| A story about orange juice |
The right market for the right product, or how one orange juice found its place under the sun – Market research with the aim of correctly (re)positioning the product.
Very often when positioning a product on the market, the real advantages and failings of a product in relation to the competition and market environment are ignored. As a result, they limit the growth of the market share. A good example of this is related to an orange juice that had already been on the market for ten years. In the first two years, its presence on the market reached its largest share of 5% of the natural juice market. All its marketing activities and promotions, the redesign of the packaging and changing its size did not increase its share. The producer was unable to increase and expand production. The quality of the juice in these years remained the same, and never let the expectations of the customer down. Having used up all known marketing and promotional tools, the company’s owner visited a local market research agency with the aim of discovering new ideas, and establishing the needs of the consumers of his orange juice. They defined the market, the competition and the target group of consumers, and also directly questioned people. They tasted the juice and competitors’ drinks from the natural fruit juice market. The result of the market research surprised the producer of our orange juice. 78% of the people asked did not see our orange juice as a natural juice, since it only contained 15% fruit pulp, whereas other competitors in this market segment had a minimum of 35% fruit pulp. No price difference could coax the consumers of natural juice to buy our orange juice, as they make their decisions based on which juice has the largest amount of pulp. Natural juice was a synonym for freshly squeezed orange juice, and our producer with his 15% fruit pulp did not have any comparable advantages over the competition.
This result from the market research persuaded the producer to reposition his product in another market segment, which was the market for non-carbonated juices. This market targets a totally different profile of consumer, who is not looking for a healthy drink but refreshment. Non-carbonated juices in fact do not contain fruit pulp. Our producer wisely used this fact by positioning his orange juice not as a natural juice with 15% fruit pulp, but as the first non-carbonated juice with 15% fruit pulp. The fact that it had 15% fruit pulp, which was a disadvantage on the natural juice market, was turned into an advantage on the non-carbonated juices market. Even the higher price in relation to the competitors within the new market sector did not put a halt to the swift rise in sales and productions. Within the first year of repositioning the product, our orange juice took a market share of 27%, and increased production by 18%.
This is a classic example of how a company can limit its own development simply because its strategies are not in harmony with the needs of the market and the advantages of its product. They can be easily discovered with careful market research. It is unprofitable to push products onto the market that the market does not want and does not need. |
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A story about orange juice |
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Very often when positioning a product on the market, the real advantages and failings of a product in relation to the competition and market environment are ignored. As a result, they limit the growth of the market share. A good example of this is related to an orange juice that had already been on the market for ten years. In the first two years, its presence on the market reached its largest share of 5% of the natural juice market. |
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