Energy Drink Fact File

Shania Carter

LucozadeAs I am looking at Lucozade Sport as one of the energy drinks, the target market is primarily sports people. The gender specifics

are lenient towards males as they are more dominantly frequent in sports. There is no age defining under the drink but delving into the whole brand. Lucozade is involved with young adolescents and working up for those involved in music and sport. The target market can vary within the energy drinks, depending on whether the energy drink is switching from sport to the original. The normal Lucozade energy drinks seem to be gender neutralised as they are not targeting a specific sport or occasion. When Lucozade’s Revive was released it targeted a feminine audience, the colors on the bottle softened to pinks and reds and advertised the vitamins on the face of the bottle, something a more female audience would be interested in. So you could say that Lucozade is targeting a big market with the different designs and specifics for sport and festivals.

Lucozade are sponsorships across the board, for sport – mainly football and music festivals. When talking about the factors of persuasion the brand walks across the majority of powers giving the public more reasons to buy the product.

Reward Power – Lucozade is showing this by the sports side, giving a positive benefit to performance when drinking the product.Referent Power – The product fits readers values, again on the sports side, if they want something to improve their performance.Expert Power and Star Power – Both of these categories fall together as a star and an expert can come together. For the music

and sports benefits sports stars and music stars are put in the advertisement as ‘idols’ can influence the decision of a viewer/reader. An example of this is again on the sport side, Steven Gerrard, a big sports influence is showing how the energy drink is improving his game and that he can have a major influence on aspiring sports stars or young people.

Going back to the sponsorships, Lucozade sponsor many including; Vodafone Mclaren Mercedes Team (F1), Big Brother UK, The Football Association, Premier League, Arsenal F.C, Liverpool F.C and the Lawn Tennis Association.

It is only recently that Lucozade have been involved with music festivals through the ‘YES Project’ but have been heavily involved in sport as it is is the UK’s top selling energy and sports drink.

Lucozade• The medium of Lucozade is in TV and Print. The advertisements are more pushed towards posters and billboards than

animations on TV or pop ups on YouTube. • At a first look the Lucozde website is vibrant, with the colors translating to the bottle colours. The website uses links to

competitions to get people involved with their latest project. As Lucozade is the UK’s leading sports energy drink, the web banner displays the city of London – a popular tourist attraction.

• Lucozade are advertised all the time, in sports shops or at the bus station. The adverts are also specifically designed to fit a certain type of drink or the drink in general e.g. the new Brazillian flavor is dressed alongside Brazil and their culture whilst the Sport energy drink is advertised with sportsmen and women.

• Although the sports drinks are tailored differently to the original energy drinks one advertisement has been banned following the claim that the drink is more hydrating than water. The advertisement would have lost thousands of pounds and interest after using Gareth Bale – footballer, in the banned advert.

• I also think that the advertisements are shown at specific times for the different drinks. As the drink is made in the UK, they will try to fit the advertisements around the major events, the music festival season – tying in with the YES project and the football season – UK’s biggest sport.

• The celebrity endorsement is a big factor in advertisement for the sports energy drinks using major stars and the use of a competitive and major market.

Lucozade• Until 2013 Lucozade was produced by GlaxoSmithKline and was then taken over by Japanese chain Suntory, alongside

Ribena for £1.3 billion. Suntory Holdings Limited is the leading and oldest company in the distribution of Japanese alcohol and whiskey. Lucozade is still being produced in Britain at the Royal Forest Factory in Gloucestershire. Lucozade’s rebranding was completed by the early 1950’s as the brand shifted from treating lost glucose to becoming an energy drink – example – drawing away from the illness solution – the common cold.

• Also after the rebranding UK Sales tripled to £75 million between 1984 and 89. • After releasing a chain of sports energy drinks, Lucozade reached an agreement to set up a research team to work alongside

sports nutritionists and sports professionals. • It wasn’t until January 2014 that Lucozade was officially named under Suntory, the only other UK based drink with Ribena.• Lucozade can be shipped to different countries and states around the world with payment in Euros and Dollars – the

website that provides this is http://www.britsuperstore.com/acatalog/Lucozade_drink.html although the official website only reaches Ireland.

• Although Lucozade was originally invented for the prevention of the common cold, the rebrand hasn’t stopped people buying the drink for the same reason over the years.

Lucozade• The Lucozade logo is unique in the way that it actually represents the benefits of the drink. The logo is shaped like a bullet,

meaning to go faster with the more speed and enhancement. Although the design of the logo is altered for the sports drinks with a sports person blended into the color.

• For the many drinks in the Lucozade range there are different colors attained, these are blacks, yellows, blues and reds. For the elite in sport the drink logos and bottles are black and the Lucozade original takes an orange color to distinguish the variety.

• The Lucozade logo isn’t striking compared to other energy drinks such as Monster. The fonts are basic and are used throughout the drinks and the website. On this particular logo I do not think that the fonts matter as it is a household name rather than something people would buy as a ‘treat’.

• In 2011 Lucozade changed their logo to a black background with yellow writing, something that would be used on all of the packaging over the next 18 months – the reason behind the change “it exudes momentum and attitude – a bold statement of intent that can be recognised whenever and wherever people engage with the brand. The new change in logo (2011) was featured for new sponsorships from the Barclays Premier League to the Virgin London Marathon.

• The Lucozade sport logo is the most popular amongst posters and on the internet due to major demand, the sport logo hasn’t changed too much over the years and is still efficient in attracting an audience with the figure of a man running.

RockStar• Rockstar energy drink is designed for people who lead an active lifestyle as stated on the official website. An active lifestyle

can be classed as sports or music but from the sponsorships you can tell already that extreme sports are what the energy drink are specifying. From gender terms the energy drink supports both genders by using female models on the webpage but also showing the males taking part in the sport. There seems to be no age limit for the energy drinks itself (apart from the normal regulations) although the female models, the sports stars and the musicians are young looking. From the colors on the cans, they vary so they don’t have a gender tone to them which still neutralises the energy drink gender.

• RockStar energy drinks are a sponsor for activesports, motorsports, music and models. The action sports comprehend with surfing, snowboarding and BMX, the motorsports include rally and snowcross, the artists that rockstar sponsor then change to a darker more masculine target market – the most popular music artist being All Time Low plus Slipknot and finally the models showcase a particular sport to also help advertise the drink.

• The main power of the energy drink is star power – there are sports stars and models using the drink and therefore making it a big name. As there are so many celebrity figures associated with the drink, it must have a huge influence on the different types of sport people watch and the music they listen too.

• Heading on to the home page of the official website, motorsport is dominating the front page – mainly because sport is big at this time of year, the gender specific switches to male, as again sport is associated with males more than females. Tagging on to that, the energy drink doesn’t seem to have a typical social grade to the working class or high class.

• As Rockstar also works alongside the music genre it features in heavy metal and rock festivals around the United States from July to October.

RockStar• RockStar energy drink is distributed to over 30 countries worldwide, the medium of the energy drink can be animation and

TV, the advertisements are pop ups on YouTube and and are in different languages. • Rockstar also receive media support heavily online – print based. Rockstar drinkers are heavily involved with the internet,

and the campaign is also veered by email listing and social media. • Email marketing is sent out to the mailing list with the consumers on the other end receiving the brand. This also co-

operates with the target audience because they have already subscribed to promotional offers. This use of communication can be effective in an advertising campaign.

• There are also heavy social media influences such as twitter and Facebook for advertising and promoting. As of 2011, they had a following of 14,806 followers and growing on twitter. Both pages include a link to their official website as then hoping to divert the attention there.

• There are also print advertising in store, these posters are designated in supermarkets thought to be in the most caffeinated cities; Atlanta, San Bernandino, Chicago, Seattle and San Diego. The posters in the supermarkets are aimed to attract the consumer and lead them towards the energy drink straight away. The synopsis of the advertisement is that the skateboards are on a ramp and are made to look like they are rocking back and forth.

• From the get go of the campaign an actual ramp was set up in parking lots of the chained supermarkets to physically attract the attention of consumers.

• With Rockstar being the main sponsor of sports that don’t get much exposure most of their medium and advertising is on their website with the help of social media platforms and mailing lists.

• Most of the advertising also runs off music tours and games. Games such as Grand Theft Auto and tours such as ‘Uporoar’ (latest tour) offer additional promotion.

Rockstar• The official website of Rockstar is also vibrant using the original colors of the designs of the cans – yellow. The website

automatically links to the news page for the events of motorsport something that the runners of the website would agree gets the most attention.

• The website itself also shows male dominance mixing the male sports, male bands and female models together on the page. The website has been designed towards a young male audience – displaying the sort of things a young male would be interested in.

• Going back to the colors of the website, they are used to give the look of energy and fuel, bright strong colors that relate to the motives.

• Most of the website is in yellow and inhabits the color for the logo and and the drinks, making certain parts stand out on the home page and social buzz section.

• The logo of the energy drink also enthuses the promotional ranks of working alongside rock bands with the star replacing the ‘A’ in the wording. Also in the logo there is a bigger star behind the wording, the lettering is in block capitals which could be sending out a motive message saying the more of the energy drink you consume the bigger you will be (mentally).

• Most of the colors on the logo are what are used on the motorsport cars so it all ties in with using the logo and advertising at the same time.

• The logo of Rockstar hasn’t changed too much since it’s launch in 2001. The yellow writing on a black background remains unchanged although the big star has been added. The logo for the official website and the social media are different. The social media effort has a mirrored ‘R’ inside a yellow star with black outlining – so still keeping the same colors but is a more simple and recgonisable design.

Rockstar• From the year of 2009, Rockstar was available in 20 different countries and had switched their distributors from Coca-Cola

to PepsiCo. The energy drink is based in Las Vegas. • During the summer of 2009, Rockstar’s main competitors were Red Bull, to make sure that Rockstar still had a grasp on the

American public, Rockstar doubled the size or their oz which took it to 16oz twice the size of Red Bull.• Rockstar Incorporate was founded in 1988, but wasn’t officially boosting the sales until 2001.

• There are nine different flavors and designs of the energy drink all using two logos on the packaging the mirrored R and the wording of the energy drink. All of the drinks have a certain slogan or description to them advertised on the website.

Rockstar Original – designed for those who lead active lifestyles – from athletes to rockstars.Rockstar Xdurance – B vitamins complex and high caffeine.Rockstar Pure Zero – fruit punch, zero sugar.Rockstar Super Sour – Brain blasting flavor design to electrify your taste buds.

• The Rockstar energy drink is in cans rather than bottles compared to Lucozade. In comparison of the two – the Rockstar can is more for drinking straightaway for a boost but is impractical because it cannot be stored like the lucozade bottle which is designed for on – the – go use and can be resealed to use again throughout the day.. In the comparison list for the most healthiest drinks, Rockstar’s Punched Guava was rated higher than Lucozade.

Scheckters• Sheckters energy drinks is the first energy drink that uses organic and fairtrade products, the drink is also suitable for

vegetarians. The aims of the energy drink are to provide natural ingredients rather than synthetic ingredients. The energy drink also offers;

All natural All organic 100% vegetarian Fairtrade certified Certified energy drink Informed Choice Informed Sports Approved.

There is no apparent target market shown or no age range specifics. There are also no gender target market for this energy drink because the colors of the cans and the website don’t display this. The intended target market for this energy drink would be vegetarians but also someone who is looking for a healthier option to give them the boost of energy needed. For the extra health benefits, looking deeper into the product and it’s comments it seems like females are the ones that are more swayed by the energy drink as females are more likely to be drawn towards health products than males. The colors of the cans also seem gender neutralised introducing greens but also keeping the organic feel of the product. The target market for this product isn’t compressed into an age range but the demographic for this energy drink is designed to be approached for adults as it’s a healthier option and the outlook on energy drinks changes.

Scheckters• Much like the Rockstar energy drink, Scheckters have a mailing list, this can be described as an effective communication

system as promotional offers can be forwarded and shared through existing consumers. • The energy drink is shipped out to most countries around the world, although the most popular is the USA and has shown

that the British made drink has made a big impact on the other side of the pond.• There is not much advertising for this energy drink in TV or print however it is displayed on leading websites such as Amazon

and Ebay for shipping purposes.• Ocado also stock the energy drink and advertise it on their website, which is solely set up for organic products and also has

different branches around the world.• Sheckters rely heavily on internet usage to raise their profile although it is sold in supermarkets in America, U.K, Australia

and South Africa. The majority of comments on the website generate from America, showing it is a popular product over there.

• There is also a YouTube video for the drink, which again is the use of media support. The views gathered on there will ramp up the expectations of the drink and then lead into a chain of visiting the website and buying the drink.

• The energy drink has its own twitter account which is supported by more that 34,000 people, it is also on Facebook and has almost reached 1M ‘likes’. These social media pages both have links to the website and are probably promoted onto people’s news feeds to gain more publication. The energy drink also has Instagram and Youtube links, mainly posting photos of how the drink is made or the new products being unveiled.

Scheckters• Scheckters organic energy drink was founded in 2010 and is an independent company. The energy drink was founded on the

basis of living on a organic farm growing up. The owner of the energy drink used to be an organic farmer and therefore knows the process for making organic products.

• The farms sourced for the ingredients are based in the U.K and makes it a home grown energy drink. • You cannot buy the energy drink on the website but from online shopping sites such as Amazon.

• The website for the energy drink portrays a natural healthy look with the color of green running through it. The website also uses the colors on the cans for certain parts to show the different variety. Before reading into the website you can see that this product is very healthy. The website design shows nice grass, a nice blue sky and happy people – thus showing the benefits the drink can have on your life.

• The website also has links to their social media pages.• The website is structured with the most important information at the top and the less important information – the gallery at

the bottom.• The website has pictures of the owner – Toby Scheckter throughout the web page with quotes from him boosting the

product even more.• The website also shows the range of energy drinks available , with little images showing what the energy drink can improve

for the body.

Scheckters• The logo for the energy drink features the company name accompanied by a small leaf on the corner, assuming that the leaf

represents the natural effects of the energy drink. The label on the side of the cans features the logo but also a full version with wording of ‘organic energy’ ‘powered by nature’.

• The fonts used on the website are quite simple, like a Times New Roman or Ariel. The font is also quite small but it is bold when starting off a paragraph – there is no drop capitals. The color of the font is all in white which contrasts with the green background.

• The font stays the same throughout the page but changes to a bigger and bolder one when showing the quotes or the comments from consumers.

• The font also changes when the viewers are asked to sign up to the mailing list or to leave a comment, the font is something you would see on a recycling advert or something that promotes sustainability for the environment.

• The factors of persuasion coming from the website show lots of informative content and are wanting the viewers to have a preferred reading about the product. As this is a fairly unusual energy drink compared to the synthetic ones, the vast majority excluding the target audience will not read into the information given to them.

• The powers of the energy drink are of three things – • Reward power: the energy drink gives a good/ positive benefit.• Referent power: the message associated with the viewer or reader here, is the organic and vegetarian suitable market.• Expert power – the energy drink is presented by an expert which would be the owner of the company – an organic farmer

who knows about the organic ingredients going into the energy drink.

Scheckters• The Scheckters energy drink is produced in a can rather than a bottle. The cans colors are green and red and don’t distribute

an aggressive or formal nature. The colors of the can obviously represent expressing the nature of the energy drink and what goes into it. There are 10 different flavors to the energy drink;

• Organic Fairtrade Agave Nectar• Organic Fairtrade Green Tea• Organic Brazillian Guarana Berry• Organic Ginseng• Organic Pomegranate Juice• Organic Raw Brazillian Coffee Seed• Organic Lemon Juice• Organic Elderberry Juice• Organic Raw Fairtrade Sugar• Pure Filtered Spring Water

• Compared to the canned energy drink Rockstar, both are for drinking straightaway and are therefore impractical compared to the Lucozade bottle. Also compared to Rockstar there are more reward powers as it doesn’t include any synthetic products. In comparison to both Lucozade and Rockstar there seems to be more difference within Rockstar because the target audience is different, and the sponsorships to the outlook are also different. Scheckters offers expert and media support rather than celebrity endorsement like Lucozade and Rockstar because it is not a household name.

Red Bull• Red Bull is an energy drink with a vast target audience. The target audience can go from young adults to athletic and sporty

people. There is a little gender specific, especially with the massive influence of sport. There is nothing on the official website however, that states that Red Bull is one gender specific, it doesn’t show more male features or more female features. The way that Red Bull is advertised on the TV shows both genders in a cartoon form, although the energy drink is involved with sport the advertisements don’t portray that as much but use referent power to promote the slogan – gives you wings.

• The official website also states that the majority of people buy this drink, including students, athletes and those who just need a boost. There are a few different versions of the energy drink including sugar free, zero calories and the Red Bull editions – Cranberry, Lime and Blueberry.