Looking for an opinion from people on the board....

What companies do you think are the true innovators in the industry? Why?

Thanks,

John

As much as I hate to say it, I think Red Bull is a real innovator. They brought energy drinks into the mainstream and they found a way to charge a big price for a tiny can. After Red Bull, you started seeing everybody using smaller cans and developing an energy drink.

I will have to agree ...RB is my choice.

Reason is they prefected the "grassroots" marketing, then turned it to "see but cant touch"..
you guys n gals know...the whole carrot on a stick brain washing.

Wow has it worked! and to that, they are the true innovators!

Congrats RB and Thank You!

Oddly enough, I'll say Coke Consolidated. They created Fridge Packs, which revolutionized things, as well as the fact they are willing to try new things like the PET packaging and so on.

if you are going to mention coke for introducing fridgepacks you need to also mention Pepsi in the same post. It was Pepsi who introduced the 24 pk cube, 24oz pet 6 pk. though I am not 100% sure I would also say that Pepsi was the first to bring a bottled water brand national with Aquafina. Pepsi also brought 18pk 8 oz, a ton of brand extensions ( albeit most didnt work out), frappuccino, and the list goes on. to mention coke just because you tend to like cokes products is so biased. I am in agreement with the other posts in red bull being a true innovator in the beverage industry. I would also mention Clearly Canandian, snapple and also Gatorade (even though the three really havent done anything but be passed from owner to owner in the last 5 or so years). these three also did what redbull did in taking something that noone had heard of and making themselves into a international thing for lack of a better term.

[ 03-19-2004, 09:31 AM: Message edited by: the saint ]

boylan's and west jeff. without people like them, we'd all be a lot thirstier.

I agree with West Jefferson. Bucking the trends and doing things nobody else does anymore can be called innovation. I do not see Red Bull as progressive, they are just bringing a product thats been around awhile to new markets. Gotta admire all the cash they are bringin in though.

Despite our dislike of JONES SODA you have to admit that they try to be real innovators. Especially with flavors. Turkey and gravy, etc....

I would have to say 1980's coke exc. board.It takes serious sack to Drop your flagship product on the brink of passing the century mark of release and adding a product that tastes nothing like the original and clearly like the flagship product of the closest selling company to yours for the sole purpose beating them in sales going head to head with a product that rivals there products flavor.These days the coke company has lost that drive and cost cutting measures like 90% plastic bottles in place of glass & HFCS in place of sugar along with ending the production of the syurp new coke or Coke II have been the end of trying to play hardball and just rooling along with the safe tread of the day.Which is also why unless the buzz of sales of new Pepsi Edge are above par for a product the coke company will not use splenda in a cola.Which is why it seems that after 118 years Pepsi new really seems to have the edge

While I'm not really a fan of Pepsi I do give them some credit for trying new things and bringing out new flavors. Of course I poke fun at them too for bringing out flavors that seem like they didn't even go through a taste test before being released, Josta and Pepsi Blue being two examples.

I see Coke as a company now that really thinks things through when coming up with new flavors and they seem to be much better at getting the formula right. Vanilla Coke came out and sold like gangbusters while Pepsi's rushed to market vanilla is just sort of there and isn't doing much of anything, at least in this part of the country. Pepsi Blue pretty much bombed everywhere it went and quietly disappeared from store shelves. Sure the flavor has its fans but it didn't hit critical mass.

Pepsi did make the right move in re-introducing Mountain Dew Livewire. The product fits nicely into the product line and sold very well in my part of the country, where the ad campaign stated that it would only be available for the summer of 2003. Now that it's back in stores it's getting more shelf space at convenience stores than MD Code Red.

I see Pepsi launching all these new products as them grasping at straws just hoping to have something make it for a change. I can't blame Coke for being extra careful in their decisions after what they went through when New Coke came out. I'm sure that when Coke came out with Coke Classic they went to the "syrup making machine" and broke the knobs off just so no one could change the formula ever again.