Juice TV Show, Ads Aim to Squeeze out Consumers

Tropicana’s 28-minute TV show, and Minute Maid’s print ad campaign follow an
overall drop in refrigerated orange juice sales in the beverage industry. U.S.
sales of refrigerated orange juice slipped less than one percent to $3.05 billion
in the 52 weeks ended February 24, according to data from Information Resources
Inc. Sales were down four percent from a year earlier when measured in ounces.

Both Roger Berdusco, Tropicana’s senior vice president of marketing, and Bobby Patton, Minute Maid’s group brand manager for chilled orange juice, agree that almost a year ago, the orange juice category began to soften considerably. They each say that much of it has to do with consumer price sensitivity given the economic downturn, as chilled orange juice is one of the higher-priced beverage categories. “As the economy improves, the orange juice category will as well,” Berdusco says.

Tropicana plans to spend almost two million dollars, what some companies spend to air a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl, to air an entire television show targeted at orange juice consumers. The “Breakfast Americana documercial” will tout pilot study research from the Cleveland Clinic, which show that drinking two glasses of orange juice per day for six weeks led to “significantly” reduced blood pressure. “We are going to put more support behind this piece of nutritional news than we would even a new product,” Berdusco says.

Meanwhile, Minute Maid plans a new print ad campaign to highlight the benefits of its fortified juices. Ads in June magazines will feature a tie-in to the upcoming Scooby Doo movie, and another wave of print ads in the fall will focus on vitamin D and the absorption of calcium. Minute Maid is also banking on Simply Orange, a not-from-concentrate orange juice introduced in the Northeastern United States last year, which is now also available in Florida and Georgia.

Moderator Comment: Will Tropicana’s “documercial”
attract a large enough audience to have an impact on orange juice sales?

Move over Tae-Bo and Ab-Cruncher. Here comes the juice.
[George
Anderson – Moderator
]

BrainTrust

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