gatorade vs. powerade: a social media marketing analysis

VS.

SOCIALM E D I ABRANDCOMPARISON

B Y V A N E S S A G I L L E T T E

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

BRAND OVERVIEW

SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE

SOCIAL MEDIA COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

TARGET MARKET

PLATFORM SPECIFIC ANALYSIS

FACEBOOK

INSTAGRAM

TWITTER

YOUTUBE

GOOGLE+

TUMBLR

WEBSITE

SOCIAL CAMPAIGNS

SOCIAL MEDIA CRM

CONCLUSION

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The following is an in-depth social media analysis of the top two brands in the sports drink category: Gatorade and Powerade. The analysis begins with an overview of each of the brands. A simple timeline shows how the brands have developed since their respective beginnings. Several interesting facts accompany the timeline, as well as the addresses for the corporate locations. Next you will find a visual comparing the numerical social media presence of each brand, as well as the sentiment analysis and quantified levels of engagement. The statistics used in the sentiment analysis were collected across five dates and then averaged.

On this page begins the visual representation of the social media comparison. Each trophy represents a meta-phorical “point” awarded to one of the two brands. At the end of the report I tally the points to determine the overall “winner.” Although both brands have strengths and weaknesses in every area of their social media, the points make it simple to track the success of their efforts. In the social media competitive analysis, the points are simply awarded to the brand with more likes/followers/subscribers. The sentiment analysis point is awarded to the brand with a stronger combination of sentiment, strength, reach, and passion.

The following pages analyze the prospective target market shared by the two brands. I have created three personas to represent the characteristics of the target market. From these personas I am able to determine exactly how each brand is manipulating its online presence to address the pain points. Then I go deep into my analysis of each platform the brands are on. I compare how the brands are using the platforms using visuals as well as numbers I have collected over the past three months of posts.

The comparison continues by addressing a unique social campaign from each brand. You will notice that no point is awarded here, as the campaigns are each unique and do not fall in the same category for comparison. However the analysis is vital to understanding how social media is used effectively in conjunction with these campaigns. The last point is awarded for the CRM on social media. Finally, the points will be tallied and the winner will be declared. Ultimately this paper will be useful for understanding effective social media in the food/beverage brand category.

4

BRAND OVERVIEW

First developed by a team of researchers at the Univer-sity of Florida to replenish the combination of water, carbohydrates, and electrolytes that the school’s student-athletes lost in sweat during rigorous sport.

The brand is purchased by the Quaker Oats Company.

The “Gatorade Shower”, players dumping a cooler of ice-cold Gatorade on their coach, begins as a prank and eventually turns into a sports tradition.

1987

1985

1965

20072000

2010

2016

Quaker Oats Company is acquired by PepsiCo.

Gatorade is PepsiCo’s 4th-largest brand, on the basis of worldwide annual retail sales.

As of April, Gatorade claims 76% market share in the sports drink category.

Introduces low-calorie G2 in response to Powerade ZERO.*

Gatorade Is the official drink of the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA and

MLS.

There are cur-rently 3 Gatorade flavor categories:

Original, Frost, and Fierce

*G2 is criticized for con-tradicting Gatorade’s long time scientific

research stressing the importance of re-

plenishing calories in athletes.

Gatorade features a line called the G

Series - Prime, Perform, Recover: aiming to help athletes before, during, and after training/com-

petition.

5

555 W Monroe St Fl 1 Chicago, Illinois 60661, USA

BRAND OVERVIEW

Powerade is first introduced by The Coca-Cola Company and immediately becomes the official sports drink of the Olympics.**

1988

1993

2009

20072008

2010

2016 As of April, Powerade claims 22% market share in the sports drink category.

Introduces new calorie free option: Powerade ZERO.

Powerade is relaunched as ION4.

Becomes official sports drink of the NCAA.**

PepsiCo sues The Coca-Cola Company, after ads are released claiming that Gatorade is an incomplete sports drink, since it only contains two of the four key electrolytes found in ION4.*

*The presiding judge ruled in favor of Coca-

Cola.

Begins selling globally.

**Also sponsors: Aus-tralian Rugby League, Rugby Union Teams in Australia/Ireland/New Zealand, NASCAR, the PGA Tour, several FIFA soccer league teams

In the United States, Original Powerade is

sold in 10 flavors, while Powerade ZERO is sold

in 6 flavors.

The Powerade brand is currently managed by Coca-Cola’s Glaceau Vitamin Water team.

6

P.O. Box 1734Atlanta, GA 30301, USA


GATORADE IS PRESENT ON 6 SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS

7


POWERADE IS PRESENT ON 5 SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS

8

SOCIAL MEDIA COMPETITIVE ANALYSISSENTIMENT ANALYSIS

STRENGTH

PASSION REACH

SENTIMENT46%

9% 46%

3:1

VIA SOCIAL MENTION

7,299,000LIKES

909,000FOLLOWERS

339,000FOLLOWERS

403,000FOLLOWERS

N/AFOLLOWERS*

113,000SUBSCRIBERS

*Tumblr does not make this information public9

SOCIAL MEDIA COMPETITIVE ANALYSISSENTIMENT ANALYSIS

STRENGTH

PASSION REACH

SENTIMENT61%

12% 63%

5:1

VIA SOCIAL MENTION

4,901,000LIKES

77,400FOLLOWERS

151,600FOLLOWERS

124FOLLOWERS

MISSEDOPPORTUNITY

17,000SUBSCRIBERS

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TARGET MARKET

NAME: Soccer-Mom Susan

AGE: 38

OCCUPATION: Stay-at-home Mom

FITNESS REGIMEN: Takes a few boutique fitness classes a week, but focuses on kids

HOPES & DREAMS: All 3 kids will receive athletic scholarships to D1 schools, getting honored and admired as the best team Mom

PAIN POINTS: Getting the kids to all their after-school activities and keeping them healthy and happy in the process

NAME: Gym-Goer Jim

AGE: 29

OCCUPATION: Lawyer

FITNESS REGIMEN: Goes to the gym ev-ery morning at 6AM, mixes cardio with weight-lifting

INTERESTS: Working-out, watching NFL, MLB, MLS, and col-lege football games

HOPES & DREAMS: Turn 6-pack into 8-pack, meet famous athletes

PAIN POINTS: Doesn’t always have enough energy to go to the gym during hard weeks of work

NAME: Elite-Athlete Erin

AGE: 22

OCCUPATION: Semi-Pro Boxer, Student

FITNESS REGIMEN: Trains at boxing gym 6 days a week, runs 12 miles a week

INTERESTS: Training, studying nutrition, competing in boxing

HOPES & DREAMS: Going pro as a boxer and proving to the world she can’t be held back by her past

PAIN POINTS: Get-ting stronger without over-training and injuring herself

THE SPORTS DRINK MARKET CAN BE BROKEN DOWN INTO 3 PERSONAS:

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TARGET MARKETLow-calorie G2 and zero-calorie Powerade ZERO are attractive options to Susan. Her kids prefer sports drinks to water when they are playing soccer or coming home from gymnastics, but she feels better when she can provide them with a healthier alternative to sugary drinks for her active kids. She enjoys reading Mom-blogs, and is concerned when she reads blog posts saying that ingredients in sports drinks could be harmful for her children.

Overall, Powerade and Gatorade are both strongly addressing the Soccer-Mom Susan persona. It is evident that the brands recognize that Mothers in 2016 are more inclined to choose natural and organic products for their children. By positioning the sports drinks as an imperative for athletic achievement, mothers like Susan will continue to purchase the products. Overall, I believe that Powerade is more effective in reaching Susan, because Susan is more likely to read the mom blogs than to directly look on Gatorade’s website. She does not know who the “experts” are on Gatorade’s blog, but she feels like she knows and trusts the bloggers she follows. Powerade takes the point.

Gatorade provides a section on its website specifically for Moms. Here Susan can ease her worries by learning exactly why each ingredient in Gatorade is necessary for her children’s success.

Articles are available for Susan to read, which reaffirm brand-trust in Susan’s mind. One article recent article even discusses sports nutrition, and provides her with some great dinner ideas for the family. She recognizes that her kids need to replenish the carbs lost from playing sports. She is confident after reading through the blogs from the Gatorade experts that Gatorade is safe for her children.

Powerade does not have a section on its website devoted to Moms. However, the brand does sponsor certain Mom-blogs.

Susan enjoys reading MJ’s motherhood advice on “Fab Haute Mama.” Recently she raid an article with tips for sports moms. Although it is clearly stating that it is a sponsored post, she still finds herself influenced by MJ’s recommendations. The advice to “always keep a stash of healthy snacks on hand and keep your athletes hydrated with a Powerade Sport 8 pack” reinforces to Susan that giving her kids sports drinks makes her a good mother.

ADDRESSING SOCCER-MOM SUSAN

12

TARGET MARKETADDRESSING GYM-GOER JIM

Jim has been drinking sports drinks his whole life. He played several sports growing up, and continues to drink his favorite flavors. Jim loves to watch sports, and follow his favorite athletes on social media. He always sees pictures of the athletes drinking Gatorade and Powerade, so he subconsciously associates the drink with great athletic achievement. The original Gatorade and Powerade formulas are great options for him. He loves the taste, and almost sees it as a treat to drink before and during his workouts. He is not at all concerned with the nutritional content. He might even say that the simple carbs help him push through a PR in the bench press. On days that he doesn’t feel like going to the gym, he can be inspired by a Gatorade or Powerade ad.

Gatorade’s Instagram post catches Jim’s eye. He is a fan of Todd Gurley and likes to see what workout he is doing. It even sparks a fire in him to push harder and train more like Todd. He recognizes it’s a sponsored ad, but still notices the Ga-torade in the background and knows that Todd drinks a lot of it. Therefore, he is subconsciously motivated to drink more Gatorade.

Powerade’s Instagram post also catches Jim’s eye, but does not hold his attention for as long. He is not as familiar with the player and doesn’t connect as much. He might even skim by the post without stopping to read the caption and see that it is a Powerade post.

Ultimately, Gatorade is more effective at targeting Gym-Goer Jim. Although neither post will convert directly to a purchase, they may increase brand awareness when Jim is at the point of purchase for a sports drink. He might be dehydrated after a workout, and decide he needs something other than water. At this point he may subconsciously recall the Todd Gurley ad and favor Gatorade. If he had been more motivated to stop and read the Powerade Instagram post, he might have been just as inclined. Gatorade takes the point.

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TARGET MARKETADDRESSING ELITE-ATHLETE ERIN

Erin is competitive and wants to be the best at everything she does. She trains hard and monitors everything she eats and drinks. She drinks sports drinks strategically, not just for the taste. She understands the importance of consuming electro-lytes and carbohydrates to fuel her body for a tough training regimen. She has her idols in boxing as well as other competi-tive sports, but is mostly concerned with making her own name. Gatorade’s extended product lines appeal to Erin. The high sodium/potassium Endurance Formula and energy chews are designed specifically for high intensity athletes. Powerade does not offer a product line to compete in this category, but positions its original ION4 formula as being “complete” for the elite athlete. Social media can be used to target Erin by informing her of the specific products available to her.

Gatorade pays Facebook to target posts towards Erin. She might have already researched electrolytes/carbohydrates/nutrition in a search engine, and is now seeing suggested posts from Gatorade on her social media. If she was not already familiar with Gatorade’s products, the sponsored posts are excellent for informing her about the product. She might even click through and directly convert to a purchase.

Powerade is not choosing to use invasive targeted carousel ads. However, the brand has provided Erin with a sense of belonging by promoting the “Just a Kid From” campaign on its Facebook page. Erin will see this if she is already following Powerade. Although the post probably wont convert directly to a purchase of the product, it may convert to a purchase of apparel that is part of the campaign. Ultimately it leads to a certain feeling of brand trust and brand loyalty for Erin.

Overall, each brand is targeting Erin effectively. They are addressing her pain points by reminding her that their products are vital to elite training. Powerade wins with the sense of online community through the Just a Kid From campaign. Erin is not as influenced by famous spokespersons as the average consumer, but she can connect with the feeling of making your own name despite a rocky upbringing. However, Gatorade also wins by paying to promote their posts to Erin and ensuring that she sees them. It is a tie: No point is awarded. 14

PLATFORM SPECIFIC ANALYSIS: FACEBOOK

TOTAL NUMBER OF POSTS

AVERAGE DAYS BETWEEN POSTS

TOTAL LIKES RECEIVED ON ALL POSTS

AVERAGE LIKES PER POST

Gatorade is the clear winner when looking at engagement, cadence, and frequency on Facebook. The brand has more page likes as well as more individual post likes. During the three month period, Gatorade collected more likes on its posts while also maintaining a more consistent cadence. Of the 14 posts, 4 were in September, 2 were in August, and the remaining 8 were in July. Although it is not perfectly consistent in the cadence across the three months, it is still seemingly natural. I imagine that Gatorade uses automated marketing to schedule the posts. Another area the brand excels in is how it linked its page to all the other social channels. This makes it easy to click to those pages. Finally, Gatorade presents cohesive campaigns on its Facebook page. They are generally relevant and interesting rather than just making noise on the channel. Gatorade takes the point.

146119,80414,272

BETWEEN JULY 1ST-SEPTEMBER 30TH:

GATORADE POSTED THE SAME AMOUNT OF TIMES AS POWERADE,

BUT SAW SIGNIFICANTLY MORE ENGAGEMENT WITH THE POSTS

Pro-file picture

is an accurate representation of

the brand

Cover photo is

clear, attractive, and follows Face-

book’s rules

Links to other

social chan-nels

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PLATFORM SPECIFIC ANALYSIS: FACEBOOK





Powerade’s Facebook page has some strengths, but is overall weak compared to Gatorade’s. The Powerade page has nearly 3 million less page likes, and not even half the post likes of its competitor. I would recommend that Powerade updates its profile picture to be a more iconic logo. That would carry more brand recognition when viewed from a small scale along-side posts. The brand utilizes tent-pole marketing on Facebook. This can be seen in how the number of posts around the Olympics shot up. In fact, 8 of the 14 posts were during the month of August to hype and promote the event Powerade spon-sors. The cadence of posts dropped off following the event with just 1 post in August. Powerade could have done a bet-ter job by continuing to reference the Olympics after its conclusion and slowly tapering off its cadence of posts to a more natural frequency. However, Powerade does an excellent job of maintaining cohesive campaigns rather than one-off posts.

14551,8783706


POWERADE POSTED THE SAME AMOUNT OF TIMES AS GATORADE,

BUT SAW SIGNIFICANTLY LESS ENGAGEMENT WITH THE POSTS

Pro-file picture

could be improved: the standard logo

would be more recog-nizable at a small

scale

Cover photo is

clear, attractive, and follows Face-

book’s rules

Miss-ing links to

Instagram & Twitter

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PLATFORM SPECIFIC ANALYSIS: INSTAGRAMPro-

file picture is an accurate

representation of the brand

Bio is descrip-tive but not

generic

Each of Gatorade’s

posts features the logo or product in some

way: it doesn’t feel overly pushy, but still

is effective

Con-sistent

color theme across pho-

tos

Looking at the numbers, it is evident that Gatorade is performing well on Instagram. The posts are fre-quent and have a more consistent posting schedule, with 7 posts in September, 8 in August, and 11 in July. Although Gatorade likely requires more social media man-power to keep up with producing unique con-tent on a consistent schedule, it works out for them. The Instagram posts receive significantly more en-gagement than Facebook posts. This is reflected in the 8803 average likes per post despite only having 910,000 followers. I believe the main reason the Insta-gram is doing so well is because each post is unique to the platform and has artistic value. Because the posts cannot be found on Facebook or Twitter, con-sumers are encouraged to follow on Instagram for a look into the exclusive content. There is a healthy mix of photos and videos, as well as plenty of well-known athletes to catch viewers’ attention. Gatorade is working hard on Instagram and it shows. Gatorade takes the point.





264228,8858803


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PLATFORM SPECIFIC ANALYSIS: INSTAGRAMPro-

file picture could be improved

Links in bio lead

consumers to Pow-erade’s Youtube, increas-ing engagement across

platforms

Con-sistent

color theme across pho-

tos

The Powerade Instagram page does a nice job of staying relevant to the over arching social cam-paigns and using a mixture of photos and videos. What immediately stands out is the lack of branding. Almost none of the posts feature the product or logo. This shows that Powerade is using Instagram how it is intended to be used: for art and story-telling, not product-pushing. A downfall is that most of the posts appear on other social channels rather than being Instagram-specific. Although this isn’t ideal, the brand at least includes links to its other social channels to encourage consumers to explore the brand more. Someone might see a clip of the video on Instagram, then be inclined to follow the link in the bio to see the full-length video on Youtube. Then they may decide to subscribe to Powerade’s Youtube channel. I would recommend that Powerade creates a posting schedule for Instagram to improve consis-tently of cadence. The page posted 4 times in July, 7 times in August, and not at all in September. Overall, the brand has a fairly strong Instagram strategy, but falls short of Gatorade

Bio is generic

and could be improved





1166086553


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PLATFORM SPECIFIC ANALYSIS: TWITTER

Many brands struggle to promote their brand on Twitter while using the platform usefully. Gatorade is one of the rare few that gets it right. The brand generates conversation around real-time news related to sports. When Eli Manning reached 300 touchdowns, the brand tweeted a unique image to congratu-late the Gatorade-sponsored athlete. The image is only subtly branded, and is effective in joining the conversation without trying to be the center of it. Followers can retweet without feeling like they are endorsing the brand. Even more, Gatorade does a great job of using the brand for customer service. It ap-pears to respond to customer complaints and questions daily. This can have lasting value by making a consumer feel heard. Finally, the brand consistently utilizes trending hashtags- an easy way to reach new users. Gatorade takes the point.

Ga-torade gets in

on the conversation in real time by shouting out athletes and using the related hashtags

Ev-ery image

posted is original and very subtly branded with the logo, this shows that

Gatorade is not overly self-promotional

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PLATFORM SPECIFIC ANALYSIS: TWITTER

Overall Powerade has a weak presence on Twitter. It has a few posts that generate conversation or shout-out sponsored ath-letes’ accomplishments. However it doesn’t use Twitter very strategically. The hashtags are brand-specific, and would like-ly not reach a larger audience beyond Powerade’s current fol-lowing. Beyond that, the account is inconsistent in responding to customer’s complaints and questions. The biggest weak-ness is that much of the same content that can be found on the other social media platforms. I wouldn’t follow Powerade on Twitter because I wouldn’t expect to see anything I wouldn’t already see on Instagram or Facebook. One thing the brand does better on Twitter than Instagram is that it follows some other accounts. This allows them to easily retweet relevant content. I would recommend that Powerade works harder to provide original tweets and gets involved in more of the trend-ing conversations of the world.

Oc-casionally

Powerade shouts out sponsored athletes, but doesn’t reach a broader

audience with hashtags

A few tweets make

an attempt to start a conversation, but could

be improved by responding to and engaging with the

followers

20

PLATFORM SPECIFIC ANALYSIS: YOUTUBE

VIEWS

LIKES

DISLIKES

VIDEO LENGTH (SECONDS)

13,120,76534,925528430

VIDEO WITH MOST VIEWS: THE BOY WHO LEARNED TO FLY | USAIN BOLT

Gatorade is doing an overall great job on Youtube. It has many videos with over a million views, and I would attribute this to the fact that majority of these videos are only available in full-length on Youtube. The videos are vital to the success of most of Gatorade’s large social campaigns. Although small clips are shown on the other social networks, they always send the viewer back to Youtube to see the full video. This is a great strategy for increasing engagement. Gatorade’s most successful video is very different from Powerade’s because this video is actually a Youtube movie. It is a 7 minute long animation about Usain Bolt. This is part of the brand’s tent pole advertising around the Olympics. The video is golden content for Usain Bolt fans. Gatorade’s area of improvement is its organization. There are too many unnecessary playlists, with some even being empty. Nevertheless, Gatorade takes the point.

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PLATFORM SPECIFIC ANALYSIS: YOUTUBE

VIEWS

LIKES

DISLIKES

VIDEO LENGTH (SECONDS)

3,657,4892167230

VIDEO WITH MOST VIEWS: POWERADE | UP DOWNS

Powerade is not utilizing Youtube to its fullest potential. Most of the videos are just commercials that are also on TV. The brand’s channel needs to be developing content specifically for Youtube. It needs a sort of regularly scheduled program-ming. Powerade’s most successful video is a great ad, but it is still just an ad that viewers probably already have seen in the form of a TV commercial. It is quick and engaging, but is not going to perform well because it isn’t unique to the channel. Additionally, Powerade doesn’t strategically use its metadata. From the home page, you can see that the Up Downs video does not even have a visible description. This makes it hard for viewers to know what the video is about without clicking on it, as well as not making the videos optimized for search engines. One of the few things Powerade does well on Youtube is its use of playlists. The playlists are organized and make sense, many of them related to past and current campaigns.

22

PLATFORM SPECIFIC ANALYSIS: GOOGLE+

Gatorade’s most recent post is from June of 2015. They have obviously abandoned their Google+ page despite having a decent amount of followers. Prior to June of 2015, they appeared to post quite frequently and maintained a stable cadence. I imagine they consciously chose to give up on the account so that they could focus their efforts on developing a presence on the other social platforms. Although it is disapointing that they abandoned it, I believe it contributed to their other social successes.

Powerade’s most recent post was 1 week ago. This is surprising that they have kept of with the page despite their competi-tion having left the platform. It appears that they are simply re-posting the videos available on Youtube. This is a smart use of their time and effort. The Google+ crowd might not be on Youtube very frequently, but with Google+ they may be inspired to watch the videos Powerade is posting. There is little basis for comparison with Gatorade: Powerade takes the point.

23

PLATFORM SPECIFIC ANALYSIS: TUMBLR

Gatorade is on Tumblr and Powerade is not. It is tempting to simply give Gatorade the point due to its presence, yet we must take a closer look at how effectively the brand is using the platform. The account has posted GIFs made from its larger videos. Some of the GIFs are humorous and worth re-posting, but the big concern is in the description. It states “See them all sweat” under the GIFs from the Sweat it to Get It campaign, yet the link does not work. It leads to the page below.

Due to the ineffective use of the platform, I would advise Gatorade to not be on it at all. It almost appears that they jumped on to Tumblr because they wanted to beat the competition there. They went in without a strategy. Powerade smartly chose not to go into Tumblr at all. For these reasons I will call it a tie. No point awarded.

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PLATFORM SPECIFIC ANALYSIS: WEBSITE

DOES IT HAVE AN APPROPRIATE LOOK?Yes. The landing page features a scrolling banner of bright images. Each of the four carousel images has a tagline and a call to action. Above you can see the tagline “Fuel the Love Forward” with the clickable call to ac-tion, “cast your vote.” It is immediately apparent that the site is for e-com-merce. There is a shopping cart in the upper right hand corner, and a promo-tion for “free shipping on all purchas-es over $50” across the header.

IS IT EASY TO NAVIGATE?Yes. The header menu has 4 items, each of which represents the catego-ry of products available. If you are not looking to make a purchase or find out about the specific products, you can scroll to the bottom of the page. The footer is broken into 5 categories: social, customer care, products, cus-tomer care, and company. Any infor-mation a visitor could be searching for is in the footer and easy to find.

IS IT COHERENT? Yes. A website for a sports drink makes sense to have the categories of drink in the navigation bar across the top. When you click on one of the categories, it takes you to a page with the same consistent layout, but con-tent specific to that product. For ex-ample, when I click on Thirst Quench-er, it takes me to a page showing the flavors of the drink, the nutritional content, and links to buy online.

The word cloud displays the most commonly used words across the home page. This is important to search engine optimization. Gato-rade’s marketing team is clearly keeping SEO in mind when writing content. The key words of endurance, fuel, thirst, sports, and protein are words that the consumer market may be searching for.

Each of the brands have great websites that are effective as a home base for their online presence. However, Gatorade does a better job with SEO and immediately making the look and feel of the website align with the sports drink category. Gatorade takes the point.

SEO WORD CLOUD:

25

PLATFORM SPECIFIC ANALYSIS: WEBSITE

DOES IT HAVE AN APPROPRIATE LOOK?Yes and No. The landing page is clean and simple. Due to the stable background, your eye is immediately drawn to the central image promot-ing their current social campaign. The page is dark and underscores the dark intensity of the “Just a Kid From” campaign. However, the page doesn’t make it clear that it is for a sports drink. In fact, if the page didn’t have the Powerade logo, I am not sure I would know that’s what it’s for.

IS IT EASY TO NAVIGATE?Yes. Due to the clean layout and mini-mal content, it is very easy to find the information you are looking for. The navigation bar has 5 categories, one of which is products. This almost makes more sense than how Gato-rade used its product categories in the navigation bar. The website does not have a footer, but it does have links to Contact Us, Terms and Condi-tions, Privacy Policy, and About Our Ads over the last image in the scroll.

IS IT COHERENT? Yes. The color theme is limited and consistent which is ideal for web design. The navigation bar links to certain spots in the page rather than loading a new page. This makes it very consistent and easy to find your way around the side. It simply makes sense for a brand that does not need a complicated website. Although there is less information on Powerade’s site than Gatorade’s, it almost makes it more appealing.

SEO WORD CLOUD:As shown by the SEO word cloud, the most commonly used words on the Powerade page are not strategically optimized. The only really relevant words are Powerade and game. The other words are just a modge podge. This will make it difficult for Powerade content to be suggested by Google unless the user specifically searches for the brand itself.

26

SOCIAL CAMPAIGNSGATORADE’S ‘FOR THE LOVE OF SPORT’ CAMPAIGN

Gatorade is using an online contest for charity, increasing engagement on the website. Consumers can cast a vote and ultimately feel good about themselves within the context of the brand. These good feelings may translate over to how they feel about the product, and translate into a purchase via the gratitude effect.

27

SOCIAL CAMPAIGNSPOWERADE’S ‘JUST A KID FROM’ CAMPAIGN

Powerade is utilizing user-generated content to expand reach and promote engagement. Consumers do not have to put much effort into getting involved, but end up feeling really rewarded when their content appears on the website gallery. This may create a connection with the brand and even cause them to buy the “swag” to promote their brand loyalty.

28

SOCIAL MEDIA CRMGatorade does a nice job with its customer relationship management on social media. The brand makes an obvious effort to respond to comments, and the fans obviously appreciate it. The responses themselves often generate quite a few likes, and promote those comments to become top comments and show up with the post even after newer comments have been added. Examples of comments Gatorade responded to are below, along with what they are doing well.

Po-litely shut

down negative rumors before they

spread to others

Es-tablish the

page as a knowl-edge source of the

product

If a consumer

needs help find-ing a product, help

them!

Even silly ques-

tions are worth responding to, have

fun with it!

Although Gatorade could improve by using a less robotic brand voice, they are doing an excellent job increasing engage-ment. Powerade on the other hand is missing plenty of opportunities to engage with their followers and ultimately increase the following. Gatorade takes the final point.

29

SOCIAL MEDIA CRM

En-gage with

the positive com-ments to encourage

more of them

An-swer ques-

tions to establish the page as an infor-

mation resource

Re-spond by

re-directing com-plaints to quality control depart-

ment

En-gage with

comments encour-aging the message

of the campaign

Powerade’s social media includes many missed opportunities for customer relationship management. They could be easily increasing engagement and connecting with their followers by simply responding to some comments. Examples along with recommendations for improvement are shown below.

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CONCLUSIONFINAL SCORES:

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CONCLUSION In conclusion, Gatorade is doing an excellent job on social media and is leaving Powerade in the dust. One look at the final scores and it is obvious which brand has the larger share of the sports drink market. Gatorade took the point in nearly every category; leaving Powerade with just 3 points from sentiment analysis, Google+, and the Soccer Mom Susan persona. The point spread was obviously quite drastic, but in actuality, both brands have strong social media presence. Powerade has a consistent theme of darkness and struggle through adversity across all of its social media. From the dark color theme on the website to the inspirational “Up Downs” video on Youtube, there is definitely a feeling of persevering as an underdog. This message emphasizes the brand’s history. It has been in Gatorade’s shadow since the beginning. How-ever, there is a certain following for these “underdog” type brands. Many consumers choose to stand out from the norm and not purchase the standard product in any one category. These consumers long to be different and naturally align with brands like Powerade. To them, #powerthrough has meaning. Gatorade’s social presence is also reflective of the brand identity. The brand tends to use bright colors, bold graph-ics, and big-name athlete sponsors in its online content. These adjectives, “bright,” “bold,” and “big-name” actually describe the way Gatorade exists in the market. ‘Sports drink’ and ‘Gatorade’ could be considered synonymous because of the brands strong hold on the category. Just as Peyton Manning dominates football, Gatorade dominates electrolytes and carbohy-drates. It is clear that Gatorade’s social media marketing team is working hard, and just as the graphic they created states: hard work makes history.

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gatorade vs. powerade: a social media marketing analysis

Marketing