UC team wins a Dragon’s Den competition
university-of-canterbury
Fri Oct 18 2013 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)
UC team wins a Dragon’s Den competition
Friday, 18 October 2013, 2:13 pm
Press Release: University of Canterbury
UC team wins a Dragon’s Den competition for promoting a health drink
October 18, 2013
As university students across New Zealand head into end of year exams, a University of Canterbury (UC) student team has won a Dragon’s Den style marketing competition for introducing a new health supplement drink under the Berocca brand.
The UC commerce team of Ellie Barrett, Josh Gray, Chris Cox and Jason Mckenzie won the marketing competition over 175 other UC business students for producing the concept of Berocca On-The-Go, to be marketed in New Zealand by Bayer.
``It is exactly what we all feel like for those late nights studying,’’ Barrett says.
``Our project involved developing a new beverage product launched under an existing host company of our choice with a hypothetical marketing budget of $1.5 million. We settled on Bayer, which markets the brand Berocca, as our host company which has a fantastic reputation worldwide.
``We thought that Berocca is a great product, but is quite limited in that it is only available in effervescent tablet form. It would be great to take our product to Berocca and see if they are interested in developing it.
``We wanted to capture the benefits that Berocca offers such as vitamin B, C, calcium and zinc but in a ready to go 250ml can. This would turn Berocca into an impulse purchase product rather than a health tablet supplement and would be a strong alternative in the energy drink market dominated by brands like V, Monster and Red Bull.
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``In today’s society, consumers are placing a greater emphasis on health benefits they get from the foods and drinks they eat. Berocca fills a niche market for these types of consumers as an alternative to sugar and caffeinated drinks. The energy drink market is worth $37 billion globally so we thought there was potential market share to be captured.’’
Barrett’s team prepared a marketing report including a concept testing survey, analysing the target market, preparing a marketing mix, and a breakdown of the budget that would be needed to launch Berocca-On-The-Go for 2014.
``We know the easy trap is being tempted to buy a coffee, red bull or a bar of chocolate when you need an energy lift. The quick fix you get from caffeine and sugar doesn't last long, nor is very healthy.
``We loved the Dragon’s Den competition which is part of our MKTG201 class supervised by Associate Professor Dave Fortin. It was a great practical learning experience and is unique to UC. It pushed us into a commercial environment where we had to display professionalism and clarity, similar to the real business world.
``We also offered the Dragons to be directors of Berocca On-The-Go if they gave us the hypothetical $1.5 million which may have helped,’’ Barrett says.
ENDS
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