Somewhere in Austria in 1987, a consumer experienced the world’s first Red Bull energy boost. A quarter of a century later and the company is selling more than four billion cans a year across 160 countries.
There’s a successful strategy in there and it’s one that began with a strong focus on a single product: before launching a sugar-free version in 2003, Red Bull spent
15 years selling only its original energy drink.
Pom Wonderful comes from another category of drinks and has a rather different nutritional value, but Dominic Engels, the chief executive of Wonderful Brands EMEA, is keen to emulate Red Bull’s approach.
Wonderful Brands emea is a Belgium-based division of Roll Global and for it too 1987 was a red-letter year – that was when it planted its first 40ha of pomegranates. The company now owns and operates a 7,000ha orchard of the Wonderful variety of pomegranate in central California’s San Joaquin Valley.
Engels believes it is Pom Wonderful’s ownership of these trees that distinguishes the business from its thronging competitors in the fruit juice market. After years of tasting and blending, the company has established a single flavour standard for its brand-defining 100 per cent pomegranate juice. With the freedom to coordinate the growing cycles of its own trees, it is easier to meet that standard with every harvest.
More than that, Pom’s tender relationship with its trees – it planted them in the beginning and has looked after them ever since – encourages the idea of an “emotional connection” that adds value to its product if it is recognised by consumers.
Engels describes the product as “sharply priced”. Its largest 1.4l bottle sells for £4.79 (€5.72) at Costco, a wholesale retailer in the UK. In July last year Pom replaced its mid-sized 473ml product with something 50 per cent bigger (710ml) and 15 per cent more expensive at £3.56 (€4.25). The new bottle is designed to resolve confusion that surrounded its predecessor, which some felt was too big to drink in a single sitting and others thought was too small to keep in the fridge.
As supermarket chiller cabinets get longer, the bigger bottle makes Pom Wonderful more prominent and so do its unusual contours –Engels says the 1.4l “looks like it needs a brassiere” – but, however curvaceous or stylish, one product on its own can still be overrun by the battalions of Tropicana alongside it. So the 100 per cent pomegranate juice is now going to be supported by mixed juices.
As well as increasing the brand’s breadth and visibility, Pom hopes these will differentiate it from the competition and serve as another way of introducing consumers to the pomegranate juice category.
On 27 February, a 710ml pomegranate and blueberry product was launched in 120 Waitrose stores in the UK at an introductory price of £2.99 (€3.57). From 21 March there will be a two-for-£5 (€5.97) offer involving both 710ml products and then, from the middle of May, there will be another £2.99 promotion, during which time the new juice will feature in the in-house Waitrose Weekend magazine.
Something that could bring Pom Wonderful down to earth – the “number-one thorn in the company’s side” – is consumers’ perception of concentrated juices. Because the taste of more delicate products like orange juice can be affected by the heat burst used in the concentration process, shoppers are wary of anything ‘from concentrate’. Pom says its concentration process “actually enhances the stability of our unique antioxidants while retaining the true flavour of freshly squeezed pomegranates”. Engels says it’s probably a matter of persuading shoppers one by one that concentrated juice is not necessarily inferior. If he manages to do that, Pom Wonderful could start flying off the shelves.
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