Positioning and Brand Loyalty:

Sports events usually include activities like conferences, fundraising, exhibitions, promotions, product launches, social events, and others. During such events, event organizers have several responsibilities including developing event sponsorships, budget organization, collateral management, marketing, and venue management. The marketing of sports products requires employees to have a link with customers and other sports audiences. In order to increase a product’s performance in the sports industry, there is need for employees to have significant management and marketing training. The marketing of sports products include actions that may be carried out in corporate events, product promotions using players, sponsorships, and several advertising strategies.

Sporting events usually consists of several products that have developed to be known as sport products. While there are several sports, the most common products that consumers demonstrate high degrees of brand loyalty are sports drinks. There are several kinds of sports drinks that are currently available in the market as they compete with each other to be best sport drink available. In the past three years, sports drink category is considered as the products with the highest level of brand loyalty among consumers. Despite of the harsh economic conditions, sports drink category consists of approximately 87.6% of buyer’s total purchasing, a category with more than 50%.

One of the sports products with a high degree brand loyalty among consumers is Coca-Cola whose personality is a reflection of the positioning of its brand (“The ‘Coca-Cola’ Brand,” 2000). The positioning of Coca-cola in the mind of consumers originates from the fact that many people view this product as a part of their daily life. In order to promote the positioning of its products in the market, Coca-Cola Company conducts a consumer research to determine the description of its product and its position in their mind. During this process, consumers are usually asked to describe that product as if it were an individual to ensure that these consumers have a clear perspective of the brand values that formulate the brand personality. In this case, the brand values are described by the consumer just like they could describe the values and beliefs that make up an individual.

The brand positioning initiatives determine or guide the information to be communicated in the company’s advertising, especially on its website, whereas the character statement determines the process of delivering the information. The Coca-Cola brand loyalty and its positioning on the website is promoted through capturing its pace and vitality and through mentioning the refreshing nature of the drink. These initiatives help in sending a strong message to consumers regarding the ongoing positioning of the brand in the marketplace.

The second sports product with a high degree of brand loyalty and positioning in the market is Gatorade, which is a brand of sports-related food and beverage products. Currently, Gatorade is manufactured by PepsiCo, sold in more than 80 countries, and developed around its signature product i.e. A line of sports drinks. Gatorade product has a high degree of brand loyalty because of its long presence in the market since it has been the official drink of the NFL from 1969. Actually, the brand’s line of performance is made up of 45 years of sports nutrition research and rehydration to the PepsiCo portfolio (“Gatorade Brands,” n.d.). The adoption by NFL and ability of consumers to see the history of the product contribute to its market position and brand loyalty.

Unlike the Coca-Cola brand, Gatorade is the easiest sports drink product to find information on because of an easy website to navigate and easy acquisition of information about them. Actually, through typing the name of the product on the search engine, there are lots of information about the history of the product and news linking the favorite sports star with the drink. As a result, consumers do not have to search for long and hard in order to acquire information about Gatorade product. On the contrary, finding information about the Coca-Cola brand leads a person to choose his/her country, which results in further research when the person wants information about its history.

As a manager dealing with the positioning of Coca-Cola and Gatorade products, I would enhance the marketing strategies of these products in order to provide more information to consumers. The main change for Coca-Cola product would be to enhance its website in a manner that promotes easy access to necessary information by consumers. In contrast, the main change for Gatorade products would be to strengthen its marketing plan and marketing mix to enhance its position in the marketplace.

References:

“Gatorade Brands.” (n.d.). PepsiCo.com – Brands. Retrieved June 29, 2012, from http://www.pepsico.com/Brands/Gatorade-Brands.html

“The ‘Coca-Cola’ Brand & Sponsorship.” (2000). The Irish Times Business 2000 Fifth Edition.

Retrieved June 29, 2012, from http://www.business2000.ie/pdf/pdf_5/coca-cola_5th_ed.pdf