IMC Plan for Propel Water

Aaron Nelson
Annie Dvorak

Table of Contents
Background Information..................................................................................................................3
SWOT Analysis...............................................................................................................................3
Objectives........................................................................................................................................5
Timeline for Promoting to Target Audience...................................................................................5
Multichannel Promotions...............................................................................................................6
Fan Contest......................................................................................................................................6
Celebrity Endorsment......................................................................................................................6
Rebate 24 Pack.....................................................................................7
Golden Ticket Sweepstakes.............................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8
Appendix..........................................................................................................................................9

Background Information:
Propel was originally produced and owned by PepsiCo in 2002. Since then, Gatorade, a branch
of PepsiCo, has continued to produce and manufacture the brand. Upon initial release to the
market Propel immediately became a huge success. Within the first year of sales in 2002 Propel
became the first enhanced water drink to have over $100 million in sales and quickly claimed
60% of the flavored water beverage market for that year.
Propel is a sports drink with the purpose of rehydrating customers with water enriched with
antioxidants, vitamins, and flavoring without having the excess calorie consumption that normal
sports drinks have. A product that not only replenishes your body, but tastes good too. Propel can
be sold in three different forms; a water enhancing liquid, powder, and ready-to-drink bottles.
Since its origin, Propel has experienced several major changes to both its marketing platform,
and its product. In 2009 Gatorade changed the slogan Fitness Water to Vitamin Enhanced
Water Beverage. This was done in order to create a sense of the brand seeming more medically
beneficial to the customer due to the usage of the adjective Vitamin Enhanced.
Another notable change regarding the product is that in 2011 Gatorade discontinued producing
the regular Propel flavors made from natural sugar and opted for artificial sweeteners in their
product Propel Zero. This was done in order to reduce the negative health benefits that people
associate the extra calories that the sugar had added to the drink, thus making the drink seem
much healthier.

SWOT Analysis
Strengths

Encourages healthy lifestyle

Propel encourages healthier lifestyles by promoting how important electrolytes are for
proper hydration and muscle function during a workout. When you sweat you lose critical
electrolytes, like sodium and potassium, which helps build the brains communication
with muscles and regulate fluid level balance throughout the body. Significant losses in
fluid and electrolytes can negatively impact your workouts, especially during longer
exercise routines.

Brand strength
The Gatorade Company created Propel in 2002 to meet the needs of those who want to
maintain a healthy lifestyle and want a lightly-flavored hydration option with vitamins
and no artificial colors. Since Gatorade is the parent company of Propel people assume
that it has high quality and contains the needed electrolytes. The Gatorade Company, a
division of PepsiCo provides sports performance innovations designed to meet the needs
of athletes at all competitive levels and across a broad range of sports.

Weaknesses

Small consumer base

A major weakness for Propel is that the customer base is so small, because its stuck in a
category in between Gatorade and water. Since people either want a sweet Gatorade drink
for when they work out or just plain water. So when the customers see flavored water it
isnt as appealing as bottled water or a sweet tasting Gatorade. It also, doesnt help that
this brand is nowhere near as popular as Gatorade.

Lack of product options

Propel is available in three formats: Workout Water, liquid enhancer and powder. The
flavored water has 9 flavors, the powder packs have 8 flavors and the liquid enhancer has
3 flavors. Now compared to Gatorade which has 17 different flavors just for their
hydration drinks and 11 different products total. The lack of options and diversity in their
products can sway customers into buying a competitors brand instead of Propel.

Opportunities

Expanding global reach

International markets are in great interest for the company. Since Propel products are
only available in the United States, expanding into countries such as Europe and Asia are
on the scope. Starting out with the flavored water in the beginning and slowly easing into
the liquid enhancer and powder packs, will generate an increase in revenue by expanding
the target market.

Recyclable products
One of the major pluses to being a bottled water company is the chance to save the earth
by recycling the products. In 2009, Propel modernized its look and packaging, enabling
the company to reduce the amount of plastic in our bottles. The six-pack 500 ml bottle
contains 33 percent less plastic and 30 percent less label than the previous bottle. In
addition, Propel bottles are made from PET, a 100 percent recyclable material.

Threats

Promotions offered by competitors

A problem that Propel has is not offering as many promotions that other competitors can
afford to do. Since Propel is a relatively small company it doesnt bring in the revenue
that its bigger competitors do, so in return it doesnt have the money to advertise and
promote its products benefits and features.

Low customer confidence

When Propel is constantly being compared with Gatorade and everyone is assuming
Gatorade tastes better since its colored, it really casts a shadow on the products. Since
Gatorade is a well-known brand name that famous athletes use, people want to be like
their idols so they buy Gatorade and Propel just gets over looked.
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Objectives:
Vitamin Enhanced Propel Zero is a relatively new product which is substantially different from
the rest of the Gatorade products. The objectives of the marketing plan are to identify and
highlight the benefits of this product to the targeted market in order to increase brand awareness
and trust with the Propel product line. In the end this will increase the likelihood of potential
customers choosing the Propel product line over competitors such as Vitamin Water.

Achieve Bottle Sales of Vitamin Enhanced Propel

o $250,000 in sales within 1st Fiscal Quarter
o $1,500,000 in sales within 1st Fiscal Year

Increase Market Share of Flavored Enhanced Water

o By 15% in the US Flavored Enhanced Water Market
o By 5% in the international Enhanced Water Market

Increase Social Media Outreach of the Propel Product Line

o Increase Facebook Page by 750,000 fans by end of year
o Increase Twitter Page by 500,000 followers
o Increase YouTube Following by 100,000 subscribers

Timeline for promoting to target audience

Primary target audience (Youth aged 15-35 years)
Product launch of flavored water
o At the start of January 2017

Generate awareness of Propel

o From 0% to 50% of consumers with gym memberships during the first 5 months
of one year
o Increase to 80% of consumers with gym memberships by the end of the year

Educate target audience on benefits of Propel flavored water

o By 50% by the end of the year

Generate healthy lifestyle association with Propel flavored water

o By 30% by the first 5 months of one year
o Increase to 70% by the end of the year

Increase brand preference toward Propel flavored water

o Away from competitors by 20%

Establish brand trust of Propel as the preferred hydration drink choice among target
consumers
o By at least 30% in the first 5 months and 40% in the next 5 months

Increase brand loyalty by an overall of 20%

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Multi-Channel Promotions:
1. Fan Contest + Social Media
Fan contests are an easy way to keep the consumers involved and feel more connected to the
brands they are purchasing products from. It also allows consumers to become more exposed to
the benefits as well as familiarized with brand names of products such as the Vitamin Enhanced
Propel drink. This promotion primarily targets the younger generations in generation X and Y.
The younger consumers are much more likely to participate in contests due to the fact that the
prizes and rewards are much more significant than to an older adult.
In a nation-wide effort, anyone is welcome to participate in a social media driven competition to
find the most creative customer of Vitamin Enhanced Propel Zero. Users will submit a picture of
them using their Propel product during one of their favorite physical activities in their efforts to
re-energize. In order to be entered to the competition, #PropeltoWin must be used to tag the post
to the contest. The top submission will be selected and flown up to New York to tour the
Gatorade Headquarter as well as receive a $5,000 cash prize.
This contest is driven primarily by two components. The fans, and social media. By having fans
compete in these contests and submitting their videos via social media outlets, they are not only
interacting with the company, but also exposing their own personal social media networks of the
Propel brand. This contest will also increase the flow of activity within Propels social media
accounts and in turn lead to potential customers being more exposed to Propel products and
special deals. This will overall beneficially impact Vitamin Enhanced Propel Zero Sales.
2. Celebrity Endorsement
Celebrity endorsements are one of the best ways to promote an item such as Propel. Especially
among the age groups which propel is targeted for. Generations X and Y are particularly
interested in what celebrities have to say about products and take what their opinions are as
valuable information.
Sports celebrities are the particular celebrity in mind with Propel Zero as Vitamin Enhanced
Water is targeted to those who have active lifestyles and are looking for a beverage to help them
recover from their activity.
A perfect use of a celebrity endorsement would be having an athlete such as baseball star Kevin
Keirmaier, in a thirty second media advertisement or magazine print. Not only is Keirmaier a
nationally recognized athlete in the sports community, but he also has a physical appeal which
non-sports fans might find appealing. This in turns broadens the markets that are impacted at a
greater effect. Specifically, with Kevin Keirmaier, the markets tapped into are; young and middle
aged male sports fans, young and middle aged females who care about physical appeal, and
young and middle aged adults who care about physical fitness.
By having a nationally broadcasted commercial with a celebrity endorsement, the Vitamin
Enhanced Propel Zero product can be pushed out to a larger audience, especially if scheduled to
air during a televised sporting event. This advertisement would be suitable for any sporting event
and could occur throughout the year due to a major sporting event always occurring.

The ads created with the celebrity endorsement could also be used within Propels social media
platforms. The magazine ad picture could be posted over Twitter and Facebook, and the 30
second ad could also be posted onto the Propel YouTube channel and Facebook page. This
would provide customers and fans with the opportunity to interact with each other about a
product or celebrity they admire.
3. Rebate 24 Pack
Rebates are a good way to get customers to try new products while still purchasing the old
products. Propel is participating in a Rebate 24 pack with a new flavor powder. This allows
every consumer who buys the 24 pack of flavored water to receive a free box of our new
flavored lemonade powder. Lemonade is a popular flavor based on soda machines across
restaurants in the United States.
This promotion will turn into a large success based on the fact that people love getting free stuff
and sampling new products is a great way to get people hooked on them. Once people try our
new flavored powder packets they will go out again and buy other flavors. All our powder
packets have different flavors than the flavored water so people have more of variety to choose
from based on the products they prefer. The powder pack will be sealed inside the 24 pack which
will secure it from being ripped off the outside of the pack or stolen.
Inside the powder packs box there will be a coupon that states the consumer will receive 40% off
their next powder pack purchase. By giving out coupons it encourages the consumer to go back
into the store to buy more and the 40% helps them save money too. When people enjoy a new
product or flavor they tell their friends or post on social media about it. Propel is counting on
Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to help generate more revenue based on how many people view
or like the posts about new Propel products
4. Golden ticket sweepstakes
Sweepstakes are a great way to get consumers excited about buying a product. While some
people think their chances are close to none, thats why Propel has decided to have a Golden
Ticket Sweepstakes. There will be 3 winners and each person will receive one of our 3 prizes
after they find their Golden Ticket. This will help promote the 24 pack of flavored water which
will increase Propels revenues tremendously.
The way this Sweepstakes works is when you buy a Propel flavored water after drinking it, peel
the label off and check the back to see if there is a golden ticket! There will be three winners and
the first person to find the golden ticket gets a 5 day all-inclusive cruise in the Caribbean. The
second person to find a golden ticket will receive a lifetime supply of Propel flavored water and
$5,000. The third person to find a golden ticket will receive a 2016 Honda Accord.
When a person finds the Golden Ticket they must immediately call the secret phone number
which is on the far right side of the golden ticket. Once the winner calls this phone number,
he/she will give out their mailing address, personal information and agree to partake in a press
release discussing their prize while promoting Propel. Each of the 3 tickets have a different
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phone number so after that first call the number will be disconnected and Propel will contact the
winner with more information on a later date. By changing the number 3 times it prevents fake
winners and spam for Propel.

References
"Propel Fitness Water Facts." LIVESTRONG.COM. LIVESTRONG.COM, 2015. Web. 05 Apr.
2016. <http://www.livestrong.com/article/287624-propel-fitness-water-facts/>.
"Propel Fitness Water(R) From Gatorade(R) First In Category To Surpass $100 Million." Propel
Fitness Water(R) From Gatorade(R) First In Category To Surpass $100 Million. Web. 05 Apr.
2016. <http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/propel-fitness-waterr-from-gatorader-first-incategory-to-surpass-100-million-77050082.html>.
"Propel." Propel. Web. 05 Apr. 2016. <https://cu.pepsico.com/propel>.
"Propel Flavored Water." Propel Water. Gatorade, n.d. Web.
<http://www.propelwater.com/flavored-water>.

Appendix:

Appendix 1: Rebate 24 Pack

Appendix 2: Golden Ticket Sweepstakes:

Golden
Ticket

Golden
Ticket
Golden
Ticket

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Appendix 3: Fan Contest

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Appendix 4: Celebrity Endorsement

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