GREEN OX

CASE STUDY
SOLUTION

Submitted by:
Muralidharan U (12BM60070)
Deepan Loganathan (12BM60081)
Prashanth P (12BM60086)
Prakash M (12BM60094)

1. How could the market be segmented? From green ox`s perspective, what are the pros and cons
of each?
Segment
Psychographics

Pros
a- In this case we can
identify the possible
distribution channel for
each kind of group.

Cons
a- It is difficult to come to
a pricing decision.
b- We cannot identify
gender preferences

b- This
kind
of
segmentation can give
us
the
possible
ingredients which are
chosen by each kind of
people
Demographics (Age, Gender,
Income)

a- Gender preferences can

be estimated
b- The income level of the
people will be useful in
estimating the pricing
of the product

a- We cannot come to a
conclusion with regarding
the retail distribution
network.
b- We cannot come to a
conclusion regarding the
ingredients that should be
used.

2: Which particular segment do you recommend Green Ox focus on and why?

Target segment must be analysed in demographic, Psychographic and product usage characteristic of
customers. With reference to the survey, its apparent that the age group more than 40 experiencing
more drinks product similar to Green Ox. Consumers in the age group 25-40 and less than 25
consume even less than 50% of age group of more than 40. As this product is quite expensive
compare to its competitive product, Income segment should be those people who are earning more
than 75K.
A very vital point in the case is that the womens proportion in total numbers of sports person is
increasingly large and its growing substantially in past. Although, in high income household segment
males are grocery purchaser but female proportion still 35% in primary grocery purchasing. As
mentioned, club store, food store and grocery store account more than 50% sales of sports drink
products. Therefore, women segment will be an important segment as they are regular purchaser in
club stores.

3. Describe and defend a positioning statement for the target segment you recommend.
Among all men and women, Green Ox is the brand of Sports drink that not just quenches your thirst
and reinvigorates your body, but also provides health benefits like reducing certain kinds of cancer
and a younger looking skin because it contains electrolytes and glucose and is non-carbonated and has
added advantage of antioxidants.
Defence
Even though we have stated that women make the purchase decision so they are the main focus
segment but we do not wish to highlight that fact in our positioning statement, we want our drink to
have unisex appeal. Therefore writing men and women, would clearly state that it is for all
irrespective of the gender.
Multiple strategies are being targeted in our statement from thirst quencher, energy provider and
health benefits so the people can have a view that it has added advantage compared to other sports
drink, even though our frame of reference is sports drink only because it is the most realistic choice.
Keeping the positioning strategy entirely on health side or energy drink side would cause us to stray
away from a particular segment of people which will be a huge loss for the company, so people who
want to go for antioxidants drink may not switch to this product as other options are available like
pills etc, but people in active sports who are increasingly concerned about their health would go for it
even with a higher price.

4. Suggest how many flavours should Green Ox introduce and at what price.
We have suggested Green ox to position its drink as a healthy energizer. Based on its positioning and
target segment, we have selected the following 3 flavours:
Alberta Bound
Yellow Knife
Jasper Mountain
Since it is mentioned in the case that only 30 % of potential customers were more loyal to flavour
than brand. Hence we can spend more on promoting the brand.
From table 3, we can observe that 50 % of V7 consumers prefer Alberta bound flavour. So in order to
compete with V7 it will be a good strategy to introduce the flavour. Further the vegetable drink (V7)
has natural antioxidants and hence it is good for health and Green Ox which has added antioxidants is
having the same benefits as that of V7. Also, 34 % and 31 % of sports drink consumers prefer yellow
knife and jasper mountain flavours respectively. So it is advisable to introduce these flavours as well.
Because anti-oxidant consumers did not show any specific inclination towards a single flavour, so we
can safely assume that the above 3 flavours are sufficient to compete in the market.

5. Whats the most important thing we need to know that we dont know yet? Explain why?
The most important thing that the management of Palmer Jackson doesnt know but needs to know
was that the strategy for introducing Green Ox depends upon a platform of inter-related parameters,
some of which are:

Pricing Analysis
Number of flavors and preferences
Positioning concept

All the above parameters interact with each other to help the management decide about the targeting
decision with respect to the anti-oxidant pill. The most important thing was that Palmer Jackson
wanted to leverage both sports drink as well as anti-oxidants growing market. These both were
relatively very strong markets with high regulating margins.
To capture such margins an appropriate pricing analysis with a correct target segment in mind was
very important. Whereas Green Ox was more expensive to produce than these sports drinks in the
market due to added cost of anti-oxidants.
So decision on selling channels to capture such high margins was difficult.
To sum up additional information that management needed

competitive response
Additional consumer/customer insights

After all the base of the new product is a technique to for dissolving common oxidants such as
Vitamin E and glucose beverages. For how long Palmer group will have competitive advantage for the
product, thats before it is copied. Palmer Jackson is already a food and beverages manufactures and
the launch of Green Ox can result in decrease of sales of the existing Palmer products. This
cannibalization need to be compensated in the premium or sales of Green Ox.