Innocent

INNOCENT DRINKS

Simon Edwards, Alexia Faure, Giorgio Rodoni, Charitha Kalamulla Waduge, Joy Seanehia

Introduction

Innocent Drinks was founded in 1999 Produces a range of smoothies and fruit

juices Since being founded, it has turned over

an excess of £76million Commands a 63% share of the

£111million UK smoothie market

Should we give up our jobs to make these smoothies?

The Marketing Process

INNOCENT DRINKS SITUATION ANALYSIS

5 C Analysis

Company. Innocent Drinks’ main area of focus is high

quality smoothies. Innocent is also trying to expand its target

market by implementing a new range of products.

The image innocent tries to give to the general public is of an ethical, enviromentally friendly business.

Their products are of high quality standards, prices are therefore relatively high.

5 C Analysis

Collaborators Innocent ensure good collaboration with its

distributors, (the main ones being Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury's and Starbucks)

Recently a trial for distribution has also been made with McDonalds, bringing up many controversial arguments.

5 C Analysis

Customers Over the last 18 months Innocent’s turnover

has doubled (from £17m to £35m). Innocent’s target market are people from a

middle to high class background. People are globally becoming more health

conscious, giving even more potential to Innocent drinks.

5 C Analysis

Competitors Innocent is currently one of the leading

firms in the smoothie market, its main competitors are Gerber, PJ Smoothies and Drink Express.

Despite having similar ranges of products these firms do not share the same market segment.

5 C Analysis

Context – 1 Political aspects

The firm’s awareness for environmental issues is key factor.

Innocent Drinks is also active when taliking about charity, they donate 10% of their profits every year.

Economical aspects Due to the economic crisis Innocent is trying to

offer promotions on particular products.

5 C Analysis

Context – 2 Social aspects

Innocent tries to be appealing to the customer by offering high quality products, being ethical and by having an extremely friendly approach to the customer.

e.g. 5 portions of fruit/vegetables are reccomended per day, by consuming an Innocent “veg pot” and an innocent smoothie, this 5 a day would be fulfilled.

Social Marketing Model

5 C Analysis

Context – 3 Technological aspects

Innocent has no big premises under this aspect, they instead try to keep it as simple as possible.

In the future this could however be a potential problem, other firms could for example offer products of the same quality at lower prices.

INNOCENT DRINKS MARKETING STRATEGY

Segmentation

Segmentation is the division of the market into different groups within which members share similar needs and requirements.

This division is based on the demographics, psychoanalysis and behavioural aspects of populations.

Its aim is to allow customer needs to be focused on and design efficient marketing mix to fit different segments. It also helps unveil growth opportunities as they identify new customers.

One way in which Innocent exploits different market segments is by offering a range of products targeted at different groups. (e.g. Kid smoothies, superfruit smoothies etc.)

Targeting

Following segmentation, targeting determines which segments are appropriate depending on their needs.

What makes a segment desirable can be its profitability, competition, size, growth rate etc.

Innocent drink’s target market is the young, urban professionals.

Positioning

Positioning allows one product or good to be differentiated from another.

This has to be done to give a competitive advantage to the business.

To implement this strategy the business should have a unique selling point (usp)

Innocent has done this with its diverse range of 100% natural products.

Perceptual map of competing products

Ribena

Innocent drinks

P&J smoothies

INNOCENT DRINKSMARKETING MIX

Marketing mix Model

Product

Product range consists of smoothies, thickies and fruit flavoured drinks known as juicy drinks.

All of these products share a unique selling point in that they are all made from 100% pure crushed fruit and remain ‘unadulterated’.

Seasonal smoothies; launch of a new flavour for spring, summer, autumn and winter. Guest smoothie introduced every 3 months also to keep customer interest in the brand and act as a method of test marketing.

Price

A premium price is charged for the product of £2 (for 250ml).

In contrast, PJ smoothies retail for 99p Innocent justify this pricing, as they use

pure fruit juice whereas PJ use juice from concentrate

Place

Refusal to add preservatives means a short shelf life of only 14 days for Innocent’s products.

This requires an exceptionally slick system of distribution.

Today, Innocent drinks are sold by over 4,000 independent retailers, as well as all of the major supermarket chains.

Promotion

Novel ways of attracting attention to Innocent’s products, including an annual festival, the Supergran Campaign and regular newsletters and gifts to customers who have signed up to the Innocent family.

Use of word of mouth as a promotional tool. Use of advertising campaigns Total advertising expenditure in 2006 was

£6m – up from 1m the previous year.

INNOCENT DRINKSIMPLEMENTATION AND

CONTROL

Implementation and control

As the changes in the market and the environment become more significant, Innocent drinks needs to redesign a product or make new ones.

Changes made to the smoothies: - new recipes -> introduced as a “special

guest” - reflecting the current season -> “seasonal

smoothies”” - larger 1L cartons - developed smoothies “for kids” (March

2005) with special packaging, and made them available in schools. Free of “bits”

Customer Feedback

In order to keep track of customer needs and preferences a customer feedback service has been introduced on the Innocent webpage.

Moreover, a free dial customer line has been introduced; customers there can express any queries on Innocent products.

The veg pots - a meal that gives you 3 portions of veg - tasty recipes (with new ones often)

The veg pot and smoothies can be very well associated as they provide the 5 portions of fruit and veg needed a day

Distribution: making the products available in more and more places:

supermarkets as well as coffee shops,

Harrods

museums and cinemas

New Product Introduction

Creating customer appeal

The Innocent foundation (created in 2004): 10% of the profit made by Innocent drinks goes to this charity

Innocent creates a special relationship with their existing customers.

On the web site the consumer can find:

- where the drinks are on offer

- health questions answered by a doctor every week

Conclusion

Summary

We have looked at how Innocent uses marketing to establish their brand name in the European market.

This was done by following all of the key stages in the marketing process model.

Conclusion and Speculation

Currently, Innocent is prospering in the market by its effective use of marketing

In the future, Innocent must continue to uphold their corporate values in order to maintain their existing customers as well as attracting new customers in what is becoming an increasingly ethical market.