How I Would Revitalize the "Crush" line

[Concord Hubbins]

As much as I adore the Crush beverage, I feel they have one foot in the grave and the other is maneuvering into place.

With that said, I offer the following suggestions to uptick Crush's cool quotient a few million notches.

1. Equate "Crush" with aggression. Crush is a violent word and if played right, a Crush rebrand that embraced a harder edged vibe would score well with the mook and midriff demos.

2. Embrace "now" flavors.

Orange, grape, pineapple, and et al are so old school. Additionally, Asians are the fastest growing demographic in this country. Put these two together, and I say it's time to eyeball some new flaves-- such as;

dragonfruit, starfruit, asian pear, mangosteen, durian, rambutan. . .

I know Zotics has a lot of these flavors, but their products are bland, corn syrup addled crap. If you want to try new school flavors, don't flirt-- COMMIT!!!!!

3. Fork over some ducats to a high end design firm like frog or Landor and come up with some packaging that will be more tempting to teens than crack to your average LA prostitute. Think AMP that tastes good without the dodgy liquid speed angle.

4. Get New Hollywood on board. Bribe some of today's hottest young stars to order it at their favorite hot spots-- maybe with some alcoholic bev mixed in. Next thing you know, kids from Keokuk to Aames will be swilling this to be "kewl."

CH

[boodoo]

Right on Concord, but what must happen first is for someone to pry the brand away from CS where it continues to perish. It needs to be in the hands of an aggressive hot-shot who is willing to take a calculated risk.


Next I would place it in the hands of the independent distributor network and get it out of the broker system. If I could get Crush in glass bottles at a reasonable price it would be in my warehouse right now. This brand still has good name recognition but may soon be lost.

[ 01-08-2002: Message edited by: boodoo ]</p>

[sodasommelier]

I can't complain; I sell literally thousands of cases of Crush in glass bottles and people absolutely love it! It's pretty reasonably priced compared to other glass products; actually, I really have to hand it to CS for being a little more flexible than Coke and Pepsi.

[assclown]

Crush is one of my favorite beverages. I like to mix it with milk to make drinkable push up pops.

[RunWithDaLilGuy]

Crush is available in 16oz bottles from Intrastate Distributors, Detroit, MI.

It's not bottled in those cheesy 12oz bottles in darien illinois

Tom

PS - what's with bringing up all of the old topics? specifically Concord Hubbins topics? Just curious...

[Floridapopman]

As long as Crush is owned by CS, it's going be distributed via the warehouse/broker system.

Why support a brand though a soft drink house and spend all these marketing dollars to compete against your flagship brand (Sunkist, Welch's etc.) when you just pay your slotting fee, check your retails to be competitive and make money.

[assclown]

I have no idea what you are talkin' about Floridapopman!

[Hacksaw]

Crush should go BACK to their old formluas, with REAL sugar and former ingredients(except like Red dye #2). Crush Grape was absolutely divine in the 70's. Even the Mexican Crush now is down a few notches. Some more new flavors may not hurt, BUT: Finding shelf space may a problem today.

[fizzbizz]

The issue with CS and Crush has everything to do with distribution. The 7 UP bottlers lead brand is Sunkist. Pepsi has Slice and Coke has MM. The only alternative is warehouse/broker. I still think there's a Pepsi play in there somewhere. CS has a valuable Trademark that is going no place and Pepsi needs a real orange.

[assclown]

I think the artifical orange thing is like totally played out. Wood resin and citric acid do not an orange make.