MARKETING MANAGEMENT 2

GROUP 5
S P JAIN SCHOOL OG GLOBAL BUSINESS | 5 FIGTREE DRIVE,
SYDNEY OLYMPIC PARK, NSW 2127, AUSTRALIA

SodaStream

01/02/2015
Date:
COHORT NAME
& Group No:

MGB
Group 5

CEO:

Kajol Ghosh

Group
Members:

Ameya Sonkusale
Deepak Acharya
Ritika Dudeja
Ridhi Vaid

Sodastream Case Analysis

Executive Summary
The case study focuses on the company Sodastream and its endeavor to challenge the big
players of the Cola industry; Pepsi and Coke, and establish a new third segment, i.e. selfhomemade cola. The company initially had filed for bankruptcy when their growth was
negligible and there was no dimension to base their strategies on. The case study
highlights that how a change in leadership can change the scenario of the company. The
new leader brought in new influx of ideas and strategies through a creative approach and
repositioned the products altogether.
Further, the company had targeted advertising in the Super Bowl event as a major
landmark in their growth story that was primarily targeted at Pepsi and Coke but due to the
hold and power of these two giants in the market, the advertisement was banned from
being aired.
The case then moves onto focus on how the ban on the ad, positively affected the company
via the social media. The digital world offered the company a direct connect to the people
who were curious to know more about this product, thus highlighting the importance of
public relations over traditional marketing. Also, there was emphasis on how important it is
for a company to keep in mind the changing world scenario and mold their business models
accordingly.

Key Problems and Findings

1. The major issue before Birnbaum was introduced to the company was there was a
lack of enthusiasm among the employees of the company. They had lost the faith
that the business could do well.
2. The 2 major risks taken by the company during the initial phase was when Birnbaum
was introduced, he repositioned the company from home carbonated drinks segment
to compete with the major Cola players which was a huge risk. The other was
Birnbaum changed the management of the company fully which was yet another risk,
had the repositioning not achieved results, the loss would become higher.
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3. The company tried to gain markets through advertising against the Cola giants
instead of focusing on communicating to the people about their benefits and
significance.
4. The Cola giants majorly influenced the CBS. Therefore, the company should have
tried an alternative way of marketing where the interference of the CBS could be
diminished.
5. The company booked the fourth slot for the Superbowl game which was the question
of many since the company wanted more visibility and public reach which was a
doubt under the given time slot.

Discussion
While discussing the case study we came up the following strategic solutions that
Sodastream could have undertaken:

SodaStream should not have given up on The Game Changer advertisement that
was banned by the American Broadcast Network, it was a perfectly legitimate
advertisement even though it seemed that SodaStream was making fun of Coke and
Pepsi. There have been instances wherein companies have engaged in direct ad-wars
which involved making fun of each other.
E.g. Jaguar & Mercedes Chicken Advertisement
Mercedes Advertisement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axAmED7lqe4
Jaguars Reply: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAGOcyvBap0
SodaStream had a valid and factually correct advertisement, it should have taken the
matter to court ensuring the media knows about it, and this would have proved to be
a cherry on top after posting the ad online.

Apart from their regular advertisement, they should have had two more commercials,

Marketing the product with a fun & scintillating advertisement focusing on the
health benefits of SodaStreams product over Pepsi and Coke.

Marketing the product as a drink rather than the product itself in-line with
following ideology,
Just Another, But A Better Soda Drink!
SodaStreams product as compared to a small soda drink is a product by itself
involving higher investment from the customers. Adopting the above will not
overwhelm the potential customers, this advertisement along with the other two
advertisement will sooth the customers into thinking that SodaStream is a better
product in terms of money spent as well as a good healthy value addition in their
daily lifestyle.
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SodaStream, in the initial launch stages of the product, should have showcased its
product in the supermarkets through a kiosk, showing how fun and easy it is to make
a soda drink their the product.

After the banned advertisement went viral online SodaStream should have cashed on
the awareness with a strong focus on Digital Marketing especially Social Media
Marketing as this would have increased the exposure and sales of its product this
ensuring a greater Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI)

Important points from discussion

SodaStream is an excellent product with a great potential to penetrate and capitalize

the market provided the product is rightly placed in the market and marketed correctly.
Initially the product was incorrectly placed without any vision and focus for growth. The
new CEO not only changed the business by placing the product correctly along with
providing a vision but also adopted creative poignant marketing strategies.

The re-positioning of the product forced the customer to think and make informed
decision of buying SodaStream as the re-positioning strategy created a perception in
the minds of the customers that SodaStream is a better alternative to Pepsi and Coke.

This case also highlights the importance and potential of the impact that Digital Media
can have not only in terms of brand awareness but also in terms of possible
opportunities of free marketing and publicity through social media.

The case also highlights the relevance of Public Relations along with regular marketing
activities. PR activities builds cognizance and credibility for an organization and its
product through third party influencers. This works hand in gloves with the marketing
activities as both aim at the same goals of increasing awareness and sales.

Conclusion
From our findings and discussions, we concluded that it is the person who leads the
organisation and his philosophies of utmost significance, Birnbaum who repositioned the
company and through creative strategies challenged the giants of the industry. Moreover,
we saw the role digital media plays an important role in connecting to the masses.
We discussed about how important is positioning of the product in the market. Initially
when it was in the home carbonated drinks category, it had a limited audience but when it
was launched against the Cola giants, it was taken as a competitor to them. In addition,
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how PR is better than the traditional ways of advertising since PR is a third person
communicating about the product which is more reliable than the advertisement which is
the claim of the firm itself.

Recommendations

The green campaign is only an attention grabber, and would not be able to sustain
the publicity for a long period of time. Different marketing strategies must be
adopted.

The Cage campaign was a masterstroke. Packaged in the form of an environmental

awareness campaign to highlight the hazards of packaging waste on the
environment, it also served to bring SodaStream in the spotlight. It garnered a lot of
attention for its strategic placement in high visibility areas like malls, airports, and
retail outlets.

Now that they have already grabbed eyeballs, SodaStream should focus on
highlighting the features of their own product through their advertising campaign,
rather than taking on Pepsi or CocaCola.

The drink is a more economical and healthy alternative to other carbonated drinks.
This might appeal to the younger population, so SodaStream must market its product
as the new non-alcoholic drink for parties.

SodaStream should come up with limited edition occasion-specific special flavours to

target a niche trend-conscious audience. This way, they can reinvent the product
timely.

They could involve the target audience through a contest such as Create Your Own
Flavour. The winning flavour could be launched, and the winner could get a years
supply of the drink.

Implementation
The company should try to look for a commercial slot in the initial phase of the game and
not the ones that are towards the end. Sodastream should try and book slots for the next
set of games and introduce series of commercials that the people can connect to,
focussing on their product rather than their competitors.
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 Direct on display tools like the cage must be introduced that would launched directly on
the store floor. This would generate more awareness among the people and would be
important from expanding markets point of view.
Soda Stream could get into a partnership with local environmental agencies across the
countries it operates in to run drives to make people aware of the damage metal cans
and plastic bottles cause to the environment in general, rather than targeting
competitors producing drinks using these mediums.
Soda Stream could also tie-up with clinics and medical institutes and run independent
studies to show the advantage that Soda Streams product offers versus conventional
carbonated drinks available in the market. This would give credibility to the claims of
Soda Stream, and would be a PR exercise rather than crude advertising.