The chosen product is a sports drink; PowerAde. It is a product of Coca Cola Company. This implies that PowerAde is manufactured and marketed through various medium by Coca Cola Company. PowerAde has been facing major competition from other sports drinks such as Gatorade. This is simply because it is not marketed effectively. This is evident from the fact that Gatorade covers about 77% as compared with PowerAde which covers a minimal percentage. Being a global sports drink, PowerAde should be able to transverse all markets in the world and gain very high market share. However, the major problem is associated with the way the product is normally marketed. As a coca cola brand, PowerAde has not recognition the recognition it deserves to its target users. In fact, major markets in United States have majority of people who only know Gatorade yet they have almost the same taste and more so they are manufactured by the same company.
There are various types of media used in promotion of PowerAde. Some of these methods include television, radio, magazines as well as the internet. However, the success of its marketing highly depends on the way the adverting message has been developed. For instance, the most common advert for PowerAde shows “a footage of a basketball star Lebron James sinking a series of extraordinary long shots”. Despite the fact that this advert attracts attention from the audience, people have become used to it. Notably, Coca-Cola is known for its ability to produce adverts that cause “buzz” for all its products. However, this advert fails from the fact that it is allowed to stay for a long period before another one has been developed. For a product to counter competition effectively especially at the international level, it is important to come with new adverts as soon as possible bearing different messages advertising the product (Jenkins, 2006). This has not been done. This is the major reason for fail. Therefore, it can be argued that television has not been used effectively to market the brand. The same advert is uploaded on internet for target audience to view and regular updates are not done.
The style of adverting has also raised questions and critics argue that the advert is not quite on level. The advert does not use digital manipulation and thorough editing. Therefore, it is unrealistic for Lebron to sink 80-foot consistently and effortlessly. Therefore, the advert does not promote the product effectively. Previous commercials of PowerAde have not been very effective. This is because at times they have failed to use digital editing techniques that enable creation of a series of clever ads and features. Therefore, these mediums have not failed but the advert designs have also failed since it does influence audiences’ decisions.
The marketing of PowerAde can be improved through media convergence that has previously been used in its promotion. Converging the media will not only help in development of more effective adverts but also development of more informed decisions. Notably, convergence means that all the mediums that have been used to promote PowerAde will be merged to make one strong media. In this case, different mediums will be able to use the same advert to promote the brand. Both television and internet are powerful means of promoting a brand since they involve both visual and audio (Bradley, 2007). Moreover, due to advancement of technology, internet will enable people to recognize the brand all over the world. Therefore, both medium will be able to produce hybrid styles that can be used in advertising the PowerAde. The converging mediums will be able to interchange their contents and come up with more creative means through which their transmissions will be done (Jenkins, 2006).
When adverting base is expanded through media convergence, majority of the target audience will be able to get the message hence make informed decisions. For example, adverts should be available in almost all the mediums ranging from internet, television, radio, watching online in YouTube as well as through the use of print media such as newspapers and magazines. However, it is important to note that these adverts should be run regularly (Bradley, 2007). This will avoid a condition where the audience even forgets to use the product of more superior products in the market. The message should be “nagging” in the minds of the target users. Being a sports drink, it should be promoted and its advert run when any game is going on ranging from football, rugby among other types of sports. The previous advert that focuses on basketball created a perception whereby the drink was associated with that game only.
Some of the mediums I would use to market the product include; television, internet and radio. Despite the impact of internet, television still serves a wider audience bases due to the fact that majority of people do not have access to internet due to high cost of computers. It is estimated that Americans spend about four hours per day on internet while 99 percent of Americans have a least one television. This implies that majority of people watch television for a long time. Therefore, advertising PowerAde though television remains to be the most pervasive and powerful tool. Despite the high cost of airtime in television, it is one of the most effective tools in advertisement. Secondly, internet has become the most common media of advertising. Since 2006, online advertising has grown from 6% to 13.3 percent. This implies that internet has a large pool of users who definitely provide the market for various products. Therefore, internet would be the most reliable mode of advertising PowerAde. Finally, radio has remained one of the most effective sources of advertisement despite availability of various alternatives. The stability of radio has been favored by availability of radio in cell phones, online radio streaming as well as the low price associated with radio.
References
Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide New York: New York University Press.
Bradley, P. (2007). Nigel Marketing Research. Tools and Techniques. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Coke Juices Up PowerAde In-Store, Media - Coca Cola Co. advertises sports drink – Statistical Data Included, Brandweek, November 9, 1998
