The article that drew my attention when I first opened up Marketing Dive’s marketing in the news web page was an article published by Chris Kelly, titled “Why Mountain Dew refreshed its visual identity for a new era of marketing.” I found this article intriguing because growing up my dad loved Mountain Dew and often let me try sips of it as a kid, as well when I was older I had memorable experiences of purchasing mountain dew products. I also found it interesting as Mountain Dew like other drink company’s have redeveloped their products' appearance multiple times over the products history. It also begs the question if sticking to your original branding and staying consistent and memorable is more or less effective than adapting the appearances of your products to your audience. The article outlines the new visual changes Mountain Dew has mad to their cans stating “A new logo includes the brand’s eponymous topography, along with a retro, three-dimensional font that spells out the soft drink’s full name” a big change for Mountain Dew to make as they have used the abbreviation “Mtn Dew” on their cans for the past decade. The shift aims to emphasize Mountain Dew’s citrus-flavored refreshment while displaying the great outdoors and good times with friends. It’s believed that this shift in marketing will be put into action in the coming summer along with packaging, equipment, advertisements and experiences. JP Bittencourt, vice president of marketing at Mountain Dew said in emalied comments “Mountain Dew is an iconic brand that people associate with memories of having fun with friends, so it’s important to make sure our look and feel resonates with our fans and that we continue to drive this message home.” showing that they are trying to take a more message based approach to marketing rather than a product based marketing strategy. As we have learned in a video “Simon Sinek: Why Great Leaders Inspire Action” the golden circle is an effective perspective many companies have adopted when it comes to their marketing strategies. In summary the golden circle displays how thinking and pushing a company’s why behind what they do is more important and inspiring to customers than what they actually do. We can see how Mountain Dew has adopted this perspective in their marketing as they make a shift towards pushing the message that their product is associated with good memories, friends, and even the outdoors. The changes they are implementing are focused on making sure their value proposition of being a refreshing, energizing, and memorable drink will resonate at a higher degree with their customers. Mountain Dew is trying to overcome the struggle most product based large scale companies face of becoming outdated or losing the excitement behind their product. One set back the company is facing is whether or not their efforts will be accepted and promoted by their audience. It's a very real possibility that fans of such an established brand would reject adopting the new changes in appearance to their favorite drink. They are trying to combat this problem by continually evolving and improving their products' appearance to better cater to their audience. Although other large beverage companies have found success in sticking to their original and memorable design and been successful, at one point or another those companies have used shifting product visuals for promotional purposes. Whether it was a special one time promotional effort or a permanent shift in design Mountain Dew is not the first nor the last company to use this strategy. Based on Mountain Dew’s past branding designs this new addition has leaned more into an embarrassing, colorful, maximalist design scheme in contrast to their history of a more minimalist design, following the redesign Pepsi had gone through in the prior year. Although this strategy has already been implemented by multiple other brands it is the first time in decades that they are bringing back their full name in all branding, as well as making a larger shift towards their overall message. I think that this new take on Mountain Dew will gain a lot of attention and overall excitement for their product as it does a good job of targeting their audience and personalizing their product. To be completely honest I am a firm believer in not over complicating things especially when you are an already very recognizable brand. I think personally I would actually take an approach of bringing retro back. I would bring back their original branding and style as I believe it would bring back a lot of nostalgia as almost everyone knows their brand and has some sort of memory with the drink. I think this approach would better display their message of their drink being a sharable, memorable experience with your friends. I also believe it would bring a lot of attention as this strategy is risky but also not done very often by other companies. I believe that they could lean into the nostalgic aspect of Mountain Dew to keep people talking about their company and to keep customers coming back. From reading about Mountain Dew’s newest marketing strategy I learned that even if companies are well established with a loyal customer base they never stop their efforts to adapt and shift to stay relevant and loved. I think it has shown me how simply changing the appearance of your product can attract attention and get people talking about your product even if the actual product hasn't changed in decades.
Links: https://www.marketingdive.com/news/mountain-dew-new-logo-visual-refresh/728669/
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