Brand

Management
Hasan Mohsin Qureshi
Registration No. 12971
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgement........................................................................................................................ 3

Introduction.................................................................................................................................... 4

History of the case........................................................................................................................ 5

SWOT analysis............................................................................................................................... 6

Marketing objectives................................................................................................................ 10

Brand strategic objectives...................................................................................................... 11

Segmenting strategy................................................................................................................. 12

Positioning strategy.................................................................................................................. 13

Building brand strategy........................................................................................................... 15

Recommendations to the manager.....................................................................................18

Annexure....................................................................................................................................... 19

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank ALLAAH Almighty to help me in preparing this report.

Through all the barriers, He the Almighty was my supporter and helper. I
secondly thank our Course Facilitator for making us understand the concepts
regarding Brand Management. I would also like to thank my seniors, some of
whom are the alumni, for increasing my knowledge in the field of Brand
Management. I would also thank the Library Officer Mr. Tauqeer-Us-Salam
and Staff Member Mr. Taib for supporting me while I was preparing my
report in the Library of the Campus till late hours. I also thank a certain Mr.
Shoaib Anwar who is a teacher of mine as he helped in finalizing this report.
Finally I would thank Kevin Lane Keller for writing the book Strategic Brand
Management: Building, Measuring and Managing Brand Equity through which
I learned a lot of Marketing and Branding Concepts.

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INTRODUCTION

A new morning for Mountain Dew is a case in our book Strategic Brand
Management by Kevin Keller which mentions the life of the Brand Mountain
Dew between the years 1969 to 2006. In the last several years, that are 2000
onwards, the sales growth is only 1.5 %.

We, the students of BBA(marketing), in our course of Brand Management are

assigned to analyze the case and build the future plan in shape of a report,
which is present in your hands here, for 2007 and onwards by using the
concepts we have learnt regarding Marketing and Branding.

I have prepared such a plan which includes the branding objectives that are to
be achieved. Similarly, in this report include the Marketing Objectives such as
increasing Market Share and Shifting the Consumer’s perception considering
the new Mountain Dew Marketing objectives.

Moreover, this report includes four Brand Building Blocks of the Consumer-
Based Brand Equity which will help in building, managing and sustaining the
Brand Equity of Mountain Dew in a better manner.

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HISTORY OF THE CASE

Mountain Dew is a soft drink launched by PepsiCo in 1969. Initially, till early
1980s, the drink’s target market was focused by a country-like look in its ads
which turned out to be unsuccessful. However in the late 1980’s the focus was
changed to outdoor action scenes in the ads which turned out to be
successful. These scenes included extreme sports like Skydiving,
skateboarding & snowboarding with the tag line “Do the Dew”. However, the
demographic which did not watch action sports was also focused with the
help of hip-hop superstar “Busta Rhymes” in an advertisement. These ads
raised the market share of Mountain Dew from 2.7 percent in late 1980’s to
7.2 percent in 2000. This market share was maintained by grassroots
marketing efforts such as offering samples from branded Dew Hummer
trucks and staging promotion at local skate parks. Scott Moffitt, director of
Marketing says, “You can’t preach to [our customers] or tell them what’s
cool.”

In the year 2000, another successful launch was made by Mountain Dew’s line
extension named Mountain Dew Code Red. However, the consumers started
to migrate to water and juices which resulted in decline of consumption of
Mountain Dew. More grassroots activities were performed by sponsoring Mix
Tape street basketball tour and Dew Action Sports Tour and a Dew U loyalty
program was launched too. In 2005, another brand extension was launched
named MDX for another market segment of video game players by
introducing it as “Official Soft Drink” for and Entertainment Expo. This
enabled Mountain dew to grow sales and remain the number-four carbonated
beverage in America in 2006 in terms of sale.

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SWOT ANALYSIS

Strengths:
 Mountain Dew is carrying a Strong Brand.
 Company is maintaining healthy relationship in up-stream.
 Collective Bargaining agent (CBR) behavior is more professional.
 International component portrays reasonable and friendly environment.
 Mountain Dew is financially sound.
 Production systems are reasonably consistent - spelt out standards.

The Brand Mountain Dew is a part of its Parent Company Pepsi Co. which is
financially strong and very old also and hence is a big support for Mountain
Dew. The Brand’s foundation is in the United States of America which is one
of the Most Developed countries of today’s World and hence most educated,
skilled & experience professional are easily available to handle this global
Brand. Even the lower management or labor required is well educated,
mannered and reasonable people. Moreover, the Brand has generated a
Global market share as well.

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Weaknesses:
 Reasonable saying customers are less inclined towards Mountain Dew
brand.
 Mountain Dew is facing extreme competition both from Direct, In-direct
competitors.
 The strategic directions including vision, mission & corporate objectives
need improvement.
 Marketing management is reasonably suffering from mismanagement.
 HRM needs improvement in the functional areas.

Brand Mountain Dew is losing its consumers due to change in the perceptions
of consumers as they are more inclined towards Juices, Water & Shakes
rather than Soft Drinks. As there is a minor increase in the Sales Volume in
past several years, it can be reasonably said that the Marketing Management
needs a revision in its Vision, Mission as well as amendments in the Human
Resource to bring new ideas and better execution of Marketing for the
Growth of the total value, Brand Equity, of the brand Mountain Dew.

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Opportunities:
 USA economy is pleaded by recession however, the economy is still
manageable.
 Mountain Dew is a reasonably fit to take care of Social Shift.
 Mountain Dew is adhered to the covenants/articles of Laws.
 Mountain Dew is adequately equipped with requisite technology.

As the case discusses only the issues in the United States of America and it is a
stable country in relation with other countries of the world, a proper well laid
plan with a perfect execution could help the Market Share of the brand
increase as well as the Sales volume could increase. New products in shape of
Brand Line Extensions can help accommodate the new and changing demand
of the consumers. Moreover, the brand Mountain Dew is a sibling of its parent
company PepsiCo, hence has a powerful support at its back financially as well
in other organizational terms.

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Threats:
 The industry is experiencing Social Shift & Society is seeking out value in
their dealings.
 The industry subject the rigorous laws passed by the Govt. from time to
time.
 U.S.A. government policies are subject to some sort of instability.
 Overall industry is also feeling the impact of technology.
 Customers have become savvy.

The modern world is changing so fast that it is hard for Managers to keep up
with the new demands and needs of the consumers. Similarly, the changes
occurring in the country due to its involvement in International Affairs are
bringing numerous changes on a continuous basis which affects the policies of
any organization operating there. A rapid change in overall technology is
bringing transformation in almost all aspects of life of all living as well as non-
living things, e.g., some manufacturers are using 100% automated plants to
manufacture their products and hence decreasing defects as well as human-
labor costs.

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MARKETING OBJECTIVES

As per today’s objectives, 2010 objectives, PepsiCo wants to maximize its

sales with equipment and beverages that satisfy consumers' changing needs.

“As second largest beverage provider, Pepsi delivers:

 Consumer preferred brands

 Equipment that delivers top-quality Pepsi-Cola beverages
 Marketing that keeps your beverage sales growing
 Service that never lets you down!” 1

However, our Marketing objectives would be slightly different.

 Our first objective would be to increase our sales and market share
accordingly, up to 3% on normal performance and excellently 10% in
the year 2007.

 Second objective would be to increase the grass-root marketing

activities in order to help retain the existing market share and not lose
the Health Caring & Savvy consumers.

 Third objective would be to increase market share with help of Brand

Product Line Extensions such as Energy drinks, Healthy Drinks, Light
Drinks, etc.

1
www.pepsico.com

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BRAND STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

Brand although strong, needs improvement, hence we will have following

objectives:

 With help of the Consumer Based Brand Equity model, we would try to
increase the overall Brand Equity of Mountain Dew.

 Similarly, with the help of Segmentation and Positioning guidelines we

would introduce a new line of Product Extensions.

 A general perception about Mountain Dew as we discussed in class is

that it is an Injurious product. We have to focus on changing this image
about our existing products and hence change our positioning as well.

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SEGMENTING STRATEGY

As Mountain Dew is facing severe competition at different levels 2 such as its

competition at product type level is with caffeinated soft drinks, at product
category level it competes with all other soft drinks, at product class level
Mountain Dew faces competition with all types of beverages. In other words,
the Brand is facing severe competition directly as well as indirectly.

 Primarily we change the perceptions in the minds of the consumers

with help of images which are switching away from the Soft Drinks to
Water and Juices.

 To focus on untouched market segments by Mountain Dew, such as

energy drinks, we target our new customers to students who have to
study late at night or any sort of Office workers who work long hours
and need extreme concentration and need to stay awake for long
periods of time.

2
Strategic Brand Management – 3rd Edition – Page 128

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POSITIONING STRATEGY

Best thing about Mountain Dew is that the consumers want the energy from
consuming Mountain Dew and they get it even knowing that that energy is
coming from high amount of caffeine which is harmful to health yet as long as
they are getting what they need, they will buy and consume the product.

Keeping in mind the Positioning guidelines in the Book, Strategic Brand

Management by Kevin Lane Keller my suggestion on two key issues will be as
follows;

1. Defining & Communicating the Competitive frame of Reference 3

Earlier in the report I discussed that the product is facing direct and
indirect competition and therefore the competitive frame of reference
will be on several levels. As the brand is strong enough already, hence
the category membership is not to be stressed while planning grass-
root marketing activities and advertising. Yet there be a need to inform
and convey to its users that Mountain Dew dominates other caffeinated
soft drinks in certain manners. Hence the Advertising as well as the
grass-root marketing activities will consist of the conveying of the
message of Points of Difference to the consumers. There are three main
ways to convey a brand’s category membership to its target consumers
which are:

i. Communicating category benefits 4

This way to convey the category membership will be used by
stating that the product contains high amounts of caffeine as
well as stating that the consumer gets energized by

3
Strategic Brand Management – 3rd Edition – Page 132
4
Strategic Brand Management – 3rd Edition – Page 134

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 consuming the product and that they would feel excited due
to excessive energy.
ii. Comparing to exemplars

This cannot be done as the Brand is already well known and

further associations are not required from the same industry
but from the beneficiaries of the product such as athletes or
video-gamers, etc

iii. Relying on the product descriptor

Another way to change the perception of the consumer

would be to name Mountain Dew as Energy Drink rather
than regular Soft Drink. This would give a competitive edge
to the Brand as it would mean that at the price and
convenience of a soft drink, what is available is an Energy
Drink!

2. Choosing and establishing points of parity and points of difference

The points of difference for Mountain Dew would be that it provides

you Energy while it is just a Soft Drink. Moreover, it is available in the
same standard anywhere you go, the center of population or in the vast
inner parts of the country. Now both the Points of difference are
Desirable as well as Deliverable. To make the second point of difference
(availability) possible, further investment and work will be required to
increase and strengthen the down-stream of the product supply. Now
there is not much correlation between the two points of difference
hence we do not need to think about the negativity or positivity of the
correlation. However, both attributes must be campaigned separately.

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BUILDING BRAND STRATEGY

To build, measure and manage the Brand, at least one model has to be used.
The model I will use to perform the task is the Four Building Blocks of the
Consumer-Based Brand Equity Model. A figure below in the shape of a
pyramid explains the CBBE Model.

 Mountain Dew has a good brand Identity, that is, its product category is
well identified by its consumers, however if brand extension is
performed such as bringing new products “Mountain Dew Muscle” or
“Mountain Dew Max”, then I suggest that in the advertisements the new
product’s category has to be identified. Smart, witty, sharp and brainy
people who are famous among the consumers can be used to perform
their work such as video game players can be shown playing video
games for hours after drinking Mountain Dew, similarly a Chess Master
can be shown playing and winning multiple Chess games at a time while
consuming Mountain Dew.

5
Strategic Brand Management – 3rd Edition – Page 82

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 Moreover, in grass-root marketing activities, free drinks for players of
School and College Basketball and Football teams could be provided. Or
another activity would be to ask students who have to take straight long
hour classes to consume Mountain Dew before class and check whether
they feel sleepy or distracted while class or the consumption helps
them focus and concentrate. There can be lots of other kinds of
activities that can be performed to spread awareness of product
category and benefits of the Brand.

 Apart from its core benefits and general characteristics, availability of

the product is one of the main characteristics that we are promising our
consumers at all locations of the country. Similarly, the taste & price
will remain standard & fix respectively throughout the country even
though taxes change in different states.
Moreover, the consumer is to be reminded through advertising that the
product is not only for Extreme Sport lovers, but for all age groups and
any sort of Mental Skill or Physical Skill users. This could include from
outdoor sports team players to indoor video game players, from Chess
players to hard working students.

 The quality, credibility and superiority of the product are well known
among the current consumers. However as new target market is to be
positioned upon, a sense of quality by standardization, credibility by
6
brand expertise, trustworthiness and likability and superiority by
uniqueness.
Exciting and energized is the feeling a consumer will have after
consuming the product of the brand Mountain Dew.

6
Strategic Brand Management – 3rd Edition – Page 90

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 Finally, the brand has to be projected in the hearts of the consumer as
Trust-marks or Love-marks rather than just trademarks. This can be
achieved by introducing loyalty programs like one mentioned in the
case itself that consumers could find codes under the caps of the
product and use those codes online to share with other consumers to
get a variety of goods. Another program to engage the consumers could
be the recycling program or any other program that accommodates the
eco-friendliness issue.


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RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE MANAGER

 Hire fresh graduates from universities and down size most of the
old staff so that new ideas can be introduced in the market.

 The consumers of the United States of America are well-off and

hence have a capability to buy Mountain Dew products; hence this
opportunity should not be left and must be availed in its fullest manner.

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ANNEXURE
1. Mountain Dew / Pepsi Website
o www.mountaindew.com
o www.pepsico.com
2. Strategic Brand Management – “Kevin Lane Keller”
3. www.wikipedia.com
4. www.google.com
5. www.scribd.com
6. www.slideshare.com

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