Dr Pepper Targets College-Age Consumers

MARKETING DR PEPPER 

More than a century old, Dr Pepper (now merged with Keurig) aims to make itself the soft drink brand of choice for college-age consumers. This market segment tends to be interested in diverse flavors and differentiation, as well as being heavy consumers of soft drinks.

No wonder Dr Pepper is a big sponsor of college football, and is very active on social media (420k Twitter followers, 539k Instagram followers, 14mm Facebook likes, 26k YouTube subscribers). And no wonder the company promotes "pick your Pepper" limited-time designs to catch the eye of variety seekers.

This year, Dr Pepper is trying something new with a soap opera-like series of commercials/episodes that will tell stories coming to an end as the college football season is over in January, 2019. The integrated campaign includes social media plus traditional media to attract attention and increase interest in the story line.

Single-Serve Pods Beyond Coffee

Keurig Kold

Keurig Green Mountain has just introduced a new product, the Keurig KOLD Drinkmaker - a machine for making ice-cold sodas and other chilled beverages, one serving at a time, at home.

Why? Now that K-cup coffeemakers are ubiquitous (meaning in the maturity stage of the product life-cycle), marketers are looking to take single-serve pods beyond coffee. This would extend the life-cycle and also attract new customers (such as those who aren't coffee fans, for instance). This is also in line with the trend toward at-home beverage makers like the SodaStream.
 
Keurig estimates its US market share of single-serve coffee-makers at 17%. By targeting the chilled soft-drink market, the company can reach a new audience and increase penetration. The KOLD machine is a stand-alone product, although Keurig is working on one machine that can produce both hot and cold drinks.

"It's a premium, it's about choice and convenience," explains Keurig's CEO about the 90-second process, which chills the beverage as it carbonates and adds flavor. Among the first sodas to be dispensed through the KOLD are Coca-Cola, Dr Pepper, and Sprite. Instead of having to store bottles or cans of soda, KOLD customers can make a fresh glass of the flavor of their choice.


Will KOLD find a large audience?

Change Is Brewing in Single-Serve Coffee Market

Single-serve coffeemakers from Nespresso, Senseo, Keurig, and other manufacturers are convenient for brewing up a good cup of espresso or coffee (or tea), in your choice of flavor, very quickly.

But, as the New York Times points out, convenience comes at a cost. When you buy a K-cup or pod (or any other proprietary premeasured coffee serving), you're paying the equivalent of about $50 per pound for your coffee serving. 

Yet change is brewing: Competition is increasing and that is likely to bring the price per cup or pod down.

For one thing, K-cup patent protection expires this year. With that in mind, Keurig (owned by Green Mountain Coffee) has a new machine on the way, targeting upscale consumers while repositioning the old Keurig machines for consumers a bit lower on the affluence scale.

Meanwhile, Walmart is about to introduce popularly-priced single-serve coffeemakers by Esio, which will turn up the competitive heat and increase demand for replacement coffee pods/cups.

And competitively-priced compatible K-cups are already emerging, from Rogers Family Company and others. So the days of spending $50 per pound of coffee for single-serve convenience may be numbered.