Mktg 6223 - Mountain Dew

Calvin Yu

MKTG 6223

Week 3 Assignment 1

When looking at Exhibit 4, Mountain Dew is clearly leading in high BDI’s within the “bible belt” regions where there are more rural communities.  However, they are struggling outside those specific regions and unable to maximize their popularity to the suburban and urban regions. Within Exhibit 5A, it is also clearly stated that 18-34 year old consumers without kids are over indexing in working class towns and rural areas, while missing out on any growth within the midscale, upscale, elite suburbs.  These exhibits suggest that Mountain Dew is struggling with expanding their brand awareness outside of their core audience.  Per the case, Mountain Dew also struggled with a health issue as parents were hesitant to allow their children to consume the beverage due to high sugar intake.  Exhibit 6A also shows competitive comparisons when it comes to each soft drink beverage brand.  Mountain Dew’s perception is that it’s too sweet and high in energy.  Although some of it’s competitors have worst responses, Sprite reaches consumers who believe that their product is refreshing and healthy.  Therefore, Mountain Dew needs to find effective and creative ways in which they could reach their consumer to change perceptions and increase awareness to new audiences.  

        The “Do the Dew” campaign was massively successful as they focused heavily on extreme sports accompanied with popular alternative music.  Mountain Dew was a brand that was edgy and relevant to their core consumers while promoting buzzwords and popular slang.  In terms of ad effectiveness, the only measurement applied toward the campaign came from television talk shows, public relations, articles, and sales lift.  Since the timing of the campaign was before sophisticated Internet tracking technologies were developed, there were no measurable tracking strategies from a web standpoint.  BBDO developed market research to pull attitudes, desire, and interest.  Studies like the brand fitness report also provided indexes of where their products were popular and what areas needed work.  Although studies were activated, managerial analysis and response was a key indicator for the success of these campaigns.  Management became concerned that their campaign would lack originality over time by over exposure and repetitive themes.  As their competitors began to utilize similar themes and storylines, PepsiCo felt that they needed to re-invent their campaign to reach a broader audience and generate new buzz.

        There are multiple frameworks available to consider when thinking about how to develop some of concepts presented to Scott Moffitt.  The AIDA framework of attention, interest, desire, and action is a strong framework in developing an advertising campaign.  This framework presents a “Think (or Learn)–Feel–Act sequence,” which can be highly effective with consumers.  The FCB model is also effective when considering the emotions and actions that occur when thinking about advertising.  Thinking and feeling is a common theme within the model as these emotions generate further interest and action toward brands.  The framework that Moffitt should consider should be within the FCB Model while focusing on feelings and self-satisfaction.  Mountain Dew is a brand that drives energy and excitement through intense feelings of risk.  The ads have focused around a theme of high risk and extreme sports.  Consumer will react to these risks and feel that drinking a Mountain Dew will push them to their limits and provide a sense of courage and optimism.  Each concept presents an out of the box approach to storytelling with outrageous characters, scenarios and outcomes.  The “Dew or Die” concept truly captures the brand in terms of storytelling and generating feelings toward an alternative lifestyle.  Within the storyline, the characters are achieving unrealistic outcomes through an imaginary world.  This type of advertisement would successfully play on their brand messaging and voice by creating a world that is unthinkable yet satisfying and adventurous.  An executional framework through humor and outlandish storytelling can develop this concept.  BBDO can work off this idea by figuring how to communicate this storyline to consumers in a way that will eventually drive purchase intent and increased adoption.