National Beverage Corp

Next Marketing designed an engaging in-store sampling campaign to introduce a new “Smart Energy” drink that provided an average 1,500% sales lift over non-sampled periods.

Our Work Case Studies Event Marketing National Beverage Corp

 

EXPLORE

National Beverage Corp. is a holding company that develops, manufactures, markets and distributes a complete portfolio of quality beverage products, including Shasta, Faygo and LaCroix, throughout the United States. Most distinctive about National Beverage is the speed, efficiency and thoroughness of their actions - always moving rapidly in a very clear direction. These corporate characteristics were evident in National Beverage’s plan to concurrently launch two new entries into the growing energy drink category: RipIt, a price aggressive, flavor-focused energy drink and PowerBlast, a more technical energy product available only in ready-to-mix powder form.

EVOLVE

In order to gain exposure with consumers as well as independent convenience store owners, National Beverage launched the brands through Sam’s Club and Costco locations nationwide. To appeal to the younger, more active target audience, Next recommended that the products be supported with a clutter-busting in-store sampling and display program. Next’s concept pushed beyond the traditional wholesale club store sampling format which calls upon store employees to sample and demonstrate products within a small unbranded footprint.

EXECUTE

Next recruited a team of in-store product samplers who embodied the brands’ healthy and active lifestyle positioning, these PowerBlast Pros were then educated on the contents and benefits of each brand’s nutritional supplement content. Working within an eye-catching in-store display, the Powerblast Pros executed a fully scripted sampling routine designed to demonstrate the unique benefits PowerBlast’s smart energy while communicating the flavor-focused message for RipIt.

EVALUATE

For National Beverage, product knowledge was a key component to a successful launch. To ensure compliance, third-party evaluators made periodic unscheduled visits to sampling locations to verify that the PowerBlast Pro’s were correctly and effectively communicating the PowerBlast, Ripit and National Beverage messages. Throughout the campaign, Next’s PowerBlast
pros successfully passed all such evaluations by maintaining a 90+% “pass” rating.