Brand Repositioning: A Study of Mountain Dew

-->Mountain Dew, the soft drink distributed and manufactured by PepsiCo was was invented in Knoxville, Tennessee in the 1940s. As of 2007, Mountain Dew was the fourth-best-selling carbonated soft drink in the United States, behind only Coca-Cola Classic, Pepsi-Cola, and Diet Coke.

Mountain Dew’s name is a Irish slang for home-distilled alcohol. By eluding to what is by itself a euphemism, Mountain Dew creates a metaleptic relation to a world of undulating terrain and mists. The logo further reinforces this imagery. The ‘M’ and ‘W’ are overly large – possibly to give the look of mountain peaks and troughs. The colour green is a universally associated with plant life, while red is a colour of aggression and passion which connects with Dew’s secondary association with extreme sports.

Initially a drink with strong following with rural middle-aged people, it target demographic today is radically different. The drink is mainly marketed to people in the 12-30 year old demographic group, creating a connection to activities like extreme sports and to the video game culture.

While Mountain Dew is a popular case study in marketing circles, I wish to focus on its brand repositioning in India.

Launched in Indian in early 2003, Mountain Dew was positioned as an ‘energy and exhilaration' drink – same as across the world. Pepsi started with two JWT India-created television commercials that attempted to capture the brand's spunk and attitude. The first ad featured four ‘Dew Dudes’ being asked (by a voice over) whether they'd visited some famous tourist attractions around the world. On being asked ‘Big Ben dekha?', the ads show shots of the boys bungee jumping off the Big Ben. ‘Jump maara,' one of them answers, ‘Baja diya baarah,' says another, ‘Par boring thaa saara,' a third shrugs. The ad continues in this vain till the voice over asks ‘Sab kuchh toh kiya, but have you done the dew?' The boys vouch for the drink as soon as they taste it.

The second ad became a cult hit. It featured a Dew Dude on a bike chasing a cheetah in a Savannah, catching up with it, leaping and wrestling it into submission before pulling a can of Mountain Dew from its throat! ‘Cheetah bhi peeta hai' remarked another Dew Dude.

Yet, Mountain Dew did not live up to all the hype. A survey by Synovate in late 2005 among 16-20 year old SEC A1 & SEC A2 showed that people preferred Sprite and Limca, with Mountain Dew performing only a shade better than Frooti. This ‘baffling’ result revealed an insight. Firstly, the concept of extreme sports is limited to Indian metros, that too among the more upwardly mobile sections. And even there, awareness does not necessarily mean appeal. There aren't many ‘outdoorsy types' in this country - at least not the kind Mountain Dew has in mind. The ad campaigns itself were found to be over the top and unrealistic. This survey and the market performance of Mountain Dew set the stage for a course correction.

Yet such a course-correction has to remain faithful to the current clientèle of Mountain Dew and conform to the global branding of Mountain Dew. Just a market repositioning rather than a radical re-branding was what was the need of the hour.

This repositioning saw the introduction of the ‘Dar Ke Aage Jeet Hai’ campaign. Designed by JWT India, these ad was set in a river rapid where some guys were going to attempt river rafting. The ad starts with a nervous guy telling himself ‘Itna mat dar, beta Joy. Sunny ko dekh, kaisa chilled out sa baitha hai’. Sunny is saying a silent prayer ‘Bhagwaan, aaj apne Sunny ko bacha lena. Main Anshul ki tarah stud nahin hoon’. Anshul, a well-built guy is thinking ‘Kya faayda teri body ka Anshul? Sabse dara toh tu hi hai’. Suddenly, accompanying shots of the raft overturning a voice over remarks ‘Boss, dar sabko lagta hai, gala sabka sookhta hai. Toh aaney do dar ko, kyunki dar ke aagey jeet hai’. The next shot show cheerleaders worrying for the overboard rafters when suddenly the raft comes out of the water and wins the race.

As we can see, the ad portrays the Dew Dudes human beings with normal emotions like fear. Instead of asking for people who have ‘been there done that’ to adopt Mountain Dew it asks for people who wish to conquer fear to adopt Mountain Dew. Thus the campaign effected a subtle repositioning of the brand from that focusing on identification with the Dew Dudes to one focusing on the aspirational quality of conquering ones inner monsters. All the while it remains faithful to its association with adventure.

This ‘mainstreaming’ of Mountain Dew also reflected in its secondary associations. From sponsoring fringe/niche extreme sporting events in India, Mountain Dew has moved to sponsoring regular sports and even movies. One case point was ‘Mission Istanbul - Dar Ke Aage Jeet Hai’ placing their tagline in the movie title itself!