Get off my land! Leading vs. Poacher Brands (Part 2)

In last week's post we looked at how leading brands Walkers and Kellogg’s are shouting "Get off my land!" and trying to repel “poacher brands” who are stealing their share.

In this post we look at how Tropicana is doing this, in a way that may have more chance of success that the previous two examples.

Higher chance of success: Tropicana Gold Label vs. Grove Fresh
Grove Fresh is a small brand of premium organic juices, pushing a “fresh from the orchard” image and using distinctive black packaging. Tropicana’s response is a premium Gold Label range with fancier flavours than their standard one, such as Valencia Orange and Crushed Raspberry.

1. Credibility: feels like a credible stretch upmarket for Tropicana, which has a good quality image in the UK. They don’t have the organic stamp that Grove Fresh have though (5/10)
2.Value proposition: Tropicana have gone for the copy-paste approach here! On shelf you can hardly tell the difference in packs. And Tropicana seem to be pricing a bit lower, at £2.49 vs. £2.59 for Grove Fresh.In my local convenience store the price difference was even bigger: they were under £3 at £2.99, 10% below Grove Fresh (7/10)
 3. Speed of response: big win here. Pepsico have moved fast to fight this poacher, before it gets a loyal following (8/10)
4. Business model: again Pepsico’s distribution muscle can help Tropicana get to places that Grove Fresh can’t, and also put pressure on the poacher brand in the big retailers (8/10)
Total: 28/40

Conclusion
To fight off Poacher Brands, Leading Brands need to move fast and hit hard, acting before the Poacher builds up a loyal following and strong equity. Tropicana have done this, with Pepsico perhaps applying learning from having waited too long to kick Kettle Chips in the balls.

Brand naming needs careful thought, as a mainstream brand can reduce the credibility and authenticity of when fight Poacher Brands, as we saw in Kellogg's vs. Dorset.

Finally, in planning a fight-back, leading brands should leverage business model advantages, not just brand equity, such as distribution muscle.

Comments

[Abdullah]

oh Jackbrilliant and fantasticOJ in atinhyng but an orange doesnt even TASTE like orangeI keep telling people this and they WONT listen DONT drink that stuff!!The various processes, including pasteurization which enables longer shelf life, ruin everything in the oj. The regurgitated pulp has no value for the same reason. The reinserted vitamin additions are not absorbed by the body. So instead of getting masses of good fiber fm the cell walls of each little orange juice sac, yes, it's sugar sugar sugar all the way. But remember, the oj is also thick' how does it get that way? Again, with additives that, if you go hunting for them on the list of E- . , you will screw your nose up at and say, eeuuuwwww, would I drink bleach? no. Then why this additive?One of the things I ask friends to think about when it comes to all these foods, is this: it's so easy to drink 2 glasses of containered oj, plus a huge slice of apple pie, plus some other bits and pieces, as dessert, or snack. But if you took all the oranges needed to make those 2 glasses of oj, and all the apples mushed down into puree/pie filling, plus the other bits and pieces, could you eat them all? Nope. So don't.of course, it is, as we say, like talking to the Western Wall . I come out sounding like the wailing, and the Wall does it listen? heh hehDear RRs, on my farm we grew citrus. I know what goes into them. You wouldnt even want to eat them fresh. PLEASE buy fresh organic citrus. PLEASE, even if they are full of pips. and a bit annoying that way, buy them and eat them and teach your kids and grandkids to love them. Here is another reason why: all those pips [which in other citrus have been genetically modified out so as to provide us, the consumer, with a pleasant eating experience, so pleasant that we go out and buy more...] those pips grow within the fruit by turning sugars in the fruit into their own growth energy. By the time you buy the fully grown fruit, part of its sugars have been turned into seeds that have grown inside. In other words, what you actually eat is a naturally sugar-reduced fruit!!!How wonderful your creations, G-d how stupid we are for rubbishing them and trying to do better'! So, please, go and find organic fruit, [and veg]. It wont look as lovely, might have pocks and odd markings, might be smaller, but SO much better for multiple reasons.

[John]

I do not see the fascination with the old pincagakg. It's the sort of thing that dominated store shelves for far too long: Big obnoxious over Photoshoped looking pictures with ridiculously rendered type. Give me clean and easy to read any day. The taste of the general public is head scratching. I'm so glad I didn't have to design this product then be told to go back to the piece of garbage so many love. Get over it, 80 s Floridian airbrushed t-shirt pincagakg is out.

[ashleahmcc]

partially low depends keep

[David Taylor (brandgym)]

Thanks Tim,
Seems that I was wrong in assuming Tropicana was faster off the block that Walkers vs. Kettle, as there was a 13 year wait for Trop to respond.

"Poacher brand" ideas was smaller brands trespassing onto a Leader Brand's consumer space, often at the more premium end.

David

[Tim Barkey]

David
Just thought I would add a footnote to your article as I worked on Trop for 3 years along with some other very talented marketers, one of them being the current Pepsi Marketing Director and another being the current Trop Marketing Director.

Grove Fresh’s brand proposition was organic juice when the brand was launched in 1996 in its current black tetra pack. They originally had 2 flavours : apple and orange but have recently extended the range.
Trop’s extended “Gold Label” premium range was I believe launched in early 2009 so I wouldn’t exactly say that Grove Fresh is the “poacher brand”.

Nonetheless they are great new flavours for Trop to extend into evening consumption.

Tim Barkey