Introduction Gatorade is one of the most internationally patronized beverage products. Many beverage experts are dying to know what makes Gatorade simply Gatorade. This paper review aims to fully explain all the information about Gatorade, including the origin of Gatorade, whom it was discovered by, and how did Gatorade reach its current state in the market. This paper review also includes information about the ingredients of Gatorade, which makes Gatorade very unique in comparison with other soft drinks. This paper review contains information about the target group of Gatorade consumers and the benefits they can gain from drinking this beverage.
The overall aim of this paper review is to present the integrity of Gatorade as a brand and as a beverage product. Gatoradeis a renowned international beverage product that holds its own unique taste. It is produced by PepsiCoand distributed to over eighty countries worldwide. Gatorade needs effective sales and promotion tactics just like any other product to maximize the company profits. This paper also describes how technology can be used to promote and advertise this product.
What simply makes Gatorade? Gatorade is primarily a brand of beverage product that is sports-themed, currently produced by PepsiCo, and distributed to more than 80 countries. The Gatorade brand was originally manufactured and sold by Stokely-Van Camp. In 1893, it was bought by the Quick Oats Company, which later on was completely resold to PepsiCo in 2001. Gatorade brand is considered to be a primary competitor of Coca Cola's Powerade and Vitaminwater brands all over the world, and Lucozade Sports in the UK.
It holds approximately 75% of the market share, in the sports drink category. Gatorade is PepsiCo's 4th largest brand based on the worldwide annual retail sales in 2010. The history of Gatorade can be traced back to Florida where it was first developed by the scientists of the University ofFlorida in 1965. The sole purpose of the researchers was to replenish the combination of water, electrolytes, and carbohydrates that the school's student-athletes lost during the exhausting athletic tournaments of that time.
The brand Gatorade was named after the University's athletics team "The Gators". After that Gatorade began to be gradually noticed as a brand by many consumers due to its unique content. Nowadays, Gatorade brand is very popular worldwide because it is endorsed by many famous athletes, like Vince Carter, Tiger Woods, Usain Bolt, Tim Howard, and Dwayne Wade. Its unique components are really alluring to many customers in the USA, as well as all over the world. Gatorade is primarily based on oral rehydration therapy.
This therapy is very famous as it slakes an individual's thirst. It is implemented in Gatoradeby the means of simple mixture of salt, sugar, and water used to overcome dehydration, with adding of citrus based flavors and food coloring. Moreover, Gatorade contains water, sucrose, dextrose, and other minerals that are very effective in combating dehydration. Gatorade will surely be very effective and appealing to those athletes, who are prone to dehydration. Furthermore, due to Gatorade's unique taste and flavor it has also a "low calorie" feature, which will definitely be very tempting to the consumer who hates becoming fat.
This feature of Gatorade was clinically proven. It has been tested that it is indeed very effective, and that is why it is not only being patronized by athletes, but also by non-sports individual. Gatorade is a product that everyone must try and taste. According to Hill and Jones (2011), promotion and advertising is intended to provide end-users with some indispensable information to differentiate between products and services and influence their product choices. The use of technology in advertising and promotion is more effective in creating product awareness compared to the mainstream advertising like television, outdoor advertizing, magazines or newspapers, and radio. This paper describes how technology can be used to promote and advertise the PepsiCoproduct Gatorade.
The Use of Technology in Advertising and Promoting Gatorade Telecommunications and broadcast technology have developed so quickly that new media had become the mainstream advertising criteria. Hill and Jones (2011) have asserted that the Internet and digital technology had reduced the cost of production and advertising, and made sales promotion easier by increasing the number of target consumers reached. Respectively, Gatorade can be advertised and promoted using Digital marketing criteria, like the company website, e-mailing, social media applications, like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, blogging, mobile phone promotion, e-commerce, and other services, like Bluetooth and text messaging. Using social networks, Gatoradecan be advertised directly, when a network of friends gets messages, like “Bob likes Gatorade”. Alternatively, an indirect advert of Gatorade can be placed on the social networking site, or it can be carried out by creating online “groups”.
Gatoradecan be promoted on blogs that are aimed at certain target group in blog advertising.Mobile marketing, on the other hand, is more effective, given the fact that ninety percent of the target population possess cell phones. This can be done in collaboration with service providers; their subscribers can receive text messages concerning the Gatorade. In email marketing, Gatorade can be advertised by sending commercial messages or ads to a specified group of people using email, through a cold list or a preset customer database. Conclusion The mainstream advertising media, like television, newspapers, and magazines, lose their position as people embrace the new telecommunications technology.
For advertising and sales promotion to be effective, they have to move on with the people. This would automatically be good for Gatorade.
