The voters have spoken: Mountain Dew is going blue. PepsiCo announced Monday that Mountain Dew Voltage will become the brand's newest full-time flavor, following a Web campaign that allowed consumers to create and then vote on the brand extension.
Voltage, a raspberry, citrus-flavored drink with ginseng, beat out SuperNova and Revolution. The three beverages, which hit the market in June, became Pepsi's largest ever limited-time-only flavors in terms of case volume, said Frank Cooper, who oversees Mountain Dew as Pepsi-Cola North America's vice president of portfolio brands.
The addition of the blue-colored beverage continues what has become a resilient brand despite a decline in the overall U.S. soft drink market.
Mountain Dew and Diet Mountain Dew sales volume rose in each of the past three years, according to figures from Beverage Digest. Volume for regular Mountain Dew is down about 2 percent in the first half of 2008, compared with a drop of more than 5 percent for all carbonated soft drinks.
Diet Mountain Dew, up 2.4 percent, is the only beverage among the top 10 soft drinks to increase its volume in the first half.
Mountain Dew is particularly strong at convenience stores, where margins are high on 20-ounce cold drinks, said John Sicher, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest. Only Coke Classic outsells Mountain Dew at convenience and gas station outlets.
Competitors, such as Coca-Cola Co.'s Mellow Yellow and Vault, have been unable to put a major dent in Dew's sales.
"As difficult as marketing soft drinks has been for the major companies over the years, Pepsi has done a good job with Mountain Dew," Sicher said. "It has an extremely loyal following. In many ways, it has a cross-appeal both to regular soda drinkers and energy drink drinkers."
Mountain Dew has succeeded because it has focused on its core market, Cooper said. The beverage, often called the original energy drink, is closely attached to video gaming and extreme sports.
Mountain Dew targets passionate consumers and counts on them to spread the word, he said. The marketing approach can be compared to two different types of parties.
"You could have a massive party where people are just kind of semi-interested, and most people would be bored with that," Cooper said. "Or you could have a small party where people are intensely engaged and having the time of their life. The small party is going to attract more people over time."
Mountain Dew already has Code Red and Live Wire flavor extensions. As it becomes a permanent flavor, Voltage likely will take more shelf space as sales of Live Wire, an orange-flavored version, taper off, Cooper said.
The effort was driven by the consumer, Cooper said. The DewMocracy site, launched in October 2007, has drawn more than 1.5 million unique visitors.
The site initially was used to develop the three limited-time flavors, allowing users to help select ingredients. It was then used to tally votes.
The DewMocracy site will continue, Cooper said. Consumers will be asked to help shape the Voltage marketing plan, playing a role in choosing digital and TV advertising, he said.
"We've tried to get around just the simple flavor extension," Cooper said. "On one level, it is flavors, but we tried to figure out, 'How do we get consumers more engaged so they feel like this is their product, this extension is part of them?' "
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