Do the Dew

            We talked in class this past week about Sprite and how they directly targeted the hip-hop scene.  Sprite tried to associate their brand with hip-hop culture in an effort to reach their target market.  This sparked a thought for me about Mountain Dew and how they tried to associate their brand with “extreme” sports, such as skateboarding, snowboarding, skydiving and rock climbing.  This marketing mix helped make the general consumer view the soda as something cool and extreme.  This concentrated targeting strategy has worked well for them as Mountain Dew sales made up 6.7% of the soft drink market and 80% of the citrus soft drink market. (Wikipedia)

            As we all know from the video we watched in class, the teenage and pre-teen market is perhaps the most crucial in terms of many companies’ sales, especially when your product is an extremely sweet, highly-caffeinated soft drink.  And that is exactly who Mountain Dew knew they had to target.  With the rising popularity of the X-Games, extreme sports started to see a huge surge in demand from young teens all across the country.  Mountain Dew saw the market opportunity and jumped on it.  From that point on they became a large sponsor of the X-Games as well as holding their own extreme sports competition called the Dew Tour. Because of this many people now associate Mountain Dew with extreme sports and therefore, many teens associate the soda with being the “cool” choice to drink.  Here is a Mountain Dew commercial from the late 90s that I thought showed a good example of their marketing strategy and the image they wanted to receive.

            Any other thoughts on the targeting strategy of Mountain Dew?  Do you see any opportunities for Mountain Dew to explore other markets using a differentiated targeting strategy?  If so, where else could you see an opportunity in the market for soft drink buyers?