p12,13 Brand profile 11/17/08 10:51 AM Page 13
www.sgb-sports.com
SGB
Sports Retail - PROFILE
Sports and Outdoor
completely efficacious. the message across that it's the right thing for people to
At the Gatorade Sports Science Institute in drink in an active occasion. Once people understand that
Chicago they have a sweat chamber which is it’s a piece of sporting equipment for all sports people,
used to analyse the performance of athletes as then the next step is that they try it.
they’re put through their paces. This data is
studied and used to optimize the SGB: What's in store then in a marketing sense? What are
formula to ensure the product your plans?
contains the right amount of KS: For the interim period it will be more of the same. We
minerals, salts and water to do have a new flavour coming to join the lemon and the
replenish what's leaving the body. orange flavours, which will be launched early next year,
Simple, but also very scientific. which we're very excited about. Then we'll probably
plateau at the level we've reached before pushing on
SGB: It doesn't taste like a sports further, making sure we're comfortable where we are
drink – or like we think of sports before moving on.
drinks. The limit of our ambition is only the limit of our
KS: That's where the natural capability; if Gatorade doesn't reach the same kind of
flavourings and natural colourings distribution as it does in other countries, we've really got
come in. Gatorade also doesn’t to look at ourselves because there's really no reason why it
contain any artificial sweetener so shouldn't. Once people get hold of it and taste it, and use
it doesn’t suffer from the poor it in a sporting occasion we know they'll see the benefit
aftertaste that other drinks can themselves so hopefully it will become a self-fulfilling
have – It is a lot more 'sessionable'. prophecy for us.
When you're asking what you need
for a sports drink and at what level SGB: What are you doing in terms of POS and retail
of exercise does one become valid merchandise for independents?
to use, you could say that for half an KS: We have lots of different customers with different
hour's exercise, you don't need a sports needs; it depends how they want to sell the equipment like
term agreements with drink. It depends on how much you sweat posters, dump bins, banners, that kind of thing as well as
customers to try and fend though; for a heavy sweater, half an hour's running towels and water bottles to encourage people to buy. It
us off. That's the world of commerce – it's all could easily mean a sports drink is a good idea to depends how the retailer wants to display it on their
healthy competition. It helps us sharpen our pencils, get replace lost minerals and salts. shelves, really.
down to business and work harder to get that
distribution. SGB: You're coming into a market dominated by one
competitor – how do you break into that market?
SGB: There's a strong argument that having more strong What steps are you taking?
brands available will grow the market, rather than dilute it. KS: We sponsor something like 30 races, including
Greater choice leading to greater sales for two prominent the London Triathlon – the biggest in the world
brands, rather than one brand suffering… – which all helps to raise awareness. We’re
KS: For a long time the sports drink market in the UK has spending a lot of time trying to influence the
been pretty static; only around 14 per cent of people who influencers, so it's about getting hold
exercise on a regular basis are drinking sports drinks. of the people that organise the
Most of them are drinking other things, like water, juices training sessions – the dieticians,
or going in different directions entirely. What Gatorade's the coaches, the fitness experts, and
done is bring a whole load of people back into the really seeding the brand with those
category, buying and using sports drinks again. 42 per kinds of people. Many British sports
cent of the gain in sales we've had are people who have professionals already know
not been drinking the current offering, or what's already Gatorade well from experience in
out on the market; they're new users of sports drinks. other countries so we’ve been lucky
in that we’re pushing on a half open
SGB: For many people, sports drinks are related to an upset door.
stomach, and they've had bad experiences with them. Now we're spreading our wings a
KS: A small proportion of people do sometimes suffer little wider and we’ve just finalised a
from stomach cramps after drinking sports drinks in the huge partnership with the Guinness
same way which is often caused by people not mixing Premiership. Also, at the recent
powdered sports drinks correctly or formulations which Leisure Industry Week we were on
don’t have an optimal mix of carbohydrate. As the most- pretty much every stand where people
researched and widely used sports drink in the world, could try out equipment. We were all
Gatorade will do the job for the vast majority of athletes. over the place.
This research means that Gatorade has exactly the right It's a many-pronged attack; what we
amount of minerals in it that your body needs to replace haven't tried to do is come in and spend
and exactly the right amount of salts, so you can still a lot of money on a TV advertising campaign, because
metabolise the sugar content of the drink. There's no we didn't think it was the right way to do it. There's a lot
more than you can take and no less than you need to be of science behind what we're doing, and we want to get
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