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Marketing Case Study: Jones Soda (Part-2)
Yesterday, I wrote about 2 tactics that has made Jones Soda a profitable company. Read that post first before reading this one: Marketing Case Study: Jones Soda (Part 1)
In that post, I stated how Jones Soda uses "packaging" to position the drink as a collectors item, so that people would buy again and again. And how they use "distribution" to reach where no other softdrink company has reached before.
Today, I'll talk about 2 other tactics that has enabled Jones Soda to become a 100 million dollar company.
3. Association with Cool: Borrowing coolness from sports and music
Jones Soda wanted to position themselves as the "cool" soda. And whats the best and the quickest way to do that? Associating with cool people. Jones Soda started sponsoring people like Dylan Oliver and Matt Rupert - people who were the top talents in sports like skating and bike riding. They borrowed their coolness from these sportsmen who were already considered cool by their target audience. And Jones Soda didn't have to pay a lot for sponsorships too, as these weren't mainstream sports like football.
Recently, Jones Soda has changed their tactic a bit. They are still borrowing coolness, but not from sportsmen anymore. But from music. Jones Soda started a website (http://www.myjonesmusic.com) where any up and coming musician can upload their music and sell it.
By supporting such local and regional, and not yet famous sportsmen and musicians, Jones Soda has gained some grass root level loyalty at a very low cost. And have successfully borrowed coolness. Jones Soda is perceived as the "rebel" drink and the "cool" drink by teenagers!
4. Being outrageous: Coming out with un-drinkable drinks
Before the holiday season started last year, Jones Soda came out with some crazy flavours. They introduced turkey and gravy flavoured Jones Sodas for the holidays! Their sole aim in introducing these flavours wasn't to make a profit by selling these flavours. But just to generate some free publicity.
By being outrageous, and coming out with crazy drinks, they managed to become the most talked about softdrink during the holidays! They gained a lot of free publicity, a lot of ink and airtime for free.
The weak point: why I think Jones Soda will never become as big as coca-cola
Jones Soda has a very good marketing strategy and are growing very quickly. But I doubt if they will ever be as big as coca-cola or pepsi. They have one flaw. Their taste.
Jones Soda doesn't taste bad. But just sweet. Too sweet.
I hadn't tasted Jones Soda before I attended it's ceo Peter Van Stolk's speech. I got a chance to drink Jones Soda for the first time over there, when Peter gave away free bottles to every one who came to listen to him. Almost all of the people who drank Jones Soda (including me) had the same reaction while drinking it.
They liked it at first. The taste seemed good till half the bottle was over. But by the time they had drank the entire bottle, they thought it was too sweet.
Its sweeter than Pepsi! And I'm not sure if I can drink more than one Jones Soda a month!
Further Jones Soda resource: Peter Van Stolk's interview with Fast Company
Email Post to a friendPosted on 3/06/2005 | Permalink | |
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