The Juice Stop is a local franchise of a large national network of stores that specializes in twenty-four ounce custom-made frozen smoothies, fresh juices, and healthy snacks. Each blend at The Juice Stop is personalized to cater to the customer’s preferences, creating an unforgettable experience. The store serves non-fat yogurts and sherberts made with Edy’s Ice Cream, a renowned brand in the realm of frozen desserts. Additionally, The Juice Stop frequently collaborates with growers to guarantee that only the finest fruits are selected for their juice formulations, resulting in a natural and top-notch product.
The Juice Stop utilized four key marketing strategies, namely advertising, promotions, philanthropy, and publicity, to boost sales. During the autumn of 1998, the Juice Stop was experiencing a deficit and needed to generate at least $530 per day in order to cover expenses. Regrettably, the daily revenue generated by the Juice Stop amounted to only about $425, resulting in financial losses.
In December 1998, the management underwent a transition which also brought about a shift in marketing approach. This change led to an average daily sales of $710, showcasing the profitability achieved through a simple change in strategy. It is crucial to prioritize the target market for our products, as the market for the Juice Stop is quite broad.
The corner of 13th street and University Drive, across from the University of Florida, is an excellent spot for reaching foot traffic from the university, including faculty and students. It also attracts athletic and health-conscious individuals as well as the local non-student population in Gainesville. This local non-student market is especially important during the summer months when the student population decreases by seventy-five percent, making it vital for summer profits.
For a small business with limited advertising dollars, it is crucial to carefully select when and where to advertise. In Gainesville, the Alligator newspaper is a top priority. Boasting the highest readership in the area, it primarily caters to the University of Florida student body, which coincides with the target audience of the Juice Stop. Consequently, it serves as an incredibly effective advertising platform. The Juice Stop opted to run a small ad measuring two inches by two inches, three times a week for a span of ten weeks at the start of the spring semester. Despite its size, the ad proved successful in boosting business due to the vast readership (refer to visual aid number 1).
The Juice Stop decided to advertise in a local lifestyle magazine called Moon, which targets the same audience but focuses on alternative lifestyles such as vegetarianism and veganism. This choice makes the Juice Stop a suitable destination for individuals following these dietary preferences. The ads in Moon were half-page ads and incorporated a coupon. The success of the ad was determined, in part, by the number of coupons returned, which was significant and further confirmed the effectiveness of the ad and its strategy (see visual aid number 3).
The Juice Stop employed a unique advertising strategy by purchasing a banner on collegestudent.com, a webpage designed specifically for college students. This site offers various features like chat rooms, post boards, and personals that cater to each college. Research indicates that college students typically spend 3.2 hours online daily engaging in activities such as writing reports, checking emails, and browsing the internet. The affordability of the banner was also considered when choosing this site because it charged based on the number of page hits received. As a result, payment only occurred when both the website and advertisement were viewed by people. Furthermore, the webpage organized the creation and distribution of five hundred free tee shirts featuring our logo on the back.
The Juice Stop made their final advertising effort by placing a half page ad in the program of a play that was performed from January 15th to the 31st. This ad, costing only fifty dollars, was included in the program for both shows each night at the Student Center. With the play selling out all six shows and a total estimated attendance of over nineteen hundred people, this advertising opportunity proved to be a great value at just fifty dollars.
Promotions are an integral part of the Juice Stop’s marketing campaign to boost sales. These promotions involve interactive activities between the Juice Stop and their customers, rather than just being advertisements. The Juice Stop offers various promotions, such as the Student Advantage card, Gator Greenbacks, Juice Stop Dollars, Juice cards, and sponsorships.
The initial promotion offered was the Student Advantage card, which is a card that can be purchased by local students for twenty dollars. This card provides discounts at over thirty local businesses for the entire year. The participation in this program is free for businesses, except for providing the agreed discount. Juice Stop’s discount was “buy one smoothie, get the second one at half off.” This promotion boosted sales without affecting profit, as students who originally planned to buy only one smoothie were convinced to buy two by taking advantage of the Student Advantage discount. Although the profit margin was not as high as the first promotion, it was still considerable and made customers feel like they received a good deal.
The second promotion was an advertisement/coupon in the Gator Greenbacks, a glossy coupon book with over 150 pages distributed for free on the University of Florida campus. The cost of running the ad was $269 and it included a coupon for a 50 cent discount that could be used up to five times. The Gator Greenbacks book guaranteed a distribution of at least 25,000 copies during the summer term and a minimum of 42,000 copies in the fall of 1999 (see visual aid number 3).
The third promotion was a combined effort aimed at the local market for the upcoming summer off-season. In collaboration with a Civitan donation, they decided to distribute Juice Stop dollars, which resembled and were shaped like actual dollar bills. These could be used as regular currency at the Juice Stop. (Please refer to visual aid number 4.)
The second part of the promotion was the Juice Card, a discount card similar to a credit card, distributed to local customers who visited repeatedly. By presenting the card, customers received a ten percent discount on their entire order. The Juice Card was exclusively given to local business people and university faculty, excluding the student population. This strategy aimed to cultivate lifelong customers from Gainesville. (See visual aid number 5).
The Juice Stop used several promotional tactics to increase visibility and sales. One of the strategies involved sponsoring two local sporting events. The first event was a karate tournament with 250 competitors, where Juice Stop set up a booth and placed a half page ad in the tournament program. This resulted in $150 worth of business during the four-hour tournament. The second event was the NPC Central Florida Bodybuilding Championship, where we set up a booth and achieved over $250 in sales. Additionally, we received a full page ad in the program as part of our $150 sponsorship. (See attached ad.)
Both of these promotions were not only successful but also targeted our specific market segment: the health conscious and athletes. The sales generated from each event not only covered our costs but also exceeded them. Additionally, the promotion provided significant exposure to our target market, making it a tremendous success.
Philanthropy is a significant tool for marketing the company, according to The Juice Stop. They believe that giving back to the community not only boosts sales but also helps others, making philanthropy an effective marketing tool. The main focus of The Juice Stop’s philanthropic efforts is the Civitan Regional Blood Center, to which they donate twelve hundred dollars annually. Since Civitan is recognized as a non-profit charitable organization under sec 501.c of the IRS, this donation is tax deductible. In return, The Juice Stop receives several benefits. Civitan holds around eight to ten blood drives per week, and The Juice Stop’s logo is featured on every t-shirt given out on the U.F. campus, totaling approximately seven thousand shirts per year.
The Civitan bus displays their banner and a Juice Stop Smoothie Lineup Board during blood drives. Every donor on campus receives a coupon, and the Juice Stop is promoted in all media promotions on and around campus, including ads on WYKS-FM/Kiss 105.3.
The Juice Stop has also been involved in other philanthropy events, such as the Shower-a-thon, Greek Week ’99, and the Alpha Chi Omega “Fun Run”. The Shower-a-thon was organized by the Alpha Epislon Phi fraternity and was a local roller hockey tournament. All the proceeds from this tournament went towards Stop Children’s Cancer, which is a division of the American Cancer Society. This event took place on March 21, 1999, and to show support, the Juice Stop logo was featured on the event t-shirts in exchange for a simple donation of ten free smoothies.
During Greek Week ’99, Greek organizations participated in a variety of activities. These activities included three community service projects as well as an athletic competition known as the Greek Games. The Juice Stop made a generous donation of five gallons of fruit punch and, in return, their logo was placed on the Greek week t-shirts.
The Alpha Chi Omega “Fun Run” was a two mile run around Lake Alice with the participation of five hundred runners. The Juice Stop sponsored the event with a donation of one hundred and fifty dollars, benefiting the Sexual and Physical Abuse Resource Center house in Gainesville. This generous contribution is also tax deductible. Additionally, the Juice Stop volunteered to assist the College of Architecture by welcoming two groups of students to study and analyze the space, customer and staff circulation, lighting, color, and design quality. The findings were then reported back to their professor in a comprehensive report.
Another form of marketing for The Juice Stop is publicity. In the past year, they have only received one instance of publicity, which was the painting of a mural on the building’s 13th Street side wall. This wall had been bare since the opening of The Juice Stop until the Girls Club of Alachua County Inc’s coordinator started a mural contest with the theme “Colors of the World.” Local artist Patrick Boner submitted the winning entry and painted the mural in August and September of 1998. The Alligator newspaper featured a half page story on the mural in one of their Monday issues. (See attached copy).
That is the end of my evaluation of the Juice Stop’s marketing strategy in the past six months. Through advertising in widely distributed channels and focusing on a particular market segment, the Juice Stop managed to bounce back from a negative sales pattern and thrive as a highly profitable enterprise.
