Tropicana Minutemaid

8/13/2019 Tropicana Minutemaid

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IntroductionMinute Maid is a product line of beverages, usually associated with

lemonade or orange juice, but now extends to soft drinks of many kinds,

including Hi-C. Minute Maid is sold under Cappy brand

in Central Europe and under Fruitopia in Germany. Crossover Creative, an

award-winning marketing and advertising consulting agency in the San

Francisco Bay Area, created Taste More Fruit.based on current

customersresponses to how the product tastes as good as fresh fruit.

Base on this strong customer needs. Minute Maid bam boo up. However, Minute

Maid faces a strong competitor-Tropicana, which is famous for its ready-to-

serve juice. Because the drought in Brazil that has sharply driven upprice, Minute Maids high price product loss many customers compared with

Tropicana, which provide a very low price of products. Under this

situation, Minute meet a choice of whether continue its frozen juice, or

turn to develop new ready-to-serve product. However Citrus Hills lesson

tells us that develop both kinds of juice meet the risk about making

customers believing the products are fresh. All of these what I talked

about is we cannot run business only because there is a big market. Inorder to win the market we have to know the market characteristics which

we are serving for. Market characteristic includes the number of

alternatives, the price range, and store distribution and information

availability. It is the consumers perception of, or beliefs about, the

market characteristics that influence shopping behavior, not the actual

characteristics. While beliefs and reality are usually related, often they

are not identical. Marketing managements job is to build relationships

with customers by creating customer value and satisfaction (Ding, 2010).

However, marketing managers cannot do this alone. Marketing success will

require working closely with other company departments,

suppliers, marketing intermediaries, customers, competitors, and various

publics, which combine to make up the companys value delivery network. In

the following, I will firstly analysis the Market of Minute Maid and

secondly discuss the target customers group of it. At last, I will give a


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forecast about the future about Minute Maid in the three to five years

later.

Juice Industry EnvironmentWith the accelerate development of society, orange juice war is

intensifying as every players try to shares of the market. In order to

define and analyses the product-market structure of Minute Maid it is

necessary to understand the juice industry environment. In the follow I

will use Potters five forces model discuss the keys to competitiveness in

juice industry.

Firstly, the prime source of competition in this industry is among the

existing incumbents. There are general three juice manufactures which are

Minute Maid, Citrus Hill and Tropicana in this essay. These competitors

intensify completion leading to high levels of advertising spend, strong

price competition and continuous launch of new products to Minute Maid.

Secondly, as we all know that Minute Maid not peruse overall cost

leadership, but high quality of product. They want give their customersfresh

juice. As result of it, Minute Maid develops its own technology to keep

juice fresh without food preservatives. This skill cost a lot and hard for

others to compared with. That make new entrants cannot compete with it

(Wen, 2010). Thirdly, as we all know that all the government are

encouraging agriculture industry, such as decrease the tax of famer, give

allowance to famers, as a result of it, many food suppliers bam boo up,

and decrease the whole foodssuppliersbargaining power. Fourthly,

nowadays more and more people are preferred to drink juice than other

drinks. When you walk into a supermarket, it isnt hard for you to find

juice productsnumber is increasing these years,. As what Coca-Cola does

in 2009, it increases its juice products kinds under

Minute Maid, and decreases its soda drink for exporting (Mu, 2009). Still

ready-to-serve juice seems more and more popular these years. Conceder as

fresher and convenient drink of frozen juices substitute, it has accepted


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by a lot of customers especially these working women. However under this

situation, Minute Maid did not change their product into this ready-to-

serve, but still concentrate its frozen juice. What worse, at the same time

its biggest competitor Tropicana, who is famous for its ready-to-serve

(substitute of frozen juice) has decreased its product price to take cost

leadership strategic. As a result of it Tropicana use 27.3 percent share by

ready-to-serve produce win Minute Maids 17.7 percent share of frozen

juice product. During that time P&Gs Citrus Hill lose the market by

provide both frozen juice and ready-to-service with an unclear

segmentation.

In order to make a smart strategic, it is necessary to analyses the

environment of industry and the situation about the company, the target

customers and competitors. For Minute Maid, as I have given

before, is a successful organization with a long company history since

1946. Still, juice industry strength is high for it has great growth

potential. As a drink product it targets all people in the world as their

customers. With the development of society, people are concern more abouttheir life quality than before. Compared with water, more customers will

choice juice for its fresher and healthier. However things are not that

easy for Minute Maid for there are some threat companies like Tropicana,

and Citrus Hill. As we all know that Citrus Hill has closed down in the

early year for promising its juice are 100 percent fresh but things are not

like that. Tropicana is another competitor of Minute Maid for its ready-to-

serve juice are famous all around the world, it develop its own taste

juice-mixed taste juice. Still after Pepsi-Cola bought Tropicana, it has

strong parent companys finance support, makes Minute Maid and

Tropicanas compete become Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Colas compete (Browns,

2009). Thus in order to win the competition with Tropicana, the key factor

is get customers current and future information. In the research about

juice current customers says that over half numbers of juice customers are

women. These women always have families, and they care more about family

membershealth. Base on my research in the market that women prefer


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frozen juice or ready-to-serve. Nearly 37% women were bought frozen juice,

for its fresh and healthy. But

nearly 63% women will buy ready-to-serve for its long keeping time and

their children reflect. In my research many women tell me that their

children always drink that in school, not like these frozen juices paper

bag, these ready-to-serve are more easy for keeping and still good for

health compared with these carbonated beverage. Talking back to Minute

Maid, since Tropicana came into the market with its ready-to-serve juice,

Minute Maids pure premium orange juice suffered a decreasing share for a

long time. Fortunately, in 2004, Minute Maid made its own ready-to-serve

pulp juice and gain great successuntil 2010 Minute Maid remain the onlycompany which can product pulp juice. Even though Tropicana make its lemon

pulp juice in 2011, Minute still keep its first

position in juice industry for it has product frozen orange juice for so

many years, and its technology for juice is the best in the industry, even

compared with Tropicana.

Minute Maids SegmentationCompanies today recognize that they cannot appeal to all buyers in the

marketplace or at least not to all buyers in the same way. Buyers are too

numerous, too widely scattered, and too varied in their needs and buying

practices. Moreover, the companies themselves vary widely in their

abilities to serve different segments of the market. Rather than trying to

compete in an entire market, sometimes against superior competitors, each

company must identify the parts of the market that it can serve best and

most profitably (Hu, 2008). Thus it is necessary for Minute Maid to do the

segmentation. Companies have not always practiced market segmentation and

targeting. When buyers were offered the Model T Ford, they could have the

car in any color as long as it is black.Similarly, Minute Maid at one

time produced only one drink for the whole market, hoping it would appeal

to everyone. As the research about 50 customers who bought juice in market,

I found most people who drink ready-to-serve juice are general like this:

teenagers, who are studying in the school, women who are working. They want


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healthier life but limited time. In order to suit these customers need, it

is important for Minute Maid make its ready-to-serve juice can be seen by

these target customers, for example use some white collar or teenagers in

the juice advertisement. Still a reasonable price is necessary for 56% of

these 50 customers said that if Minute Maid raises its price they will

consider to buy Tropicana instated of it. Another thing, as these young

people like something new, thus it is hard for them to have that patience

to drink a big bottle of juice, thus it will be good if we focus on making

some small and interesting size of bottle in order to fit their purpose of

changing. Still use some promotion is necessary for these potential

customers could know about our products.

On the other side, most people who drink frozen juice are general like

this: a little older, purse high quality of life, they have many times of

shopping or these young who want everything in their life are the best,

these people always over the upper-middle status, and price is not the fist

factor they consider about in purchase. As my research about 50 customers

who bought frozen juice, nearly all of them said if Minute Maid raises itsprice, they will still bought it. In order to suit these target customers

needs it is necessary for Minute Maid to make it frozen juice have the best

quality, such as develop the D&R part of juice and make it more fresher and

nutrient for these target customers want quality life and dont care pay a

high price. Still these D&R technology can always help ready-to-serve juice

prove its taste, and achieve synergy.

Even though we are doing segmentation about Minute Maid, but it is

still necessary to consider about the competitors segmentation which is

Tropicana. A storage study of frozen, fresh squeezed, unpasteurized,

polyethylene-bottled orange juice was conducted to determine vitamin C loss

on a monthly basis over a period of 24 months (Power, 2011). Vitamin C

content declined from an initial

value of 40.6 mg/100 ml to 32.8 mg/100 ml in the final analysis for a loss

of 19.2% over the storage period. As we all know, Tropicana roll out its


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pure prime orange juice and only product ready-to-serve juice. As what I

have given before, it targets these who are teenagers and working women and

gain the share of mixed fruit taste and cheaper price. In order to

competitive with Tropicana, Minute must designing the companys offering

and image to occupy a distinctive place in the mind of the target market

(Internet 1). As what I have given, Minute Maids company culture is make

their juice the best quality in the world, thus differentiation position is

necessary. For its frozen juice needs to be distinctive and pre-emptive at

its taste and outlook, make customers think it is superior value, then get

profitable. On the others side, its ready-to-serve juice still position

differentiation, with its pulpfree juice developed, but with a low price which can be accepted by all

customers. We take these two kinds of juice products mix to offer

customers; each of them is differentiation position and clear target

customers.

Orange Juice Industry Trends in the FutureAs we all know, with the eye-catching development of society, juice

industry keep an accelerating development for nearly half centre. We can

say that100 years before, drink industry is belonging to water, 10 years

before is belonging to tea and sodas, but now belong to juice. Nowadays,

people are more concerned about their quality of life and health than

before (Flood, 2010). Health care products are examples of that and with

the number of juice products increasing, personally, juice will become a

special kind of health care products. Still, with the step of

internationalization, more companies are searching for blue market for

domestic market has already full of competitors. With the increase

pricestorm, there are many drink product has to rise their price for

increasing resource. The way in which an orange juice futures contract

works is much the same as any other commodities future in that the contract

is agreed to by both the buyer and the seller with the contractual

agreement to complete the transaction at some future predetermined time at

the specified future price. Of course the difference is in the commodity,


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which in this case is orange juice. However, in terms of a futures contract

the futures actually refers to frozen concentrated orange juice which is

notated as FCOJ (frozen concentrate orange juice) on the exchanges. The

reason for this is quite logical as orange juice

is perishable and the contract is for a future delivery of this commodity

(Internet 2).

With all these four things happening into orange juice industry, Minute

Maid faced a more complex situation than before still more opportunities.

OpportunitiesMost cost conscience consumers will just buy whichever brand is on

sale. In a big grocery store, onecan most likely find at least one brand of orange juice for sale on the

shelf. Firstly, competitors are double edges swordfor it can both cut

ourselves and use as weapon. Minute Maid can joint venture with a good

company, and wider the gap to other companies. Secondly, with development

of internet, ways of promotion are various. We can use internet shop to get

close to customers. The last

opportunity is with the development of the information transforming, wehave more knowledge of suppliers, to choice a good supplier can help

control company cost and decrease companys financial risk.

ThreatAs Minute Maid has become the leader in the juice industry, the first

threat is that all the

companies will set a goal to exceed Minute Maid, as a result of it, Minute

Maids technology are hard to keep its unique characteristics, for example

there are many companies has develop their pulp juice such as Tropicana,

Wahaha. The second problem that Minute Maid may meet is political problem.

As accelerating development of this juice industry, many countries domestic

juice companies are

hard get into the market, as a result their government must take out some

political to help these Minute Maids competitors. Thirdly, as we all

know, with the high profit of the juice industry, many companies want to

share the market of it, as a result of it more and more new threats enter


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into the

market, that means the price competition is becoming more and more

intensive.

With all I have talked about, with the market environment changing

Minute Maid have many opportunities and threats, it is necessary to design

a market strategy to control 4P of company. As Minute Maids core benefit

is its health, as top manager of company said that Minute Maids culture

is offering customers most healthy juice. And then these product planners

turn the core benefit into pulp free juice, finally, product planners build

an augmented product around the

core benefit and actual product by offering additional consumer servicesand benefits, such as 50% frozen juice. After determine the product the

second stage is make a reasonable price as it is the amount of money

charged for a product, price have become more important in buyer-choice

behavior in recent decades. Internal factor affecting pricing include the

companys marketing objectives, marketing mix strategy, costs, and

organizational considerations. Minute Maids objective of being the

biggest juice manufacturer in the world but have two different kinds ofjuice products which are ready-to-serve and frozen juice. In their book,

The Experience Economy, Joseph Pine and James Gilmore argue that, as

products and services become less and less differentiated, companies are

moving to a new level in creating value for customers(Pine and Gilmore,

2009). Beyond simply making products and delivering services, companies are

staging, marketing, and delivering memorable experiences. The experience

economy goes beyond the entertainment and retailing businesses. Thus

marketing mix strategy is necessary, these frozen juice pursue high quality

thus may pricing higher, on the other side, these ready-to-serve products

may pricing lower. As a juice manufacturer advertisement and other

promotions are still necessary, and choice a right place can attract

customersattention.

onclusion


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Minute Maid was the first company to market orange juice concentrate,

allowing it to be distributed throughout the United States and served year-

round. The Minute Maid Company is owned by The Coca-Cola Company, and is

the world's largest marketer of fruit juices and drinks. However, with the

accelerate changing of juice industry environment, there are more and more

people prefer soft drink with ready-to-serve bottle for paper bag can only

keep these frozen juice for a short time. At that time Tropicana and Citrus

Hill came into the market with mixed taste ready-to-serve juice. Even

though Citrus Hill was exited market for its juice is not that fresh as

they said, Minute Maid still faces the strong competitor Tropicana. Thus it

is necessary for Minute Maid to product good product (White, 2007). In2004, Minute Maid made its own pulp free juice which gains lot customers.

Even though 6 years later, Tropicana make lemon pulp free juice but because

of higher price but lower taste, lemon juice did not sell well. Minute Maid

target these two kinds of people, the first one is that they want product

which are convenient and cheap. The other kind is these people who want

high quality of life they dont care to pay more money to buy better

products.

ReferenceBrowns, J. Y. The opportunities of Coca-Cola juice, China Daily,1

September 2009-12-1-3

Flood, J. J, 2011 The juice industry, Beverage Daily 11-Feb-11

Hooley, J. G. Piercy, F. N. and Nicoulaud, B., 2008. Marketing

Strategy and Competitive Positioning. 4th ed. Essex: FT Prentice Hall.

Hu, F2008Opportunities in China, Hua Xia Wine Quote PP120-125 x

Huang, D 2010The customer Responsibility of Business is to Increase

its Profits, New York

Times Magazine. 12 September, 122-6

Pine, J & Gilmore, J PP 28-88 The Experience Economy,

Power J, 2011-1-2 Minute Maids history, Business Insight, 132-5

Wen, H, 2010 Business week 2010/3

White, G. Y 2007 Minute Maids products Business Insigh

Documents

Tropicana Minutemaid