Block 2: The Re-brand and Repositioning of Lucozade
Repositioning occurs when a brand decides to change its market position by changing its image, to reflect a change in consumers' tastes. This can happen for many reasons, such as the brand's original market maturing or going into decline.
Lucozade is an energy drink which has been on sale in the UK since 1927 (under the original name Glucozade, before rebranding to its current form in 1929), produced by the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline. Lucozade was repositioned from a sick child’s drink to a healthy adult's drink. The company wanted to take advantage of the bigger target market in the faster growing healthy adult’s soft-drink sector and repositioned the brand accordingly. This radical repositioning saw a dramatic increase in sales.
Below is a perceptual map illustrating Lucozade’s reposition:
Evidence of the company’s desire to move towards a more adult market can be seen from the following advertisement, shown on British TV in 1972: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOH34Y9SwKM). By showing the child's mother consuming the drink in order to boost her energy levels when taking care of her sick child - who is also drinking Lucozade, Ogilvy & Mather (the advertising agency responsible for the campaign) begins to draw attention away from marketing the product towards those who are sick and instead aiming the product towards those wishing to replenish lost energy.
The first instance of Lucozade’s repositioning exercise with a full focus on energy replenishment took place in 1985. The advert features British former Olympic decathlete Daley Thompson sprinting after drinking Lucozade, while a fast-paced song (Iron Maiden's Phantom of the Opera) plays in the background, with a voice-over by well-known sport broadcaster Des Lynam. The slogan of the drink also changed from "Lucozade aids recovery" to "Lucozade replaces lost energy." The campaign was very effective, with sales of the product between 1984 and 1989 tripling to $115million.
After watching the video (link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Vam5Lxadio) I found that in contrast to previous advertising campaigns which focused on recovering from illness, every campaign from the Daley Thompson advert onwards has focused on energy replenishment.
Currently, however, as part of the "YES" campaign, a popular band/musician appears on (and helps design) a bottle of each flavour of Lucozade Energy, possibly in order to appeal to a younger demographic and move even further away from the common associations the brand has regarding illness. By shifting the brand's attention towards music, Lucozade Energy is trying to recreate its previous successes in sport while breaking into a very crowded energy drink market. Using popular chart musicians is, in my view, a clever way to approach targeting a brand towards younger consumers, who may - as a result - have a greater affinity towards Lucozade if it is shown to use well-known artists in such a way.
A recent TV advertisement for Lucozade Sport features a song performed by the rapper Tinie Tempah (a British musician whose likeness appears on the Orange flavoured bottle of Lucozade Energy he helped design) and Travis Barker (best known as the drummer for the band Blink-182), while an Irish female boxing champion, Katie Taylor, trains in the video. By including representation from both sport and music, Lucozade successfully keeps hold of its existing market (athletic people) while expanding into a new target demographic (young persons influenced by music).
Overall, Lucozade is clearly a brand that has been able to reposition itself - with great success - on a number of occasions. Through the brand's ability to adapt to current market tastes and trends, both Lucozade Sport and Lucozade Energy are products that stay relevant to the consumer.
