CANADA DRY –REPOSITIONING PROGRAME

The basic problem for Grey advertising agency was to decide the future courses of action for marketing and
advertising strategies for Canada Dry mixer line so that it can capture a greater market share and compete
head to head with major soft drink producers, Coca cola, Pepsi cola, Seven up. They formulated three
alternatives for repositioning
1. To position its product line as a quality line of mixtures, expand its mixer line and continue the
“America’s Going Dry” campaign which proved successful to increase the market share of Canada
Dry Ginger Ale.
2. To position Canada Dry Ginger Ale as a soft drink and compete head to head with major soft
drink producers.
3. To remain a major mixer producer and also to expand its position to include soft drink orientation.
Major problem for formulating the repositioning strategy was arising due to lack of sales data. Ms.
Jessica Swann was assigned with the task to evaluate Canada Dry’s market position.
On the basis of her findings the best of the aforesaid strategies should be adopted and implemented
through the launching of series of advertisements spots on national television over a 4 week period,
costing $2 million. Canada Dry was a nationwide marketer of a premium line of mixers and soft drink.
Among the total sales of 3.8 billion cases of beverages, 140 million cases were the mixers, including
Ginger Ale, Tonic water, Soda water. Ginger Ale was the largest in sales volume; roughly equal the
combined volume of Tonic water and Soda water. The company had the plan to expand the mixer line.
Canada Dry had 170franchised bottlers in United States as well as 8company owned and operating
bottling plants. Two third of the total sales was through food outlets and remaining sales were through
vending machines, bars, hotels, liquor stores.
The accurate sales data was difficult to obtain as the retail store sales monitoring service could not
account for sales through the liquor stores and the data estimation was done by local bottlers’ .As
Canada Dry mixers were used as a mixer its sale was very much dependent on liquor sales.
In 1960s the carbonated beverage sales was increased by 50%but Canada Dry was not benefited as the
distilled spirit market remained relatively stable.
According to Mr.Pointsman, executive client service, the consumer’s perception regarding the product
was the most crucial factor .They generally considered mixer as a commodity and unable to distinguish
among several brands .Though Mr.Pointsman felt that there was a position for premium brand mixer
and Canada Dry’s mixers had high potential to be positioned as soft drink.
The promotional program was jointly accomplished by national and regional advertising program and
the expense was shared by Canada Dry and bottlers’ .It was easy to easier to promote Canada Dry as a
mixer than a soft drink due to the existence if competitors like Coca cola with a 4 times sales volume
than Canada Dry. Canada Dry as a premium mixer faced challenges from Schweepers , a national
brand and White Rock, a regional brand . Grey advertising agency having the responsibility for
promoting Canada Dry, tried to strengthen the company’s premium image and position it as the highest
quality line of mixers in the market. This message was conveyed around the theme “America’s Going
Dry”. The effectiveness of this advertisement was tested by several consumer behavior studies. Ms.
Jessica Swann also prescribed for assessment of consumer’s perception regarding Canada Dry, its,
image as a mixer and the consumption pattern of liquor to get a clear picture of Canada Dry and its
consumers .The method for studying consumer behavior was implemented in 2 stages. In phase 1
exploratory interview were undertaken to develop phrase list for attitude measurement and in phase 2
national study was done. The major task was now to formulate repositioning program on the basis of
the data obtained from the survey.

BY –AMITAVA BHATTACHARYYA
EASTERN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT
3RD SEMESTER