BARELOT crisis ( MARKETING)

Barelot is a very famous soft drinks brand in the United States, having captured over 20% market in the past 10
years. Barelot was launched in 2009 as an energy drink and grew to fame very quickly due to its unique taste. The
company’s target was the active part of the market encompassing the youth, adventure sportsmen, professional
gamers - pretty much anyone who needed a ‘kick’ (as Barelot would call it) at the right time. People claimed that the
drink would give them insane levels of energy, helping them cope with the intensity of their work. Barelot was also
known for its wild advertisements featuring fast paced action sports.They also claimed themselves to be an action
drink, something more powerful than a regular energy drink.
Barelot was liked by men and women alike, children weren’t a big fan of the drink as per the demographic survey of
the company. Ten years after inception Barelot launched their second product: Powermen. Powermen was a diet
drink, a trend back when it released. Barelot saw the trend as an opportunity and decided to jump on the trend train
but powermen turned out to be the harbinger of crisis for barelot. In order to stick to their action drink persona, they
decided to advertise with the tagline : “NOT FOR WOMEN” which created a mass agitation on the grounds of gender
bias. The tv commercial showed few men fighting aliens, and when they need energy, they ask for a generic energy
drink to which the commando, weilding later guns ,screams: ”YOU CAN KEEP YOUR ROMCOM AND YOUR LADY
DRINKS, US MEN TAKE POWERMEN”. The internet did not show mercy to barelot, mass hatred and boycott spread
across the world, stock prices dropped. The previous marketing head, said that the surveys showed men to shy away
from diet drinks and that they were simply trying to push men to buy their product. He was sacked almost
immediately.