website
‘- Company’s website
Who gain benefits from this CSR
‘- Age UK
‘- Innocent -> Positive to company + Sale increase from product difference ‘- Environmental
‘- Pepsi /Coca-cola -> Positive to company + Sale increase from environmental
awareness person How’s the feedback
‘- Become viral
‘- Brand recognition
‘-This fierce rivalry create potential to effect genuine environmental improvements worldwide. Table CSR parameter table
Since Innocent CSR dimension are in social dimension, people could deeply understand and follow more than in environmental dimension which might lead to more easily of the brand recognition in positive way. Big knit donation idea is concrete for customer to know the exactly amount of money they contribute for one product purchase. This can give rise to customer feeling of involvement. Both brands messages of CSR are added on the products. One is labeled on the bottle that it states greener product, while another one is wearing distinguished hat, which built audience a social responsible awareness. The Innocent campaign has become viral starting from official website to personal Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The photos of knit hat were spread without active pushes from Innocent Company. It is barely seen such a campaign that can connect to its consumers and have consumer’s engagement as same as this before.
The Essay on America Online Aol Line Access
America Online Christina Flynn Principles of Marketing February 26, 2002 Mission Statement 'To become the world's most respected and valued company by connecting, informing and entertaining people everywhere in innovative ways that will enrich their lives.' Introduction America On-line (AOL), the largest commercial on-line service provider in the US, has been presented with a daunting task. ...
Feedback and result
Figure 3‑ Leading soft drink brands ranked by buzzscore in UK 2013 (statista,2013)
Regarding to Big knit, Innocent has a very strong brand reputation. It ranked as the highest with a score of 5.5, followed by Robinsons and Tropicana. The scores based on a survey of respondents that asks: “If you’ve heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?” (Statista, 2013).
The score show between January and December 2013.
Table Leading brand juice market value (Mintel,2012)
From many strategies of Innocent show the outstanding differential to other brands, as seen in table 3, and also the unique ability to make consumer
trust. With consumer trust and innovative marketing, Innocent improves their market share of juice market every year. Innocent stands out the most; especially for women under the age of 35 .The simple idea is always differentiated with the use of dynamic marketing. However, Tropicana get the most trust from consumer. It is the number one fruit juice brand in usage, and this helped to boost trust within it. (Mintel, 2013)
Figure 3‑ graph shown differentiation vs trust (Mintel,2013)
(Statista, 2013)
Recommendation
With a strong CSR reputation of Innocent brand, other company can study and take innocent as an example to get the noticeable consumer involvement in CSR campaign. With the similar strategy, not only company will get positive image as an advantages, it will be also consumer market expansion.
To clarify more, the similar social CSR dimension campaign will be used as an example. Thai Bev Company, which produces Chang beer in Thailand, distributes blankets to disadvantaged people during the winter. The beer company spread its awareness of CSR efforts via mass media that make lots of people know about the CSR campaign. However, the consumers do not felt into the social contribution while purchasing the product as same as the consumers of the innocent do in the BIG KNIT campaign 4. Conclusion
The Term Paper on Online Branding
Online branding Jennifer Rowley Introduction A brand is not a name. A brand is not a positioning statement. It is not a marketing message. It is a promise made by a company to its customers and supported by that company . . . I may have intelligent agents that can go out and assemble pages of reports on every camcorder on the market, but I don’t have time to read them. I’ll buy Sony (Sterne, ...
After analyzing all the relevant information, it can be concluded that the market scheme of innocent is very effective in many aspects. Firstly, according to brand identities, innocent has its own unique style, which differentiate to other brands and make its product stand in the premium segment. Secondly, with creative style of CSR strategy, this not only makes the name of the brand spread rapidly, but also increases sales and positive image of the brand in the same time. Lastly, innocent CSR strategy may be one of the groundbreaking campaigns, which will be noticeably beneficial case study that other company should follow.
References
Academic.mintel.com,. (2014).
Login to Mintel Reports – Mintel Group Ltd. [online]. Available from: http://academic.mintel.com/display/660486/?highlight [Accessed August 25, 2014]. Academic.mintel.com,. (2014).
Login to Mintel Reports – Mintel Group Ltd. [online]. Available from: http://academic.mintel.com/display/686853/?highlight#hit1 [Accessed August 23, 2014]. Academic.mintel.com,. (2014).
Login to Mintel Reports – Mintel Group Ltd. [online]. Available from: http://academic.mintel.com/display/686851/?highlight#hit1 [Accessed August 25, 2014]. Anon. (2014).
[online]. Available from: )http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/article/1059824/Innocent-plots-mums-drive-kids-line [Accessed August 24, 2014]. innocent – little tasty drinks,. (2014).
innocent – little tasty drinks. [online]. Available from: http://www.Innocentdrinks.co.uk/us/our-story [Accessed August 24, 2014]. innocent – little tasty drinks,. (2014).
innocent – little tasty drinks. [online]. Available from: http://www.Innocentdrinks.co.uk/us/our-investor [Accessed August 25, 2014]. innocent – little tasty drinks,. (2014).
innocent – little tasty drinks. [online]. Available from: http://www.Innocentdrinks.co.uk/london2012 [Accessed August 25, 2014]. Johnson, S. (2014).
Case study-Innocent Drinks Ltd. cimaglobal. [online]. Available from: http://www.cimaglobal.com/Documents/About%20us%20docs/Case%20study/Case_Study_Innocent.pdf [Accessed August 25, 2014]. Marketingweek.co.uk,. (2013).
CSR: Making business personal | Trends | Marketing Week. [online]. Available from: http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/trends/csr-making-business-personal/4006563.article [Accessed August 25, 2014]. Marketingweek.co.uk,. (2011).
Innocent joins Coke as Olympic sponsor | News | Marketing Week. [online]. Available from: http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/Innocent-joins-coke-as-olympic-sponsor/3032450.article [Accessed August 25, 2014]. Marketingweek.co.uk,. (2011).
Innocent to roll out more products in 2011 as £2.7m ad campaign launched | News | Marketing Week. [online]. Available from: http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/Innocent-to-roll-out-more-products-in-2011-as-27m-ad-campaign-launched/3021959.article [Accessed August 25, 2014]. Naqvi,
S. et al. (2014).
Impact of Corporate Social responsibility on Brand image in Different FMCGs of Pakistan. journal-archieves32. [online]. Available from: http://journal-archieves32.webs.com/79-93.pdf [Accessed August 26, 2014]. Packaging-gateway.com,. (2014).
Bottle of the brands: Coke and Pepsi go green – Packaging Gateway. [online]. Available from: http://www.packaging-gateway.com/features/featurebottle-of-the-brands-coke-and-pepsi-go-green/ [Accessed August 22, 2014]. Santanderbreakthrough.co.uk,. (2014).
Innocent Drinks Masterclass | Breakthrough. [online]. Available from: http://www.santanderbreakthrough.co.uk/inspiration/masterclass/Innocent-drinks-masterclass [Accessed August 25, 2014]. Statista,. (2014).
Top soft drink brands ranked by Buzz score UK 2013 | Statistic. [online]. Available from: http://www.statista.com/statistics/310339/leading-soft-drink-brands-ranked-by-buzz-score-in-the-united-kingdom/ [Accessed August 25, 2014]. Statista,. (2014).
UK leading brands of ready-to-drink fruit & vegetable juice 2013 | TGI survey. [online]. Available from: http://www.statista.com/statistics/308483/leading-brands-of-ready-to-drink-fruit-and-vegetable-juice-and-smoothies-in-the-uk/ [Accessed August 25, 2014]. Steurer, R. et al. (2014).
Analysis of national policies on CSR. sustainability.eu. [online]. Available from: http://www.sustainability.eu/pdf/csr/policies/CSR%20Awareness%20Raising_final%20report_31%20May%2007.pdf [Accessed August 26, 2014]. Writer, S. (2014).
Innocent marketing campaign aims to get kids into gardening with free seed packs.The Drum. [online]. Available from: http://www.thedrum.com/news/2012/02/22/Innocent-marketing-campaign-aims-get-kids-gardening-free-seed-packs [Accessed August 25, 2014].
