Influx

Close to year ago, Influx wrote about the innovative limited time launches from the UK’s Ribena juice brand. What struck us was how Ribena had used an emotional theme for the launches, rather than the flavor or seasonality based.

In the US, Pepsi’s Mountain Dew has been one of the leading exponents of the limited time trend. Last year, they launched two variants of the Mountain Dew brand in Mountain Dew Pitch Black, a grape based drink for Halloween and Mountain Dew Live Wire, a orange flavored drink that was only available between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

While it appeared that this strategy made sense on paper, at the time we were unsure that the idea made sense financially. Now Pepsi’s financial results suggest the strategy worked.

According to Smith Barney analyst Bonnie Herzog.

“We believe limited time extensions like Mountain Dew Live Wire and Mountain Dew Pitch Black created enough excitement to give the entire trademark a boost.”

Pepsi themselves credit the drinks for the positive financial contribution, stating in its press release.

“The quarter benefited from the introduction of two “limited-time-only” offerings:
grape-infused Mountain Dew Pitch Black for Halloween..”

Limited time line extensions are a great way of breathing dynamism into brands, especially those targeted a young adults whose tastes are often fickle, since they are always on the look-out for something new. These line extensions provide a reason to stick with the brand and not switch. In essence, they keep the brand interesting and relevant and they also work as a powerful communication tool, adding energy to the complete brand.

Limited time launches also provide license for the brand to be more playful and quirky, like Jone’s Soda’s Thanksgiving special, Turkey and Gravy

We expect to see soda companies get more aggressive with limited time launches, it will also be more prevelant in the snack and candy categories.

Influx expects this limited time trend to continue, but to evolve beyond flavor and season, to more interesting emotional territories.