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Innocent is the market leader in the ? 171 million smoothie market in the United Kingdom where it has a mammoth 71 percent market share. It started off very unconventionally when three entrepreneurs namely Richard, John and Adam started selling their smoothies at a Music festival in London and for feedback asked its customers to dispose their cups into two boxes “Yes” and “No” to help determine if they should quit their jobs to sell smoothies. With an overwhelming response to this experiment the entrepreneurs quit their respective jobs to form innocent with the help of an American investor in 1999.
Like its roots the company till the present day is run in an unconventional way. Its headquarters are called “Fruit Towers” and its Managing Director has a title of “Chief Squeezer”. The company also has a green thumb and tries to minimize environmental damage. The company also takes part in various social causes The company likes to keep in touch with its loyal customers through its newsletter where once signed up a person is a part of the “Innocent Family”.
The company has also been hosting a free music festival called Fruit Stock which has been very successful over the past few years so much so that that the response last year was a little too much for the company to handle. Thus Jamie Mitchell, Innocents highly qualified current Managing Director has to make decision about an event that would help maintain Innocent’s highly reputable Brand Image. Option 1 Continue with Fruitstock ??? This option is safe bet for the organization as its success has been proven and the company can continue with what it has been doing over the years i. . The company organizing an music festival in London’s Regents Park to give the family touch. Besides due to its previous success the organization would easily find sponsors to bear the cost burden. But, the fact that last years event had close to 150,000 people attending and a greater number of people expected this year could make the event unmanageable and thus result in bad publicity, marring of brand image and may result as nuisance for neighbors and park authorities thus losing the “family value” as intended.
Option2 The Innocent Village Fete – This event would help bring about British tradition. It would also have additional events such as ferret racing and duck herding and other places of interest such as a children’s play area and a farmers market. To keep costs in control a ticketing system would be introduced where ? 5 a ticket would go to charity. This event would maintain Innocent’s Brand Image of natural and friendly. But the fact that this was a new event would make it more difficult to organize and attract potential sponsors.
The ticket system would also be a setback, as “thank you” emotion would be lessened. Option 3 Do Nothing for a year ??? As both Option 1 and 2 have considerable risk involved the company could skip the event for the year and organize a more awaited event for next year this would help save money and avoid the hassle of organizing an event. But this would mean losing out on an opportunity to thank its patrons and connect with its customers an incentive that the company has taken into serious consideration since its establishment resulting in its tremendous success.
After looking into the various options that Jamie has I would recommend Option 2 The Innocent Village Fete at London’s Regents Park because this would not only keep the innocent’s intention of hosting a family event but also keep the Fruitstock spirit by having music performances thus making it easy to gather sponsors and patrons. According to me the ticket system is a must as last years attendance was more than twice the strength of the “Innocent Family” thus making the event more manageable.
If the company finds organizing the fete too problematic it could outsource the organizing to a specialist, a cost it can incur due t o the additional money of ticket sales. Thus, keeping the benefits of Option1. Option 3 would most definitely hamper the brand image, customer loyalty and responsiveness of Innocent one of the reasons why customers pay a premium for Innocents products. This case is related to the managing the brand image of Innocent which in this case is as important as the product itself as the company’s incentive over the years to keep its patrons actively involved with its product portfolio has resulted in its success story.
Thus by introducing the one of a kind fete concept the company would have another USP (Unique Selling Point) and also get move on from the previous product development initiative (Fruitstock) to a newer product development (NPD) that harmonizes the organizations goals. ——————————————– [ 1 ]. Bibliography – Solomon;Marshall. Stuart (2009). Marketing- Real People Real Decisons. Essex: Pearson Education. 282 -313