Gatorade is a sports beverage designed to replace electrolytes and carbohydrates lost while exercising. Gatorade is owned and produced by PepsiCo and is positioned to be sold at supermarkets and convenience stores. The thirst quenching drink is sold as a high performance sports beverage in 80 countries world wide, with over 50 flavors. Gatorade can be found anywhere that Pepsi products are sold. PepsiCo manufactures a flavor concentrate that it ships to independent bottling facilities. The bottling facilities then mix the final product, bottle it in packaging supplied by an independent supplier, and distribute it to the various retailers. Gatorade is priced slightly lower than its main competition, POWERade. PepsiCo keeps very close control over the pricing of its products, ensuring that every channel member makes a profit. Product promotion for Gatorade is focused in three areas, media advertising, event sponsorship, and contests. The main competitor for Gatorade is the Coca-Cola product, POWERade. Currently Gatorade seems to have the upper hand because it is experiencing sales growth while POWERade is not expecting any growth in the next year. Gatorade keeps its competitive edge through product innovation. All of Gatorade's product research takes place at a special facility called the Gatorade Sports Science Institute, use of this resource will help to maintain Gatorade's competitive edge in the years to come.
1. Introduction
Gatorade was the first widely used sports drink in the United States. It was developed in 1965 for the Florida Gators football team by a group of four university physicians (The History of Gatorade, 2007). The Gatorade formula was proven to be effective when the Florida Gators started winning against heavily favo ...