Reference no: EM133410591

Case Study: How "The Juicer" is Shaking Up the Cocktail Aisle The juice and dressing brand brings its premium bona fides to a growing market of would-be mixologists. Cold-pressed flash-frozen producer "The Juicer" sees a lot of promise in its new premium cocktail mixes. The Toronto company makes delicious premium cold-pressed products. Crafted in small batches from the highest quality raw fruits and vegetables, their juices, smoothies, and dressings are plant-based, have no added water, no refined sugars, no artificial ingredients and are never pasteurized. Their purpose for being is to offer consumers "The best tasting cold pressed products. Period" and the company's relentless adherence to this statement has fueled their success to date. Now the brand is looking to grow its business to the next level. Known primarily for its fresh-frozen juices and salad dressings for the consumer market, as well as bulk products for foodservice, "The Juicer" is exploring cocktails. Its new ready-to-use mixers are rolling out to Ontario Sobeys and Longo's banners, with other distributors coming soon. "We think it's going to be a big category," says Rob Rohtang, the company's general manager, of the potential in selling mixers for cocktails like mojitos and margaritas in grocery stores. "Over the last couple of years, we've seen a real rise in craft cocktails. Especially during COVID, a lot of people took to making them and exploring what they could do with fresh fruits and vegetables at home, and this is an extension of that." As a small, fast-growing company with no budget or time for focus groups, online panels, or extensive surveys, Rohtang turned to his own intuition, experience and expertise in the food and drink industry and sourced as many existing industry studies and trade publications as he could to provide the necessary research data to help create his strategic plan. According to Marketwatch.com, the global cocktail mixer industry is currently valued at $8.6B USD and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.7% from 2022-2030 reaching $18.3B USD in 2030. Using KBVresearch.com Rohtang was able to identify the top 3 growing cocktail trends: 1. Consumers are increasingly consuming mixed drinks at home as the pandemic caused them to avoid crowds, dine out less and search for affordable, small luxuries. 2. Fresh fruit and vegetable mixers are being seen as having "therapeutic" qualities and have increased in popularity as people become more health conscious and are looking for immunity boosting, natural foods and beverages. 3. Younger consumers are eschewing beer for other alternatives, and North American consumers are at the leading edge of the cocktail and mixed drink wave of popularity. In addition, Statistics Canada provided a wealth of information about current consumption by demographic, supporting Rohtang's targeting decisions, and Industry Canada offered numerous recent benchmarking, manufacturing and international trade studies and statistics highlighting the upward momentum in mixed drink production, sales, and consumption. The time was definitely right to strike! According to Rohtang, drinks can be made at home easily without having to lug home a bag of oranges and lemons, for example. The shopper marketing messaging, including clings on store freezers, amplifies the ease concept with "just add alcohol" verbiage. Also, most consumers know about cocktails like margaritas, but are either unaware of or intimidated by the work that goes into making them "just right," which is where "The Juicer" shines. All its mixers are heavy on fruit juice, and the recipes selected for the rollout of the line are ones that feature juice most prominently. Rohtang says the primary driver in the category is taste, so appetite appeal is front and centre, something it knows how to do from its experience in juice and dressing, which operate around a similar insight. "Part of the design done in-house was thinking about recipes that would work well with our philosophy and go from there." Sarah Rohtang, senior director of business development, says the value "The Juicer" brings is specializing in fruits and vegetables and making them convenient, while keeping the nutritional element, to attract a premium audience, which is broader than many might expect. Different from its core target of mothers with young children, for its cocktail mixers "The Juicer" is focusing on 25- to 44-year-old professional adults who are urban homeowners with a more discerning palate. These are consumers who are willing to pay premium pricing and are interested in trying new things. "They are people who do not follow the mainstream, are looking for something different, and like to indulge themselves". Rohtang adds that both Sobeys and Longo's are good strategic partners, as they are both premium stores and offer premium products. "Our philosophy with all of our products is to look at what is available on the market, and we bring it up a level." There are competitive cocktail mixers available, Rohtang points out, but they are all shelf stable rather than frozen, and some contain an ingredients sheet that isn't clean. To further differentiate them, "The Juicer" Mixers are priced at a 10% premium to similar competitive offerings, underscoring their unique points of difference and quality, natural ingredients. Better-for-you products like "The Juicer" cocktail mixers fit in very well with Sobeys and Longo's customers, Rohtang says, where it has already built trust through its salad dressings. It's running promotions at both banners, featured in flyers and in-store promotions every few months, with a tearaway couponing strategy to come. At Longo's, there was also a banner-wide demo in late December. They are also using digital and social advertising, and over the holiday season, the brand had a launch at Mildred's Temple Kitchen in Toronto, which drew a strong turnout in December, with media and influencers. That event and initial rollout was organized by Bob's Your Uncle and The Go To

Questions:

1.A mission statement is used by a company to explain, in simple and concise terms, its purpose for being. Referring to the case, what do you believe "The Juicer's" mission is? What key question does "The Juicer's" mission statement answer and why is it so critical to their planning process and future of the company? How has "The Juicer" mitigated the risk of suffering from Marketing Myopia?

2. To ensure their long-term survival, every organization needs to grow regardless of the stage of their life cycle, and in-class we introduced and worked with a useful analytical tool to help generate viable growth strategies for Charmaine's Sweets. Using that tool, identify and explain the growth strategy "The Juicer" used for their expansion into cocktail mixers. Identify another viable growth strategy for "The Juicer" and describe a potential new growth opportunity for that strategy.

3. As an astute and experienced marketer, Rob Rohtang conducted research to analyze market opportunities before launching "The Juicer's" cocktail mixers. Referencing examples from the case, identify and explain what type of research data he relied upon, why you believe he selected it, and two advantages and disadvantages of using this type of data.

4. Using evidence from the case, identify the target market for "The Juicer's" cocktail mixers, outline two (2) different segmentation bases being used for that target market, and explain the targeting strategy you believe was employed to select that target market. Identify and explain a possible way for "The Juicer" to re-segment the market for their cocktail mixers.

5.Marketing is focused on understanding and meeting the needs of the customer, and the marketing mix is the mechanism that is used to persuade the customer to act in a way that fulfills those needs. Providing specific examples from the case to support your answer, identify and briefly describe each element of "The Juicer's" marketing mix.