Snapple Brand

Table of Content

Executive Summary

Snapple Success

Brand vs. Management Clash

Power of Distribution Channel

Revive the Brand through Research

Conclusion

Summary

During 1987 through 1993, Snapple was one of the successful brands of a variety of non-carbonated beverages that targeted mainly towards young, health conscious consumers. It provided many flavor choices and placed them in different in different market segments which were mainly the cold distribution channel. It went from local to national success and was poised to go international when the founders sold the company to Quaker Oats Company. Quaker purchased Snapple in 1994 for $1.7B. The Snapple’s brand proved harder to manage than Quaker anticipated. The acquisition failure cost both the chairman and president of Quaker their jobs and was considered one of the major U.S. business disasters of the 1990s by the Business Week. Snapple then was subsequently sold to Triarc Beverage Company for $300M. (TQ)

The case told the story of Snapple’s rise and fall. It presented issues that were related to how one brand/product was misaligned; how the brand lost $1.4B in value under Quaker’s stewardship in just four years, as well as the power of distribution channel; and lastly it posed the questions for the new owner Triarc, “could it recover and what actions should the new owners take in order to bring Snapple back to its glory days through qualitative research findings?” (TQ)

It is our recommendation that Triarc’s new strategy for Snapple is to rebuild the marketing plan to revitalize the brand to increase sales volume for the Snapple brand. The strategy was to include “getting back to basics” by refocusing on what specifically made the brand initially successful. It should bring back the passion of the brand by recreate Wendy “Snapple Lady” alike to connect with its consumers. And lastly the company must once again regain the loyalty and trust it previously enjoyed among its distributors,...