Marketing RUSH Hour

URCs new push for RUSH

By
Darwin S. Renolayan
I. INTRODUCTION
While waiting for the flight that was going to take him from Manila to Boracay for the yearly
management committee meeting, Warren Griffin, URC Beverage Division Category Manager
for Functional Drinks, pondered the prospects of strengthening the category. He soon had to
present a long-term marketing plan to the URC-Beverage Business Unit General Manager,
showing the market potential of existing and soon-to-be-launched products. In the short-term, the
most pressing task faced by Mr. Griffin was to fine-tune the re-launch program of RUSH Fitness
Water - a functional sports drink whose past product launches failed to grab significant share in
the market. URC had phenomenal market off-takes with the C2 and Refresh launchings. This
leaves the BU Marketing Head, Anderson Striker, guessing on whats keeping the functional
drinks team from achieving the same success the tea and juice drink teams had.

II. THE COMPANY

Universal Robina Corporation (URC) traces its beginnings all the way back to 1954. John
Gokongwei was doing very well then as a trader/importer. He learned the trade when his father
died before the war, and had worked hard through the war and postwar years to prosper.
However, while he thrived, he took a long hard look at his company, and correctly predicted that
trading would remain a low-margin business.
A successful manufacturer, at the time, controlling its own production and distribution could
command more profitable margins. With this, John decided to construct a corn milling plant to
produce glucose and cornstarch, Universal Corn Products (UCP), the first linchpin of the
company that would become the URC known today.
For a time, business was good. However, John was still looking ahead, working with an eye
towards the future. While the business was doing very well, it was producing essentially a
commodity, which a customer could easily access elsewhere. To stay ahead in the game, John
had to diversify by producing and marketing his own branded consumer foods, similar to the
multinational companies in the country like Nestle and Procter & Gamble. In a sense, he wanted
to put up the first local MNC, borne out of their best practices.
Thus, in 1961, Consolidated Food Corporation (CFC) was born. The companys first home
run product was Blend 45, the first locally-manufactured coffee blend, dubbed as the Pinoy
coffee. This became the largest-selling coffee brand in the market, even beating market leaders
Caf Puro and Nescafe.
After coffee came chocolates. Nips, a panned chocolate, was a staple to Filipino kids.

1966 saw the establishment of URC, which pioneered the salty snacks industry through Chiz
Curls, Chippy, and Potato Chips, under the Jack n Jill brand. Other snack products would
follow over the years, as the company successfully introduced market leaders like Pretzels,
Piattos, and Maxx.
The coming decades saw more acquisitions and expansion. While the business portfolio became
more diversified, the business units were slowly integrated in order to streamline and minimize
costs. In 2005, the present structure of the group was completed. All the different units are now
organized under the URC umbrella, divided into 3 focused groups:

the Branded Consumer Foods Group (BCFG), bannered by the Jack n Jill mega brand
the Agro-Industrial Group, comprised of UCP, Robina Farms (RF), and Robichem
Laboratories (Robichem)
and the Commodities Group, with the URC Sugar and Flour Divisions

Company Vision
URC strives to be the best Philippine food and beverage conglomerate with a powerful presence
throughout the ASEAN region and China, carrying a wide portfolio of strong brands, equipped
with efficient systems and high-quality people.
Company Values
Passion to Win Build organizational capability by being entrepreneurial and proactive, driven
by a sense of urgency and purpose. Continuously take the challenge to deliver world-class brands
and consistently strive for excellence.
Dynamism Cultivate a culture of innovation and productive working relationships.
Continuously find ways to improve organizational and people capabilities to meet constantly
changing consumer needs.
Integrity Guided by transparency, ethics and fairness, build the business with honor and
committment to good governance by having processes and products that meet the highest
standards, and credibility in dealings with both internal and external stakeholders.
Courage Seize opportunities in building long-term, sustainable businesses. Make tough people
and business decisions to ensure competitive advantage.
The Branded Consumer Foods Group
One of the leading branded convenience food and beverage company in the Philippines, URC
Branded Consumer Foods Group (URC-BCFG) is known for manufacturing and distributing
high-performing products such as Chippy, Nova and other snack foods under the Jack n Jill
mega brand, Nissin and Payless noodles, as well as Hunts tomato-based products.
URC-BCFG is either a market leader or strong challenger in these categories. The company is a
trendsetter in the beverage industry with its coffee and ready-to-drink products. It blazed new
trails in the local market with the successful launch and continuing promotions of C2 Cool &
Clean Green Tea. Optimizing the emerging global trend of health and wellness, C2 spearheaded
the expansion of a relatively new and potentially high-growth segment in the Philippine beverage
industry: the green tea segment.
To date, URC-BCFG has 15 manufacturing facilities and 14 distribution centers nationwide.

BCFG Beverage Division

URC-BCFG Beverage Division is split into 2, namely: Beverage 1 and Beverage 2. Beverage 1
comprises the coffee, cereal and creamer brands while Beverage 2 consists of the water, dairy,
tea, functional, juice & energy drink brands.
The brands Beverage 2 produces and markets are the following:
Product
Category

Brand
C2
Envidia
Tealicious
Nature's Harvest
FAB
Big Sip
Juicy Jelly
Refresh
Hidden Spring
Nestle Pure Life
Rush
Vitalife
Swiss Miss
Milkshake
Great Taste RTD

Tea

Juices

Water
Functional
Dairy

Moreover, sales contribution of each product category from 2005 to 2008 is shown in the
succeeding table.
Beverage 2
Tea
Functional
Juice
Energy Drink
Water

Net Sales ('000)

2007
2006

2008

2,824,272

3,488,017

3,513,098

35,172

30,164

29,076

237,742

288,429

187,320

389

276

102,732

99,345

416
142,723

Beverage Division Marketing

The Beverage Division Brand Marketing Group plans, prices, promotes and distributes the
products to the market. For every marketing plan, the Group takes into consideration the
following items:
Objectives/Goals - URCs main objectives are: 1. to supply everyone their favorite drinks and 2.
satisfy the consumer needs and wants. The next main objectives are: 1. to provide profit to the
shareholders and 2. increase the market share.
Target Market - URC's beverages are generally for all consumers. However, there are brands,
which target specific consumers. For example, C2 is targeted at consumers who are health
conscious and are avoiding carbonated drinks. Rush Fitness Water targets those who are fit,
healthy and do sports activities. Refresh Juice Drink targets children between the ages 5-12.
URCs advertising, has a primary target market of those who are 13-24, and a secondary market
of 10-39. This type of market approach refers to market segmentation.
Marketing Mix
PRODUCT - URC's products main raw materials are purees and syrups, with the finished goods
being branded beverages. Beverage Division currently has a total of 66 SKUs of beverages with
the main brands being C2, Natures Harvest FAB, Refresh and Rush. The company packages its
products in PET bottles of sizes 1L, 500mL, 355mL & 200mL. URC is one of the most wellknown trademarks in the Philippines, recognized by 95% of the country's population. The
business is very successful and holds a very good reputation.

PRICE - The prices of URCs products vary according to the brand and the size. The prices of
the main products are shown in the table below.

Size
1L
500mL
355mL

Retail
Price
38
24
20

Nature's Harvest
FAB
500mL
500mL
Nestle Pure Life
330mL
Rush
500mL
Envidia
355mL
Refresh
200mL

24
20
13
24
25
7

Brand
C2

URC beverages are sold in retail stores, convenient stores, supermarkets, gas stations etc. The
pricing methods/strategies are set by those the Division sells to. Gas stations and convenient
stores usually sell the beverages at a higher price than the suggested retail price. Retail outlets
also use their own pricing methods and strategies when selling the products. In general, however,
the Division employs the following pricing strategies in coming up with the SRPs.

Competition-based pricing: The beverages are usually priced below, above or equal to its
competitors' prices.
Discount price: The beverages are often marked down during sale periods and special
occasions. This generates more sales and increases profits.

PROMOTION Beverage Division uses a range of promotional activities.

Advertising: The Division uses advertising as main source of increasing consumer

awareness. It mainly uses the television. This source allows the company's beverage
brands to reach a large audience. One of the C2 TV commercial, for example, promoted
C2 Green Tea for healthy lifestyle. And recently, the company benefited from its
involvement in the new season of ABS-CBNs Pinoy Big Brother that millions
religiously watched, practically from the first episode up to the finale night. The company
also uses billboard and print media as other sources of advertisement. These are cheaper
channels compared to television.

Personal selling: Every year, URC has a highly trained sales team, which acts as a
representative of the company to the retailers. This strategy helps to maintain service and
product loyalty. It has been demonstrated by the business to be highly effective.

PLACEMENT Beverage Division sells its products to distributors, wholesalers and some
retailers.



Indirect distribution: The Division uses intermediaries in its distribution and also sells the
products directly to its consumers.
Intensive distribution: The Division uses the intensive distribution strategy. The
business's products are sold in almost every outlet including, but not limited to:
o Retail outlets
o Small shops
o Mom & pop stores
o Restaurants
o Gas stations
o Canteens & Carinderias
o Schools
o Sports houses
o Entertainment venues

III. THE FUNCTIONAL DRINKS CATEGORY

The functional drinks market proves to be one of the more promising and exciting segment of the
Philippines beverage industry to date. From formulation alone, a company can offer their
functional drink product in different marketing angles. It plays in the same broad beverage
market that is used to be monopolized by the traditional drinks sodas, tea & juices, and has
now become a great marketing challenge for every beverage brand manager.
URC had 2 attempts in breaking into this segment of the beverage industry but came out
unsuccessful, twice failing to make significant sales milestones. Bull Fighter Energy Drink was
introduced in early 2005, but was discontinued just after two years because of unfavorable
market response. Rush Fitness Water was launched in 3rd quarter 2005, showed some early signs
of promise but never really managed to make it big.
Rush is now facing reformulation and re-launch, while Vitalife, is slowly introduced to the
market. As a newly launched vitamin-water brand, it is expected to play an important role in the
companys functional drinks category. It is aimed towards complementing Rush in improving the
current market share of the Division in the functional drinks market segment.
IV. THE PRODUCT
RUSHs value proposition is to provide the market with a light-flavored beverage that gives the
refreshing benefit of water and hydrating effect of the regular sports drink, using a moderate
formulation that makes it ideal for everyday consumption by the regular individual.

It is packaged in a blue PET bottle with a finely striped, dominantly blue label that reads:
RUSH Fitness Water Grapefruit Blitz Ion Supply Drink
Rush to Ultimate Refreshment
This is not your ordinary drink. RUSH FITNESS WATER contains essential electrolytes that are
quickly absorbed by the body helping you keep the endurance as you get delightfully refreshed.
RUSH FITNESS WATER allows you to go the extra mile
beat the extra minute recharge yourself for the day.
Reward yourself with lightly flavored and non-carbonated RUSH FITNESS WATER.
Its the healthy way to revitalize and refresh yourself.
BEST SERVED CHILLED. SHAKE WELL BEFORE DRINKING. REFRIGERATE AFTER
OPENING.
Shortly after its launching, Rush showed promise as sales consistently increased. But less than 2
years after its market debut, monthly off-take showed accelerated decline. To salvage the
downhill trend, URC launched the Active Achiever campaign in summer of 2008 designed to
distinguish the brand as the beverage partner of the weekend warriors. These are professionals
who work out both brain and brawn while in their sports gears on weekends. They live out their
active lifestyle by fulfilling their athletic aspirations.
Rush Brand Marketing Manager Blake Silva focuses in making sure marketing support for the
campaign is maintained. He ensures continuous production of below-the-line activities and
coordinates with other support groups of URC to implement special events, sponsorships and
promotional activities. He also facilitates the development and production of merchandising
materials geared towards ensuring maximum visibility or exposure in central areas and major
events. Examples of promotional events they have in the pipeline are office invasions, run
clinics and sponsorship of sports events like running, cycling, dragon-boat rowing & Frisbee.

Merchandising materials lined up include posters, streamers, price strips and bottle talkers
among many.
Blake, however, admits that the marketing campaign they came up with in the past really fell
short in establishing Rush as a major/legitimate brand in the functional drinks market segment.
Thus, in what could possibly be the last effort to revive the brand, the company has decided to
re-launch the product and pair it with a new product offering.
Rushs predecessor, Bull Fighter, then banked on added functionality and low price, when it was
pitted against energy drink giants Red Bull and Lipovitan, but also failed to gain foothold in the
energy drinks market segment.
This left the company to focus its remaining resources in ensuring Rushs success. Coinciding
with its re-launch was new brand Vitalifes launching. This drink is a light-flavored vitaminenhanced drink that contains different combinations of nutrients to help mental and bodily
functions. It was initially placed under the stewardship of the Water Marketing Group, before
being transferred to the Functional Drinks Marketing Group.