With Gatorade observing the 50th anniversary of its invention, we asked some of the brand’s top marketers what the future looks like.
In the short term, the brand is making a push into nutrition, which is part of an initiative across parent company PepsiCo. When it comes to sports nutrition, there are few large, established brands, and the cost of entry is still relatively low. So there are Gatorade-branded whey protein bars, gel energy chews and protein shakes.
“Nobody truly owns sports nutrition,” said Jeff Kearney, Gatorade sports marketing chief. “So why not us?”
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Protein bars and protein shakes are aimed at the sports nutrition market.
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Brett O’Brien, Gatorade senior vice president and general manager, sees a day when Gatorade is a brand consumed all day. “There’s an opportunity for us to be about fueling as much as we are about hydration,’’ he said. “We’ve still got a huge amount of education to do with athletes there, but that was once true for our core [hydration] products.”
Others see wearable technology as the key to growth. Devices like the Fitbit and Apple Watch inevitably will monitor and control hydration, exercise and nutrition.
“People want to personalize everything, including hydration and nutrition,” said James Carter, Gatorade Sports Science Institute head. “That’s a good thing and a bad thing. Good because increased personalization will allow more people to be eating and drinking the right things. But I also think that may take away the fun of eating and drinking, so it needs to be done in the right way. For me, that would ideally be done around exercise.”
Gatorade Chief Marketing Officer Morgan Flatley also predicts increased specialization and personalization.
“So much technology has been applied to training equipment,” she said. “The question will be how do we get to where technology can be applied to the fueling side, so it can be more precise?”
Of course, that will create a new marketing requirement. “Once we figure out personalized fueling, then it’s how do we figure out personalized messaging?” Flatley added. “Expanding those one-to-one engagements, both live and through content and media, will be critical for our future.”
