Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Vault Hits The Nowthwest Indiana Area/Comment and Response

First, the comment by Grimace and my response:
look dude, surge isn't an energy drink and never was. as far as i can tell, vault will never last! MDX may fail as well cause it's too expensive for such a small amount.

Fair enough, the market has seen and rejected many other sodas before. Crystal Pepsi, Like Cola and Faygo Candy Apple are flavors that come to mind (although I loved the Candy Apple, it seemed like too much a specialty flavor to be out for long). However, I don't think Surge WAS ever marketed as an energy drink. Obviously it was meant to be a competitor to Mountain Dew, but failed at that.

As for Vault, it has made it into the Northwest Indiana area. Saw signs up for it already at the Speedway stores, being sold for an introductory price of 79 cents. It's already affected the Mountain Dew pricing, as that's now at a reduced price of 99 cents (compared to the normal price of 1.29).

I will give Grimace a bit of leeway here, as sodapop markets tend to be very conservative. Once you have a market, it's impossible for another similar brand to break in and take it. Pop makers know this, and while they work like crazy to overcome it, they also work to make sure the markets stay firm. The last time a company successfully invaded another's locked market was when Pepsi did their "Pepsi Challenge" (and I suggest looking up this link to find out HOW it actually works), and that ended pretty much with the "New Coke" pseudo-fiasco. So while I hope Vault succeeds, at the very least I'd like to see it replace Mello Yello (no link, no link deserved) in the store shelves.

No comments: