Group Members

 Asma Aziz
 Mina Khalid
 Mehreen Islam
 Sonia Altaf
 Subha Khalid

Class: MBA

Dated: 17th Dec 2016

The Journey of Sprite 3G
The famous Cola Wars have been talk of the
town since many decades in Pakistan; the
citrus segment is of particular interest.
Mountain dew is the fastest growing
carbonated soft drink and brand of Pepsi cola
in Pakistan even more than the parent brand
itself i.e. Pepsi. Mountain dew associates
itself with adventure, energy and fun and has
continuously targeted the youth through
compelling campaigns. It was first launched
in Pakistan in the year 2001 but it turned out
to be a failure. In the year 2003 it was re-
launched with massive promotional
campaigns, which led to huge success.
Mountain dew enjoyed the status of the only
citrus carbonated soft drink in the beverage
market until Sprite 3G entered the market in
2007. As of 2012, the total market share of
citrus CSD's was 14% out of which 95% was
held by mountain dew and the rest 5% by
others.
Sprite 3G was launched with the purpose that
it will revive the lemon-lime flavor category
along with extra 3Gs: Glucose, Guarana and
Green coffee bean-derived caffeine to
“revitalize the youth”. While devising its
strategy, the marketing team kept Sprite as a
benchmark for market penetration, targeted
audience and consumer impulse. Apparently
they tried to position the product differently
than Sprite in their consumers’ minds but
both the brands were embedded as same for
trade marketing purposes. The Marketing
Director even once commented that since
Sprite is such a fast growing brand, Sprite 3G
will answer the growing consumer demand
for an energy drink that has great refreshing
taste. Since it was launched in Citrus
segment, an objective was to compete with
Mountain Dew and provide consumers with
a better alternative. That was in contrast with
internal benchmarking. Instead of attacking
Mountain Dew, Sprite 3G started to
cannibalize its own brand due to failed
positioning in minds of consumers. Many
factors that contributed to it are discussed
below.
1) PRODUCT
Taste is the key factor which determines the
success or failure of a product. Sprite 3G did
retain lemon-and-lime flavor of the original
Sprite but with additional three ingredients.
The contents of sprite 3G were all chemical
based which resulted in avoidance of the
brand by health conscious people. People
who avoided caffeine preferred lemon lime
soft drinks instead.
Sprite 3G was not launched in cans which is
the usual practice of energy cans. The product
had the same theme as that of sprite: a
primarily green bottle with a green and blue
label which lead to overshadowing of Sprite
3G by the cash cow of coke (Sprite).
2. PRICE
Initially, in 2012, the price of both Sprite 3G
and Mountain Dew was same i.e. 15 Rupees
per bottle. With time, price of Mountain Dew
increased to 20 Rupees per bottle in 2015 but
to keep consumers and retailers interest, the
price of Sprite 3G was lowered to PKR 18
(while price of Coke and Sprite was PKR 20).
But still, no marketing was done to let
consumers know about the price difference.
Retailers took advantage of the situation and
over-charged the consumers equal to that of
regular brands i.e. 20 Rupees. Very less
people know that on a bottle of 1.5L, Sprite
3G and Mountain Dew has difference of 20
Rupees. Mountain Dew charges premium
price due to its strong image.
Consumer Price (PKR)
Product Sprite 3G Dew
Glass Bottle (250 ML) 18 20
1500 ML Plastic Bottle 60 80
3) AVAILABILITY
There was an issue in the product availability
too. The launch was backed by extensive
vibrant marketing and promotion campaigns
right from inception. Despite diverse
promotional campaigns, Sprite 3G was
available only at a few departmental stores. It
was not easily available on door step of each
and every customer, unlike Coke and Sprite.
Hence, the growing consumer demand for the
energy drink could not be timely catered.
By Oct 2016, the market share of Citrus
Segment increased to 20% out of which 99%
is of Mountain Dew with a meagre share of
Sprite 3G.
4) POSITIONING
Sprite 3G was to be marketed with main
focus on the consumers who preferred
revitalization of physical and mental health
therefore it was marketed as carbonated
energy drink for youth with more active life
styles. It was supposed to cater to both
physiological needs (Hydration, refreshment
and energy) and social needs (perception of a
social, enjoyable drink with a sense of
belonging within peer and consumer groups).
Main focus was on people with age range of
17 to 35 because research reveals that people
with this range are one of the major consumer
groups of energy drinks.
Comparison of Positioning Strategy with
Mountain Dew
Sprite 3G was positioned in between a
traditional soft drink and an energy drink.
Such radical shifts in positioning need to be
highly worked on and need intensive
rebranding which coke failed to do. Coke
never came up with the right programs to
target its major demographic group, youth.
Minimal positioning campaigns were
invested on, which resulted in having the
same impression as that of sprite. Thus the
lemon-lime drink, with caffeine, never
delivered on the message that it's an energetic
product.
Being an energy drink, strong competitors
like Red Bull were already in the Market and
Sprite 3G gave no reason to youth to switch
towards it. It could not create a differentiation
to convince them.
On the other hand, Mountain dew was
strongly involved in the sponsorship of
programs that depicted the theme and
concepts of their products. For example
mountain dew’s sponsoring “Living on the
edge ” on the Music channel featuring DJ
Waqar who was an icon for teenager and was
himself an aggressive enthusiastic
entertainer. Previously they had been
sponsoring “survivor series” along with
conduction of rock concerts in which
teenagers participated with full energy. The
youth associated Mountain Dew with
adventure, fun and tourism.
5) PROMOTIONS
Before the launch of Sprite 3G in March
2007, Mountain Dew had already acquired a
strong foothold in the Citrus Segment. Sprite
3G tried to establish itself in the market by
developing its promotional campaign on the
same lines as Mountain Dew however, it
could not match the intensity level of Dew
owing to start-stop advertisements and BTLs
not complementing the ATLs. Everything
about Dew was thrilling, full of action and
touched the adventurous heart right at the
core. Dew’s target market was very specific
and they continuously reinforced it through
their TVCs and complemented it with Game
shows and beyond the line promotional
strategies. Sprite 3G, though promising with
initial few TV Commercials, failed to break
Dew’s dominance as it could not reinforce
the message strongly.
“Do the Dew” was already a popular slogan
that resonated with the youth. Sprite 3G
started off with its “Hits Hard” campaign. It
was a fine TVC effort by Sprite 3G, starring
action hero Dean Alexandrou in a dull mode
stuck in a traffic jam. A sip of Sprite 3G
revived his spirit and here began an
adrenaline pumping series of sprints. The
advert conveyed the bold image that Sprite
3G intended to develop in consumer’s mind.
The slogan “Hits Hard” was carefully
depicted in the TVC. The advert gave an
impression that it was a drink that imparted
energy; however, the TVC branded it as
“new” Sprite 3G at the end. This caused
confusion in consumer’s mind if it was some
new flavor of Sprite.
Dew had a website far more interactive
and informative about nutritive facts.
Frequently asked questions were
incorporated in the website of Dew while
Sprite 3G was lacking on this ground too.
Later, in the TVCs that followed it, the slogan
was changed to “Kar dikhao” and Urdu
language was used to communicate the
message to the masses. Initial few
advertisements were foreign TVC copies;
following Dew’s footsteps but later Sprite 3G
departed from that and used local
subcontinent adverts showing football and
cricket with energetic youths sharing the
buzz. It could not follow the same theme of
adventure and exhilarating energy shown in
the initial advert and this depiction involving
street sports was no different from that of
Coke and Sprite, making differentiation
negligible. There was no coherent idea and
supporting events to keep up the hype
resulting in a campaign that lost focus.
Initially, at launch time, the company did
TTL (through the line) campaign involving
both advertisements and other promotional
activities. During introductory campaigns,
free product samples were distributed to
garner people’s attention. This zeal and zest,
however, faded post launch and the company
did not focus properly on such activities
which erased the impact of this product from
customer’s mind. The ads were few and far
between and were a bit removed from the
initial image built. It was a classic case of out
of sight, out of mind.
On the other hand, Dew remained true to its
positioning. It was Dew that actually hit hard
with its repeated promos and continuous
emphasis on adventure. Further, looking at
Dew’s strategy, their advertisements depicted
new, exciting scenarios every time a new
advert was launched. The settings were
different but the ideas were fun and unique,
emphasizing the positioning time and again.
From Dew “KungFu” advert in 2008 to Dew
“Tornado” in 2009 the TVCs highlighted
everything Dew was about. The unstoppable
actions and daring moods were touched upon
brilliantly in every thrilling situation. It came
up with strong ideas and innovative concepts.
There were always a pack of friends, with
mountain bikes, skating boards and sports
cars seeking adventure and chasing the Dew
in action packed settings. Dew used its
foreign TVC copies mostly with “Do the
Dew” or “Dew na kia tau phir kya Jia” but
they resonated with the teenagers and
adventure-seeking enthusiasts.
Apart from TV Commercials, Dew continued
to promote itself through innovative
Gameshows and campaigns which strung a
cord with the youth. A massive sampling
campaign at the time of launch was
complemented with a TV adventure show
“Survivors Pakistan” where selected people
from all over Pakistan spent months in cold,
secluded Northern areas, competing against
each other to win a final prize worth Millions.
It was thrilling to the core and engaged
energetic people. Dew did not stop at that and
targeted the youth with sponsorship of Action
movie screenings like “Fast and Furious” and
“X-Men”. Creative 3D outdoors were
displayed in main cities to attract the youth.
Later, “Living on the Edge”, a game show,
was entirely sponsored by Mountain Dew
which took in the most daring youngsters
from Pakistan and thrilling encounters
between them led to the decision of a winner.
A recent Introduction of Copter Hunting and
Dewmocracy campaign were a breath of
fresh air and phenomenal in their own right.
All in all, Sprite 3G failed to break Dew’s
monopoly owing to a lackluster promotional
campaign and Mountain Dew emerged a
clear winner in the Citrus segment as Sprite
3G’s sales continued to drop over the years.
Questions
1. Is marketing strategy of Mountain
Dew better than Sprite 3G? How?
2. Was positioning between Sprite 3G
and Sprite differentiated effectively?
3. Was the pricing strategy of Sprite 3G
good enough?
Solutions
1. Yes, as Dew strengthened its brand
name by astounding advertisements
and excellent promotional
campaigns. Dew remained loyal to its
 positioning and it clearly depicted
that Dew was for adventurous youth,
whereas Sprite 3G kept on changing
its slogans, not sticking to one. This
led to weak positioning and later on
they stopped even these
advertisements, so people ultimately
forgot about it.
2. No, as the launching advertisement
announced the product as “New
Sprite 3G”, giving an impression that
it is rebranding of Sprite. The parent
name of “Sprite” also created
ambiguity. Target market audience
was that of sprite. Color of both
products was green-blue which
couldn’t be differentiated easily. The
advertisements also could not create
any uniqueness for the product.

3. Pricing strategy of Sprite 3G was

good enough as it was sold on lesser
price than Mountain Dew after its
performance started to deteriorate.
But the issue lied in marketing.
Consumers were not aware of price
difference so retailers took advantage
of the situation. There was price non-
compliance and consumers were
charged at same price as other
Mountain Dew.