Review Of Purity Soft Drinks’ Marketing Strategies

Overview of the company

The report intends to review the marketing strategies chosen by Purity soft drinks for over the past decades. Acknowledging the role of marketing this report will try to explore the techniques, which the company, Purity soft drinks Puritysoftdrinks.co.uk (2018), has been using since its days of beginning. Purity soft drinks has been operating their business since 1892. The first innovative marketing stunt was noticed when in a popular market of carbonated soft drink they introduced range of fresh fruit juices. Purity soft drinks has experimented with the ingredients to launch several soft drink products and diversified the idea from having cola as a refreshing beverage to fruit juice with active herbs to approach the health conscious generation. This strategy, eventually, has been helping them to create a competitive position since the days of beginning. Apart from current digital strategies, it has been depending on old DNA of marketing, which suggests their marketing efficiency.

In the due course, the report will describe the usefulness and effective nature of the traditional marketing tools by Purity soft drinks following a brief summary of the organisational objective and issues. Market description and a SWOT analysis will allow understanding the issues and opportunities better. As per Sharma, Koc and Kishore (2014), Traditional usage of technology will be discussed along with both the traditional and current STP strategies. Finally, a marketing mix will assist exploring various communication channels strategically. As per the recent marketing trends, this report will produce the feasibility of applying or diversifying new marketing DNA with the old ones and according to that, recommendations will be suggested.

Long before such technological development, businesses were successfully executing business operations and gained revenue as well. Communication process of Purity soft drinks was so advanced that with the help of key marketing strategies, which has made the brand recognizable in countries overseas as it is in its home ground. The journey of 124 years of serving the UK population with fruit juice and juice beverages was not easy yet remarkable based on the strategies they used in terms of making the brand popular locally. The business is collaborating with local farmers as well in terms of raw materials (Oberholtzer et al. 2014) . The bottle, the use of font, innovative names according to ingredients; everything is timeless and still maintaining the tradition apart from few modifications. Besides, keeping the consumer price almost same for the past twenty five years and successful in proving the same quality throughout, is undoubtedly, claims customers’ attention and increases brand value. Keeping the same quality and using creative advertising campaigns Purity soft drinks has been operating the business since past 124 years in various national locations. In addition, their franchise model has been proven as successful as well in terms of expansion. Moreover, Purity soft drinks has been using music for decades for the marketing purpose by collaborating with music shows and sponsoring music festivals or composing a theme jingle even.

Therefore, it can be said after reviewing Tiago and Veríssimo (2014), that long before such digital strategies the company gained much public exposure. That is why; this company is suitable because as described Purity soft drinks has been using old marketing DNA for a long span of time successfully. However, considering the increasing competition and dynamic preferences of the consumers Purity soft drinks is needed to leverage technology more if the organisation wants to sustain for more two decades in such a competitive business environment.

• The market trend is in favour of low calorie, low sugar drink rather nowadays major part of the potential customers prefer a beverage, which has a nutritious value as well. In order to combat the issue the company sets its objective to increase the awareness across global market within a span of next six months and hence opportunity of an increased revenue can be identified along with the market share.
• Acknowledging this opportunity, organizational objective is to increase the market share more than the previous decade by at least 5% at the end of the current year.  
• Moreover, goal is to increase the sales unit as well by 20% within next two years.

• The current issue company is confronting with is that the use of sugar as one of the main ingredients of the products. The product has been diversified to Coke zero and Purity soft drinks life reducing the sugar quantity.
• According to Reisch, Eberle  and Lorek (2013) in long-term the issue will raise in terms of product innovation and sustainability.

Objectives

In a situation like that, to identify the key performance indicator a SWOT analysis would be helpful to understand the contemporary variables of the market.

The industry of fruit juice is currently running on a positive note and businesses are experiencing growth centrally for the change perception of people regarding their lifestyle. People have become more conscious regarding health issues. Therefore, consumers prefer healthy beverages such as fruit juice, vegetable drink and health tonics to remain fit and happy. Considering that opportunity, the business of Purity fruit juice has grown up to 20% from previous decade. People are showing interests in blending of fruits and vegetables in one drink that is capable of mitigating health issues. Since, 1892 the company has been operating yet the current situation is favourable for rapid business growth. The current market of soft drink is promising as far as the consumer behaviour is concerned.

Purity soft drinks is competing in domestic market mostly, targeting the young generation who are health conscious, children and working professionals. The average age of the target market is from 08 to 55. According to the market trend, a reading of Slining, Mathias and Popkin (2013) suggests, consumers are prone to have a beverage that has nutritious value rather than being carbonated one. The organisation positioned itself as an agent of sharing happiness and as if the product helps to lighten up the mood along with serving nutritious benefits.  The main competitors are other carbonated or energy drink companies like Vimto and of course, nutritious fruit juice products can be considered as competitors. However, according to Alviola et al. (2014), the trend among the consumers has also been noticed that with the increasing threat of obesity people like to keep such juices handy in order to quench their thirst as well as demand of nutrients.  

• Political regulations have been changed regarding the trade rules, which is consistently affecting the importation and exportation of raw materials. However, as it has become mandatory to mention nutritious value on the packaging several market opportunities are increasing.
• People irrespective of the economic background can afford this drink, which has been proved by the increased sale of the product in the time of recession as well.
• Although, Purity soft drinks is a fruit and botanical herbs infused drink, a social trend has been identified among the older population and diabetic people to avoid such drinks as it contains sweet fruits and sugar. Purity soft drinks has diversified the products into zero sugar or health tonics using bitter gourd, mint leaves have helped them to capture the market value. Moreover, as described in Ramos et al. (2015),using the nutrition information in the packaging the sales has been increased.
• Legal changes are responsible for the decreased business as well. As it is a small local operator, changes in income and corporation tax affected the market position of Purity soft drinks in a negative way. Based on change in US tax system, it has influenced business of the juice company.
• There are clear instructions in their packaging on how to depose the cans and bottles to remain environment Recycled bottles and cans create positive effect on both the environment and customers’ who are conscious about environment conservation.
• Television advertisements and radio broadcasts were the technological advantage that the company used to opt for. Besides, print media was the biggest channel for marketing.

• The mission and vision of the company itself suggests strong business ethics. Their policy is to satisfy the employees in order to make the customers satisfied.
• As the company is almost 125 years old, the organisation has experienced a huge deal of transformation regarding the nature of marketplace and the way promotional activities have been designing by the executives since the beginning. The brand has already established its brand value widely and well recognised too. As described in Bojei et al. (2013), it has become possible due to establishment of good relationship with the consumersby providing them the best possible quality.
• Suppliersmust be ethical and a trustworthy relationship is important in order to serve the market according to the changing requirements.
• The biggest competitor of Purity soft drinks is other giant soft drink brands and the main sector of competition is their pricing strategy. Although, as described in co.uk (2018), Vimto have not followed the product diversification strategy based on fruit juice to make the business sustainable. Otherwise, for the sake of marketing strategy, yet they are offering some tangy raspberry and grape flavours along with health tonics, which fit the energy of young generation rather than being served in breakfast tables mostly (Kit et al. 2013).

The research has been executed by considering responses of five marketing officials from Purity soft drinks. Questing 20 people randomly about their experiences with Purity drinks, an additional market survey was performed. The findings suggests a shift in consumers’ behaviour. The market trend is to maintain a healthy diet to avoid the chances of several health conditions. As per Tajeddini, Elg and Trueman (2013), traditional marketing tools are relevant yet in case of small businesses, it would be cost effective and more customer oriented to proceed with digital marketing tools.

The threat of using additional sugar in fruit juices is one of the biggest threats to the juice brands like Purity, which promises to offer natural and fresh quality products. As the time progresses consumers are becoming more sophisticated regarding the matter of buying juice product. Company is assuring, as a part of campaign, an honest ingredient list on the top of the packaging. Purity brand clearly adheres to the fact that their packaging manufacture units maintaining the manner with the help of advanced machines without damaging the benefits of nutrients.

The company has been using several old marketing DNA which are relevant still in new marketing environment as well. As instance, digital boards on top of high buildings, malls ands and storefronts are capable of make a wide number of audiences aware of the product specifications. Besides the most familiar method is using hand painted or printed images on billboards instead of using texts. These large boards are hard to overlook when placed on the top of high buildings. Digital boards are nothing but a digitalized form of billboards.

Issues

Targeting a particular set of audiences email marketing can be old-fashioned yet approach the new generation market highly. It is considered as the best-personalized approach to customers in terms of making them understand and influence them to buy their products.

In addition to these, the methods of printed and television advertisements are common. Simultaneously, printed toll free customer care contact and providing them virtual support regarding products are some of the traditional technical help which have been opted by the company for their marketing campaign.

In developing the brand identity and recognition, the traditional marketing strategy is failing to reach the corners of individual’s drawing room. It has been observed that the increasing use of smartphones among the tech-savvy generations irrespective of their economic background. Digital strategies, mainly social media helps a small business organisation to remain cost effective too.  

• Purity juice brand can provide QR code, which is needed to scan by using a smart device to log into the website of the company, which will allow the customers to gain deeper perception of the product.
• Besides, internet based technologies like developing a well-designed web page will be helpful for them in terms of engaging customer base with plenty of product information.
• Recruiting more social media and digital marketing executives will help the company to appear more frequently in search results. Besides, creating media pages over social networks will help to gain feedbacks regarding customer experience and assist to know about the market trend. It will indirectly help to diversify the product range according to changing trends of the contemporary market.   

According to Sadun (2015), Marketing plan is created with the purpose of improving the business, to establish strong relationship with the customers for sustainable income from the existing product range and to remain a supplier of value aligned with the stakeholders’ response. Therefore, crisp and appropriate segmentation, targeting and positioning strategy would be helpful to develop the brand image of purity fruit Juice Company.

Purity fruit juice introduced their fresh and 100% natural range of fruit juice and beverages in order to make an impact on health of UK population. The market was full of carbonated cola and refreshment drinks when it was launched. Hence, it was uncommon and a bit expensive though in terms of its ingredients. The trend of being fit and physically attractive has been increased from the past few decades. Not only celebrities and sports persons, the trend has become popular among common citizens as well. Therefore, a reading of Thompson (2014) suggests people having health or fitness concerns are the chief base of customers from there the revenue comes in. Besides, there is a range for children, which adds children and teenagers to the segment.

Marketing executives and managers find certain recurring characteristics among the consumers, based on which customers can be divided into separated groups. While designing the product ranges the requirements of certain groups are needed to keep in mind. The juice brand has been operating the market of UK on the basis of this policy until the idea of more personalised or bespoke drink has emerged. It will be a smart approach to maintain the existing segmentation policy along with exploring the one-to-one together.

Acknowledging the nature of customers’ demand that has become more personalized than before, hence, in order to serve bespoke services the company needs to focus on individual demand to approach a collective group of same choices. It will enhance the retail shopping experience of the customers. In due course of one to one marketing, as argued by Hansen and Sia (2015), Purity being an independent retail brand must use consumer behaviour in order to target the dynamism, use of smart devices must be increased to receive more personalised feedback that will be helpful in terms of delivering bespoke nutritious drinks in future.

Key performance indicator

The company positioned itself as a healthy, traditional drink with low amount of added sugar alternatives. Purity produces drinks with appealing names like Juice Bursts, Juice Burst Skinny and Firefly. The product name itself suggests its position and target market too. According to the current position, although it is a small independent company still it has big presence within industry. In response to the global need of healthy refreshment drink, the organisation is preparing itself for diversifying into beverages preferred by the consumers. Therefore, considering the psychology of consuming healthy foods and less calorie the products can position itself successfully comparing to the competitor carbonated cola or energy drink brands. With the help of technology, new packaging details can be added like QR codes to make customers’ awareness for branding. This strategy is relevant in contemporary market place as well.

Value proposition is that component of a product that influence the buyers’ decision-making process while shopping a beverage or other products. The competitor Vimto produces health tonics infused of raspberry, blackcurrant and gapes mostly. Later, Vimto diversified into fruit flavoured cola based drinks. On the other hand, Purity has been operating in with the same business value modifying very few things based on the consumers, preferences aligning with the health benefits. The reason why people would buy a Juice Burst, as per Juiceburst.com (2018), rather than a carbonated Vimto is that along with refreshment a consumer can have nutrients as well. It fits appropriately with the emerging marketing trend of consuming a healthy diet.

Purity Fruit Juice, a small independent beverage company of UK, which has been applying the old marketing DNA for more than 120 years of business operations; it would be a highly professional approach to frame a marketing mix in order to balance with the current market trend and dynamic consumer preferences even in such a digital era.  

Product: As discussed before, and according to the data gathered from primary research Purity is offering healthy, fresh and natural fruit juices with lower amount of sugar and sugar alternatives. The company uses zero preservatives to keep benefits of the nutrients same as the fruit itself. As per the study of Fruit And Vegetable Juice Market: Global Trends (2018), the company is thinking of diversifying the ingredients in future into vegetables for addressing several health concerns like obesity, diabetes and high blood sugar level or cholesterol.

Pricing: Purity is committed to deliver quality products of daily use at an affordable price targeting the families with moderate to high income. It must be remembered, as the ingredients are fresh stock of fruits and vegetables it cost more than the other soft beverages (Mursu et al. 2013). The health conscious population have a tendency of investing on products, which are worth the money, and delivering value. Purity will be beneficial if they focus on delivering quality rather than setting a competitive price. At the same time, the pricing strategy makes the products unapproachable to the students living in UK or the young generation.

Market overview

Place: Purity has been operating business as a small independent retail chain on national scale only. It has never thought of expanding the business in spite of its vast presence within the industry. As supply and distribution units are limited, Purity needs to establish more units at convenient locations to ensure lower transportation and operation cost. UK is a culturally diverse market with several health requirements and people are more into consuming healthy diet rather than having junks.

Promotional strategies and tools: According to Leeflang et al. (2014), it has been observed that due to their dependence on traditional marketing tools the marketing managers have experienced issues reflected in the sales and revenues of the business. People are more technology oriented and more than television and newspaper, they are into smart devices. Therefore, publishing advertisements on television can be a dependable channel yet it is difficult to approach the young generation using newspaper as a marketing medium. It can be said with the context of Malthouse et al. (2013), the company can recruit more staffs into marketing management team who are efficient in generating more revenue and brand awareness by using digital marketing tools. Sending emails and collecting feedbacks via social media to serve bespoke services can be game changer for them.

PR strategies can be considered as a part of promotional activities. According to Smedescu (2013), creating social media pages would not be enough. Further, as descibed in Veeck and Hoger (2014) managing and operating them in terms of customer interest will be extremely helpful to increase brand awareness. Creating innovative contents over Facebook, Instagram and creating video contents regarding marketing campaign over YouTube will help. However, the company is focusing on traditional communication strategies like email marketing (Xu, Frankwick and Ramirez 2016). There is no other medium so effective than social media at this point in terms of sharing product information, news and receiving feedbacks of consumers. These feedbacks can be used as marketing components in advertisements to increase credibility the offered quality.

People: Being a small independent chain, it does not have efficient and adequate workforce to satisfy the demand of the market. Human resource management of Purity needs to go through several trainings on handling the new digital marketing tools to understand customers’ perspectives.

Physical evidence: It is evident from the physical environment that customers’ preferences are shifting towards healthy beverages. Nutrition benefits must be mentioned on the packaging and the attractive packaging helps to attract attention of consumers indirectly. In the case of Purity, redefining the brand image by opting for several corporate branding strategies may help to increase feasibility of marketing strategies.

Conclusion

As per the primary data collection and analysis, it has been observed that employees posted in marketing sector of Purity is confronting with challenges regarding the development of brand awareness using traditional marketing tools. They have felt an urge of shifting their concentration towards digital marketing tools and strategies in order to generate more profit and sales. Depending on their strong national market presence and consumer loyalty, they can try to overcome their flaws of not being present on global space and combat the marketing issues with the help of certain advanced technological help.

The recommendations are feasible in terms of cost, practicability and acceptability and it can be expected that Purity Fruit Juice will be able to implement the new marketing DNA with the old ones within an estimated time span of twelve months.

The entire marketing plan will be cost effective because most of the promotional activities will be executed with the technological help and social media. However, the investment has to be done in IT infrastructure and human resource development programmes.

It is practical enough to shift from the traditional marketing tools and align the purpose with new marketing procedures, as social media assists to reach wider range of audiences within a short span of time.

It is acceptable, as to sustain a competitive position in market a company must be adaptive and open to creative ideas for satisfying dynamic preferences of consumers.

Recommendations are as follows.

• As described in Malik, Willett and Hu (2013), Purity can diversify their product range by launching several health tonics infused with vegetables and botanical herbs as a solution to health conditions like obesity, diabetes and hypertension.
• Creating social media pages and gathering feedbacks will help to develop new products and improve existing services.
• Corporate branding procedure, establishing more supply chain are some of the steps that must be taken immediately to gain customers’ attention.
• New marketing procedures like using digital marketing tools and search engine optimization are helpful in terms of providing immense product information easily.

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