Cherry 7-up targeted at Youth Market

Advertisers must aim their message at a specific target market if the message is to be effective. Seven-Up Corporations, the producer of the “uncola”, traditionally targeted its products and advertising to older generations, but a decline in sales made the company change its strategy in 1987. According to the research, nearly half of all soft drinks were consumed by teenagers aged from 13 up to 24. So the first decision of the company was to target its advertising campaign to this age group. Some time later the company introduced a new Cherry Seven-up and its sugar free version, which was a revolution since the company had never deviated from its lemon-lime formulation before.

So, the company launched an advertising campaign for Cherry-Up which featured the tag “Isn’t it cool in pink?” Pink was chosen the dominant colour in those ads. The TV commercials were black and white except for prominent pink articles such as suspenders, earrings, and, of course Cherry 7-Up itself, which was in colour. 7-Up chose pink as the primary colour of the campaign partly because it was a favourite fashion colour of the target market and partly because of its eye-appeal.

The ads were slice-of life-ads, which focused on the lifestyles of the target market. They showed teenagers, having some problems, natural surroundings. To add to this, the campaign also tried to bring to the pink theme certain qualities that adolescents wanted, such as self-assurance, popularity, and independence. The TV spots used light rock music and electronic musical effects, they were run during the target market’s favourite programmes. It also contributed to the success of the new product.

To make the campaign more efficient the company supported it by a “Cool in Pink” merchandise catalogue offering Cherry 7-Up clothes and accessories, including Cherry 7-Up T-shirts and sweatshirts, pink sunglasses, shoelaces and headbands and Cherry 7-Up watches, which 7-Up hoped fashion-conscious teenagers would find “cool”.

All those “tricks” boosted the popularity of the new soft-drink. Several years later the sales of the drink doubled. So, advertising was the tool the company used to reach its target market.