Juice Guys

Juice Guys

Case overview

     Nantucket Nectars is a beverage company founded in 1989. The company, NN, focuses selling a variety of juice blends. Nantucket Nectars launched a new subsidiary, Juice Guys in Nantucket Island on June 1998. Juice Guys is a company introduced to compete in the up heaving fresh juice and fresh smoothie industry in the West Coast. 1998 summer was the opening season of Juice Guys and in just three months, they have earned $227,000 in sales.

     What they strived to do next is to expand into the Boston market. NN was established well in Boston and therefore the company considered Boston as a great place to test the success of juice Guys in the East Coast.

Problem statement

     The problem with opening a Juice Guys store in Boston was that East Coast consumers were not as familiar with the fresh juice and smoothies as the West Coast customers. Additionally, the Nantucket Island store has only operated in the summer thus far and will not be a logical retail concept to use in Boston which has different concepts.

     As the case puts it, the mission of Juice Guys is to find a “Quality Juice Evolution Solution”. Juice Guys should find an efficient retail concept tailored for a residential neighbourhood in Boston’s charming, Beacon Hill area.

Retail Concept Analysis

     When doing this analysis, it is important to keep in mind the difference of demographics between East Coast and West Coast consumers. Additionally, the target group that was identified after the interviews were athletic, health conscious, 18-35 year olds who are well educated, well dressed, and have a high income. To make things clear, this analysis will be separated into five parts: the location of the store, the appearance of the store, the offering it will provide, the prices of these offerings, and the service of the store.

     The location of the store is an important aspect as according to the interviews held, the target group is not willing to walk for more than 15 minutes to get their smoothies. It is essential for the location to be convenient for the consumers to drop by after a workout or after work. Therefore the ideal place for this location would be in the busy parts of a city, preferably in a busy mall, or near a gym.

     The appearance of the store is what consumers will see when they first walk into the store. If these consumers are first time buyers, there is a high possibility that the look of the store alone persuaded them to test try the new store. Outside of the store as well as the inside of the store has to be designed in a way that increases the appeal of the store to the consumers. From the interviews held, Juice Guys were able to find about the consumer preferences in regards of the special structure of the store. Many consumers said that they were not planning to sit down and enjoy the drink as they would be picking up a drink on their way to work or home. Taking this into account, opening a drive thru would be an attractive opportunity for consumers. Since most of them are not planning to spend a lot of time in the store sitting down, the number of chairs and tables should be carefully determined. A bar with stools on the inside of the store and a couple of tables outside the store for the summer would work the best in this situation. Pastel colors for the inside of the store were preferred by the consumers as it gives a happy feeling and corresponds to the colors of smoothies. Consumers also mentioned in the interviews that they are not willing to spend more than 10 minutes to get their orders; therefore the store should not be too crowded and should have a fast check-out line. It will be valuable to open more than one check-out line to take the orders faster during the rush hours. Another additional aspect that many of the interviewed customers agreed on was the need to see freshly cut fruits and the need to observe the preparation of their smoothie. This gives them a reassurance of the freshness of their smoothie and they know what exactly goes into their drink. The smell of the store should be fruity, music should be soft and mellow, and the store should be kept extremely clean.