From Ad Age: {link no longer active}
PepsiCo restaged its iconic Gatorade brand earlier this year. According to Beverage Digest, Gatorade’s volume plummeted 18 percent in the first half of 2009, when the effort, from TBWA/Chiat/Day, Los Angeles, asked and then answered “What is G?”
Under increased pressure from rivals Powerade (Coca-Cola) and Vitamin Water (Glaceau), Gatorade started rebranding itself simply as G with a consolidated marketing plan that included huge sports figures and massive TV budgets.
So far the efforts don t seem to be paying off, especially with younger consumers who are facing brand confusion instead of just seeing G as cutting edge.
Gatorade says there will be marketing changes in early 2010 to stop the precipitous slide, but no details were given on how they intend on getting the youth audience to stay put with Gatorade.
Reminds us of how Modern Warfare 2 was Modern Warfare 2 until Activision realized it would sell significantly less copies of the game compared to calling it Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
