Snapple Case Report

Case Report : Snapple

Marketing Management

Section :B

Group Members:

Ankul Gupta (201601239)

Ankit Jhawar(201611214)

Amit Dosaya(201601215)

Amar Pandey(201601114)

Mouktik Dutta(201601227)

Durgesh Sharma(201611117)

Overview:

The case study basically revolves around promoter, ex-owner and owner of the brand called "Snapple", which is a healthy apple juice with various flavors. The case study talks about the inception of the brand "Snapple", its initial success and crises, which came later in time.

Three friends, Arnie Greenberg, Leonard Marsh and Hyman Golden, started the company with brand name as snapple. With rise in demand of snapple, Quaker Oats company bought it for a staggering sum of 1.7billion in 1994. As Quaker was already into beverage business, consisting entirely of Gatorade brand, the company thought buying snapple will broaden their market position.

But that prediction didn't actually happened. Quaker tried to sell snapple with their Gatorade playbook. There is a strong connection between brand and culture of the company When brand and culture fall out of alignment, both brand and corporate owner are likely to suffer. Quaker failed to realize this and went on with their strategy. Though, they did realize that it is fashion-sensitive brand, they still did not marketed it like one.

Snapple sales peaked in 1994 at $674 million, and declined each year until by 1997 sales were $440 million. Several changes in management did not help to reverse the trend. From ineffective marketing to unavailing distribution, there were several other reasons for the failure of the company.

Finally in 1997, Snapple was acquired by Triac for mere $300 million. But Triac believed that it was not a steal by any means. Triac was not sure whether the company will be able to recover from its decline. But still they conducted a market survey according to which there are chance that people may respond to the right marketing stuff because they feel good about it.

Mistakes Of Quaker:

One of the biggest mistake of Quaker was they tried to convert it to "Lifestyle Brand" from "Fashionable Brand".

1. Another big mistake of Quaker was that they tried to sell snapple from there Gatorade playbook. Though they were both drinks but the customer segment which purchased those product were different.

2. They tried to sell snapple with Gatorade in more locations. People bought Gatorade 32,64 ounce bottle from supermarket but when it came to snapple, they rather preferred a 16-ounce bottle and that too majorly from street(restaurants, deli, vending machine etc).

3. They tried to distribute snapple from their Gatorade supply chain and also forcing distributors to cede snapple account in exchange of right of distribution of Gatorade. The plan was unsuccessful and no channel rationalization was achieved.