Rockstar

IN-STORE PROJECTS: INACTION+

Stimulating sales with Rockstar

In the latest InAction+ project, we work with Britvic and Broadway Convenience Store in Edinburgh to create further energy drinks sales opportunities with the hugely important Rockstar brand.

The national and local lockdowns have had a major impact on shopping patterns in many product categories, but formats (IRI), single serve sales continue to dominate the category, outpacing soft drinks as a whole with the spectacular recent growth of stimulant energy drinks has just kept on going. Despite growth in both ‘drink later’ and ‘drink now’ 11.6% growth (Nielsen).

There has been a growth in demand for energy, especially while on the go.

The past year has seen longer working hours, an increase in outdoor exercise and manual labourers still working. As restrictions ease, the focus is expected to return to impulse soft drinks purchases as consumers continue to seek out ‘pick me ups’. Stimulants are well-placed to benefit from this, as caffeinated energy drinks are now the number one single-serve drink in convenience (Nielsen).

Following PepsiCo’s acquisition of Rockstar Energy last year, Britvic is now responsible for the brand in Great Britain, and is working with retailers to drive stimulant drinks sales even further. This gave us the perfect opportunity to partner with Britvic to help local retailers ensure that they continue to get every penny of sales and profit out of this enormously important category.

KEY SOFT DRINK CATEGORY TRENDS

● ENERGY: Energy is one of the fastest-growing reasons to choose a soft drink (Kantar), but shoppers buy energy drinks for a variety of reasons including both caffeinated stimulant drinks and caffeine-free ‘pick-me-ups’.

● ON-THE-GO VS TAKE- HOME: Although packs for drinking at home have grown five times faster than singles (Nielsen) during the pandemic, stimulants grew in both take home and on-the-go (IRI). With people likely to be on the move this summer, sales of on-the-go options are expected to accelerate.

● VALUE FOR MONEY Understandably, value for money is a key priority for many shoppers in the current climate. Rockstar is available in price-marked packs for most of its range.

PLAN YOUR CHILLER

To make the most of the energy drinks category, it’s crucial that retailers pay close attention to how they merchandise their range. Rockstar should be merchandised with other stimulant brands within the energy drinks category, blocked by variant within the leading brands you have on offer. If you have room for four lines from Rockstar then you should lead with the core range of Original and flavours:

● Rockstar Original

● Punched Tropical Guava

● Xdurance Blueberry, Pomegranate & Acai

● Juiced Tropical, Orange & Passionfruit.

These represent the muststocks for retailers and are all available in both price-marked and plain packs in the popular big can (500ml) format, which has proven successful with energy drinkers, seeing +20.1% growth (IRI), as well as 4 x 500ml multipacks for take-home purchases.

Also, look out for new Rockstar Original No Sugar – available from August in £1.19 PMP format – and, if you have space, extend your range with a number of additional Rockstar flavours to encourage new shoppers into the stimulants segment.

4-BAY

1-BAY

2-BAY

JOINT EFFORT

To demonstrate the opportunity for further growth within on-the-go soft drinks and the stimulant market in particular, The Week In Retail and Britvic have joined forces to work with Premier retailers Dennis and Linda Williams of Broadway Convenience Store in Oxgangs, Edinburgh for a three-month project. The project will aim to continue the momentum of stimulant drinks as lockdown restrictions ease, and to provide valuable new insights on the category for Britvic and the store team.

"We will share our learnings as we go and hope to provide some useful insight and advice from the project which will be of interest and use to all local retailers.

“We are really excited to work closely with Dennis and Linda on this project in order to understand key insights and continue to fully immerse in what is still essentially a new brand for us,” says Adrian Howe, Rockstar Brand Manager.

“We are looking forward to supporting retailers by sharing this insight and key learnings so they too can increase their stimulant sales.”

Dennis Williams comments: “Energy has long been a vitally important category for us and over the last year sales have grown significantly – but we are always looking for ways to continue developing and progressing.

Linda and Dennis

“So we are delighted to be able to work with Britvic and the huge Rockstar brand on the project to see how we can unlock further growth and, of course, share what we have learned with other retailers through the pages of SLR and The Week In Retail.

“I’m particularly excited about the project because the recent major refit of the store means we have a lot more chilled drinks space available to us, as well as some additional space for ambient multipacks. We’re also excited to see how we can leverage the continued growth of our Deli offer, which has grown beyond belief over the last year or so. Being able to work closely with Britvic and gain access to their knowledge and experience of both the wider category and of how energy is performing in stores across the UK is an exciting prospect.”

● Look out for regular updates on the work carried out in-store.