Spyke and Wide eye were not supposed to be bad products, discussion board help

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discussion 1 reply

Hello everyone

Spyke and Wide eye were not supposed to be bad products. These two products were taking a new move in their product lines that focused on fruity, fun drinks and caffeinated drinks. Spyke stayed only for five months but performed well in the market that showed they were not bad products. Spyke was developed for adults as a reduced alcohol alternative. It is not sure that these products were particularly targeted to attack the youth, although they performed well. Marketing advertisements are not the reason for alcohol abuse. (Ananthan, Appannaiah & Reddy, 2010). The approach that would be taken is to promote the drinks as an alcoholic beverage rather than energy, fun and caffeinated drinks. It is not believed that there is a requirement for further restrictions from the government.

Reference

Ananthan, B., Appannaiah, H., & Reddy, P. (2010). Business management. Mumbai [India]: Himalaya Pub. House.

discussion 2 reply

All alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages depend on marketing and advertisement to help them be successful. Spyke and Wide Eye were not meant to be bad products. They were trying to take a different angle on their products to attract a wider audience for more sales and growth. It seems to depend more on personal opinion if these products are bad. Depending on one’s personal views and experience that they will believe these products are bad or not. I believe these products are not bad. Alcohol always comes with a risk and it’s our choice to have it or not as well as being responsible with it.

These products were marketed without much caution and should have taken better steps to show there are risks to consuming alcohol. Wide eye “claimed in its ads that consumers who drink Wide Eye will remain alert when consuming alcohol – from making the deceptive claims” (Staff, 2013). All alcoholic beverages are a personal risk if not drank with caution. Although “these drinks contained less caffeine than a cup of coffee and met federal guidelines of 200 parts per million or less for caffeine in soft drinks. Nonetheless, the critics believed that caffeine stimulated drinkers, leading them to drink more and leaving them less aware they were impaired by alcohol (Steiner & Steiner, 2014). With that being said they did a good job in showing how great they felt these products were, but took no caution about how caffeine can affect someone. Although it is said that “peer influence was the strongest factor in drinking behavior, followed by parental influence” (Steiner & Steiner, 2014) marketing is an important aspect to a company’s reputation.

If I were to change the marketing of these products the approach I would have taken was to have a larger disclaimer regarding caffeine and alcohol combined. As well as showing it was more of an alcohol based beverage than an energy drink. The Federal Trade Commission stated that it was wrong to say “that consumers who drink Wide Eye will remain alert when consuming alcohol” (Steiner, 2014). By publicizing this a consumer may think this is a perfect everyday beverage since people drink energy drinks daily without realizing there is alcohol consumption within the beverage. By marketing the fact that it is both and always have caution when drinking the companies would be on the safer side.

Up to a point I believe there is a need for the government to place restrictions on alcohol advertising. In Europe the “EU culture ministers agreed to review an EU directive that covers the audiovisual promotion and advertising of alcohol” (O’Brien, 2017). If there were more restrictions on alcohol advertisement there would be fewer issues with companies being fined for misleading consumers. If there is less misleading and an approach similar to the EU it would be more unified causing less complaints.

References

O’Brien, T. (2017, June 07). Government to call for an EU-wide ban on alcohol advertising. Retrieved July 05, 2017, from https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news…

Staff. (2013, September 30). Constellation Brands Settles FTC Charges That Ads for ‘Wide Eye’ Caffeinated Alcohol Beverage Were Deceptive. Retrieved July 05, 2017, from https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/200…

Steiner, G. A., & Steiner, J. F. (2014). Business, government, and society: a managerial perspective: text and cases. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.