The Diet Dr Pepper Campaign Paper Marketing Essay

The taste of Dr Pepper is the well-known to be oldest soft drink over the world. The taste is unmatched and it is 23 delicious flavours have withstood the test of time. The competition in trying to take a firm hold a firm hold of potential customers is a never-ending, ascending battle in any industry. This is a fight that takes place in the product market. In the U.S. soft drink market is a highly competitive. In order to command market share a brand should be able to differentiate itself from its rivals. In this point, Dr Pepper has always been finding position itself in the world unique soft drink market since it is comprised of 23 flavours. The current slogan is “One Taste and You Get It” (Dr Pepper Snapple Group, 2008). Currently Dr Pepper holds the third place in market share for the U.S. They fall behind major players Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola which account for 74 % of the market. With consumers embracing the current health trends, diet Dr. Pepper was named one of the top 10 soft drink in 2002 due to health conscious attitudes. This market is predicted to continue its growth worldwide. Diet Dr. Pepper is a yummy drink, and indeed it does, as its ads assure us, taste more like regular Dr. Pepper [assuming we understand: than Diet Coke tastes like Coke or Diet Pepsi like Pepsi, though 7-UP and Sprite might give it a run for its money on that account. Not to mention that the slogan as it stands is nonsensical. “Tastes more like regular Dr. Pepper.” Of course it does! It is Diet Dr. Pepper, and thus is bound to taste more like regular Dr. Pepper than, say, Pepsi, coffee or mustard! ike a vegetarian who still wants a burger and so eats BOCA, the diet soda drinker longs for the days when 140 calories meant nothing and so diet drinks function as a kind of bubbly nostalgia for youth, even when the consumer has long since convinced him- or herself that he or she prefers diet sodas

According to marketline research, the global diet food and drink market is forecasted to reach $113 billion by 2010.

As well as Diet Dr. Pepper’s growth among users, Dr Pepper is one of the few non-diet soda brand to gain market share

Diet Dr Pepper

Diet Dr. Pepper is liked for its unique, non- cola taste, its ability to maintain its carbonation, and its zero calorie content. More than anything, Diet Dr. Pepper is the absence of cola flavour that seems to turn reviewers on, since there are already so many diet colas on the market. Diet Dr. Pepper is sometimes the only diet soft drink some can tolerate, like “Finally Found a Diet Soda That Tastes Good” and anther reviewer who also likes the unique qualities and uses for Diet Dr. Pepper and says “When I’m Feeling Under the Weather, I Reach for a Dr. Pepper”. (www.viewpoints.com)

Campaign Objectives and Marketing Situation

When considering a marketing objective it begins with the company’s financial objectives. Profitability, return on investment, and cash flow are the most common elements. The financial objectives are converted into marketing objectives. After marketing objectives are determined, then the company creates new marketing strategies, strategic marketing plan. Marketing strategy is the process of evaluating the options for achieving the marketing goals. Consumer in a market are seldom uniform and often have different needs and wants (Rodengen, 1995). Diet Dr. Pepper’s advertising campaign is based on an assumed nostalgia for days when drinking “regular” soft drinks did not reflect some form of moral failure to avoid excess calorie intake. Not only that. The form of this nostalgia is telling: a sleazy lawyer-type makes faulty arguments based on the assumption that Diet Dr. Pepper tastes so much like regular Dr. Pepper that any legal claim brought to bear with regard to Diet Dr. Pepper must be wrong because it has mistaken it for a diet beverage when it clearly tastes like a non-diet beverage. Therefore consumers need to be segmented. That called market segmentation strategy. From this segments marketer identifies, evaluates and select target market based on similarities of needs. Diet Dr Pepper competes in a dynamic and constantly changing category that makes it difficult to increase market share and sustain long-term brand growth. Main factors that challenge the brand’s growth include the following:

Sluggish category growth. The diet, carbonated-soft drink category was growing at an average annual rate of only 1.4 percent.

Growth of new-age beverages. The new-age segment-consisting of sparkling juices, natural sodas, flavoured sodas, and other items-was growing at a rapid rate (10 percent annual growth), posing a strong challenge to diet Dr Pepper and other diet soft drinks.

Price sensitivity of soft-drink category. Price is a main brand-choice determinant in this category, but Diet Dr Pepper is at a competitive disadvantage inasmuch as it is priced higher on a cents-per-ounce basis than Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola brands.

Lack of bottler attention and focus. Approximately three-fourth of Diet Dr Pepper’s volume is distributed via the Coke and Pepsi bottler distribution network, which in many instances causes Diet Dr Pepper to be a low-priority item with insufficient retailer support.

Inadequate distribution. Relative to its larger competitors, Diet Dr Pepper’s distribution is insufficient in trial-inducing outlets such as food service/fountain and vending machines.

Greater spending by main competitors. Diet Dr Pepper’s share of voice at the onset of the advertising campaign was only 4.8 percent in this highly competitive and advertising sensitive category.

Campaign Target and Objectives

The target audience for Diet Dr Pepper consists primarily of adults aged 18-49 who are present or prospective diet soft-drink consumers. In view of the above marketing challenges, the objectives for the Diet Dr Pepper advertising campaign (titled “The Taste You’ve Been Looking For”) are as follows:

To increase Diet Dr Pepper sales by 4 percent and improve its growth rate to at least 1.5 times that of the diet-soft drink category.

To heighten consumers evaluations of the key product benefits and image factors that influence brand choice in this category: it is refreshing, tastes as good as regular Dr Pepper, is a good product to drink at any time, and is a fun brand to drink.

To enhance those key brand-personality dimensions that differentiate Diet Dr Pepper from other diet drinks-particularly that Diet Dr Pepper is a unique, fun, entertaining, clever, and interesting brand to drink.

The Proposition

The proposition strategy for Diet Dr Pepper is “The Taste You’ve Been Looking For”.

The Competition

The success of Dr Pepper in the soft drink industry illustrates the coupling of realistic knowledge of corporate strengths with sound industry analysis to yield a superior bussiens strategy.The major competitors of Diet Dr Pepper are; Coca-Cola products (Diet Coke), Pepsi-Cola Products (Diet Pepsi) dominates Dr Pepper’s industry.

According to Porter (1998), Dr Pepper choose a strategy of avoiding the largest-selling drink segment, maintaining a narrow flavour line, forgoing development of a captive bottler network, and marketing heavily. The company positioned itself so as to be least vulnerable to its competitive forces while it exploited its small size. The U.S. beverage market is a highly competitive and crowded field. In order to command market share a brand must be differentiate itself from is competitors. To make this differentiations, Dr.Pepper positioned itself as the “the wold’s uniqe soft drink” since it is comprised of 23 flavours. Dr Pepper currently controls 15% of sales volume in the beverage market and has a market value of $6.5 billion.

Creative Strategy and Supportive Promotions

The creative strategy for Diet Dr Pepper positioned the brand as “tasting more like regular Dr Pepper.” This is a key claim based on research revealing that nearly 60 percent of initial trial users of Diet Dr Pepper are motivated by the desire to have a diet soft drink that tasted like regular Dr Pepper. The cornerstone of the campaign entailed the heavy use of 15 second commercials, which historically had not been used by Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola, which instead preferred the entertainment value of longer commercials. The aggressive use of 15 seconds commercials enabled Diet Dr Pepper to simply convey its key taste claim (“tasting more like regular Dr Pepper” and differentiate the brand from competitive diet drinks. Moreover, by employing cheaper 15 seconds commercials, it was possible to buy many more commercial spots and hence to achieve greater reach, frequency, and GPRs for the same advertising budget. Diet Dr Pepper’s advertising expenditures totalled £10 million.

In addition to advertising campaign, the brand marketers for Diet Dr Pepper implemented several sales promotion programs to achieve their lofty goals. From January through April, a trade promotion called “The Pepper Advantage” provided bottlers with £20 gift certificates that they could distribute to retailers to encourage greater display space for Diet Dr Pepper. In additional, attractive coupons were placed on 2- and 3- litre bottles of Diet Dr Pepper to encourage repeat purchasing by consumers.

From April to September, during baseball season, the “Pepper Pastime” promotion was run to enhance sales of Diet Dr Pepper to consumers in convenience stores. Promotions included free bottles of Diet Dr Pepper and Premium objects, including autographed baseballs and baseball jerseys emblazoned with the Diet Dr Pepper brand name. During May through August, a promotional tie-in with the Foot Locker chain of athletic stores was undertaken. Purchasers of 12- and 24- packs of Diet Dr Pepper received Foot Locker gift certificates if their pack contained a winning game card inside. Collectively, these sales promotion programs were designed to complement the advertising campaign and substantially boots immediate sales of Diet Dr Pepper products.

We can see that selection of advertising media is one of the most important and complicated of all marketing communications decisions. Media planning must be coordinated with marketing strategy and with other aspects of advertising strategy. The strategic aspects of media planning involves include four steps: (1) selecting the target audience toward which all subsequent efforts will be directed; (2) specifying media objectives, which typically are stated in terms of reach, frequency, gross rating points (GRPs), or effective rating points (ERPs); (3) selecting general media categories and specific product within each medium; (4) buying a media.

Media selection are influenced by a variety of factors such as most important are target audience, cost, and creative consideration. Media planners should select media vehicles by identifying those that will reach the designated target audience, satisfy budgetary constraints, and be compatible with and enhance the advertiser’s creative message. Basically, companies must market their products with creative, informative, and interesting messages that show how the products meet the needs and wants of consumers. A key factor in marketing a product is communication.