A Big Mistake

One company that has made some big questionable, marketing moves lately is Dr. Pepper Snapple. Which with the launch of its new diet soda called “Dr. Pepper 10” has engaged in some disputed marketing moves that may, or may not, hurt the company.

The Dr. Pepper 10 is different from other sodas because it is said to be having more of an authentic taste, compared to other diet sodas. The reason as to why that is the case, is because it has ten calories, which is quite significant when you look at sodas like Diet Pepsi or Coke Zero which have zero calories.

Not so many men drink diet soda because they think that it taste too differently from regular sodas and that is why the Dr. Pepper Ten was introduced into the market to change the drinking habits of men and get them to drink more diet sodas.

What has gathered so much attention is the marketing campaign that accompanied the launch of Dr. Pepper Ten and that is also why I am questioning this new product because it is in many ways, outrageous. The new diet soda is positioned as a drink for men and men only by specifically mentioning explicitly in their advertising campaign that “it is not for women.” This is a very bad move for Dr. Pepper Snapple, although it is creating a lot of buzz right know as is so vulgar and controversial. It will probably not benefit them in the long run because the largest segment of soda drinkers is women and by saying that they cannot have a specific product might alienate just those customers. Some people even feel that it is sexist like the people in the video down below. They are trying to get more men to drink diet sodas, but at the same time they are enraging a lot of people who do drink diet soda at the same time. The marketing effort might be very successful in the short period because people want to try the new talked about product, but in  longer term they need more loyal customers and I do not think that they will get that by having this sort of a launch.

The soda market is especially competitive and there are two major soda companies that would do anything to grow and steal someone else’s market share. The soda market is hardly a growing market and since they are financial behemoths and that Dr. Pepper seems to be willing to risk by having this outrageous marketing campaign, they could stand to gain a lot and Dr. Pepper could lose it all.

Dr. Pepper should have instead had the marketing campaign have a tough attitude and say  “only for though people” instead of “not for women” like it does now. Also the commercials and the ads that they have now are very childish, which could also offend the target market by having them think that the brand assumes that its consumers are stupid. The world is becoming more and more educated so many could turn it down because of the lack of perceived knowledge by those who drink the soda. The campaign should still have a though attitude, but the humor should be more cheeky.