Marketing often comes down to making your customers intelligent enough to buy your products or services. They have to understand what it is you’re selling, how it’ll help them, and how much better it is than any other solution. Jamba Juice is a leading juice and smoothies retail chain in the country. Started in 1990, originally called The Juice Club, their stores are now open in most states giving their customers an unexpected health experience by offering the best ingredients, remarkable service, and amazing flavor, nutrients and variety.
Jamba Juice is a company that follows on living a balanced lifestyle that integrates nutrition, fitness and fun. Its passion for health and uncompromising commitment to quality are the keys to its customers’ fulfillment and consequently to its success. Jamba Juice is known for their fresh-squeezed fruit and vegetable juice blends that are made on the spot with no additives such as sugars, preservatives, or artificial flavors. The company’s main goal is to augment the daily experience of its customers, its community, and its team members through the life-nourishing qualities of fruits and vegetables.
The main marketing issues for Jamba or any other company are social, economic, technological, competitive, and regulatory when compared with a environmental scan of the United States of America. If a Juice Club were to be open near the University Of Massachusetts Lowell, an environmental scan would prove to be useful. The strengths could be the college environment since they seem to have expendable income to use. However, the area around the university tends to be a more situated around the middleclass income. The college student is an ever transient demo since they are only here for about 4 years.
College students are also not here all year long so they are not truly your long-term customers, especially because they only have four years to spend at the university. The people who live around the school would be considered the main customer base. Also, a juice bar is a trend-based business, so one should consider whether or not a college area is a trend-setting environment. Considering the economic downturn we are in right now, does it truly make a Juice Bar a necessity? For example, you would assume that the consumers are going to save their money to buy lettuce and milk, rather than spend extravagantly on $4 juices.
The m iddle class type consumer is more economy sensitive then anyone, and they will just consider a juice bar to be a trend, not a necessity. Trends are ones that just come and go, and this can be a weakness. But, if the area happens to be a trendy one, comprised of people who usually like to do different things, then it could be a strength to gain that particular customer base a sort of niche in the market. Between trying to make itself known, a business has to battle with a player in the field that has already established itself. Consider the area around the college.
There is already a mom and pop type coffee house called the Sugar Shack which seems to have found its place in that market. This could be considered a weakness for Jamba Juice. People may be less likely to go to a juice bar when they are already comfortable with the existing coffee house in their area. The only real opportunity I can see is that there are no other juice bars in the area. Introducing something new to the area could potentially attract a lot of customers. There could also be a problem if competitors choose to clone your business in some form or other.
Then, a company is faced with the task of getting the customer to purchase your particular service/product over the competition. How long will it take to build brand loyalty? Will it be enough time to make a profit? If juice bar A is serving a similar product base compared to juice bar B, but B is cheaper and has a better atmosphere, then there goes your loyalty! You have to make sure that your product/service is the best in its area of business. The environmental force which is most critical for Jamba Juice is location.
Jamba Juice’s outlets are primarily located in strip centers and street locations. Consequently, it has to find access to a more diverse and concentrated traffic flow of potential customers than do Jamba Juice’s usual choice of strip malls and street locations. Let’s not forget the competition. There are also numerous smaller mom and pop chains of juice bars serving blended drinks, as well as health food cafes throughout the United States that operate in both strip malls, street locations, and specialty locations within airports, hospitals, office complexes and shopping malls.
Jamba Juice has to try to assimilate itself into other viable locations even if it means being closer than expected to the competition. The competitive environment for juice bars is a sketchy one. Juice bars have existed for over a decade, and were originally stationed in places such as gyms and/or health food stores. New entrants seem to come and go every day , either the new business is too close to the competition in its methods, services, or products offered that there is really no difference. This would entail consumers to stick to brand loyalty. One barrier to entry could be the demographic area in which u decide operate.
You need to decide whether to target a customer base of health-conscious consumers or the generation-x of the fast food industrial revolution. Another barrier is the competition. It is necessary to find out how many similar business and/or products there are in the area surrounding you, and what will really distinguish you from the rest. Sometimes when a consumer needs to really attain something it usually comes down to the first store they see, and that is where their business will be going. If a company truly makes themselves stand out, then the consumer will choose them before simply going to the first store they see.
In conclusion, the Jamba Juice case proved to be a interesting one at that, from the ideas behind the company to the introduction into the market place and the reaction to its health driven menu of products. Trends always seem to come and go. To be successful, you have to introduce fresh and new ideas to stay ahead of the game, otherwise you will be left in the dust in a cruel and truly competitive market place for health food. With advent of more competition a good product is only as good as the educated consumer who is going to purchase it.
Recommended solutions would be to conduct marketing research to find out if this is something people around campus and the surrounding area would want. The product should then be promoted by setting up a booth in the university center or near the food court and give out product samples. A survey could follow, as a way to find out the opinions of the new potential customers. The company must also ask themselves if everyone will succumb to the health craze, or if they will be directed toward coffee shops.
They also have to look at coke, pepsi, milk, beer, liquor, etc. ecause those are all indirect competition for Jamba Juice. Not everybody likes Juice, so if Jamba Juice provided other beverage options and snack foods like power bars or muffins, they would probably make a much higher profit. To establish itself from other juice bars in the area or the bars that might follow, Jamba Juice needs to differentiate themselves using many promotional strategies, such as, store atmosphere, coupons or giveaways, good quality, good products and flavors, etc. By incorporating all of these strategies, Jamba Juices has a much higher chance of becoming a success.
