Boosting the Brand

Effective marketing is a very important part of the successful Booster Juice business structure.  Promotion is important to building brands and Booster Juice uses celebrity endorsements, and various media outlets to promote products.

The giant television screens on display at our location show images of the newest endorsement promotion by Jose Bautista, superstar player for the Toronto Jays.  In 2011 Booster Juice began a “MVP Combination” sponsorship deal with the Major League Baseball star.  Billboards, TV spots, feature Jays smoothie, and even life size cut-outs of Bautista in stores, promoted the “MVP Combination” of Booster Juice products and the player’s notable homeruns.  

Booster Juice requires their franchisees to fund local advertising efforts for each store, but also provides national marketing campaigns.  The company also uses social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter to promote features and see what people are saying about Booster Juice on Twitter.

(source:  http://www.marketingmag.ca/news/marketer-news/booster-juice-partners-with-jays%E2%80%99-bautista-33060)

Jose Bautista's Booster Juice Commercial

(source:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hix3nFivA-4)

The Customers

Working at Booster Juice has given me a first-hand chance to see what kinds of customers purchase the products.  I would classify the customers in three categories:

·         Families with young kids

·         Regulars coming back for their quick and healthy snack

·         People trying it for the first time

The first group, families with young kids, consists of parents buying smoothies for their selves, while picking up a tasty, and fruit filled snack for their children.  The Snack Size smoothie contains a full serving of fruit and is perfect for a young picky eater because of the delicious taste.

The regulars always know what smoothie or juice drink they would like, and any special requests to add, omit or substitute ingredients.  This group is important because it includes the frequent buyer, and admirer of the Booster Juice brand. 

Finally the people trying Booster Juice for the first time are identified by the look on their face when trying to decide on the flavour of smoothie they would like.  After I ask a few questions regarding their favourite fruit, I can give some helpful suggestions.  In my experience, the first time buyer never complains about the difficult choice they made.

 

(Source:  http://wbfamily.blogspot.com/2011/08/honouring-jack-boys-and-i-head-downtown.html)

How it Started

  The two founders of Booster Juice, friends Dale and Jon decided after a camping trip to the United States that a Juice Bar is just what Canada needed.  After carefully studying the Juice Bar market, Dale started his research and development of the product.  Dale worked for 5 months, 18 hours a day to finalize the perfect recipes for juices and smoothies, using various ingredients, blenders and other equipment.

  With the help of his neighbors taste testing his experiments the first Booster Juice store had its grand opening in Sherwood Park, Edmonton.  Due to the cold Edmonton winters, the sale of smoothies declined. 

  To improve profits, Dale and Jon started selling franchises.  With 15 new franchises opening within one year it was clear that they had found success by marketing healthy alternatives to the active and health conscious consumer.

  After the successful 150 plus stores in Canada they started going international in 2003.  Booster Juice now has almost 500 stores in 6 countries, and in 3 continents!

Source:  http://www.grocery.com/booster-juice/

Booster Juice President and CEO Dale Wishewan with Jose Bautista, a Toronto Jays superstar, who recently signed an endorsement deal with Booster Juice.
Source:  http://www.strategicobjectives.com/category/blog/page/2/

Becoming a Booster Juice Employee

Booster Juice is a company which promotes healthy, active and environmentally friendly lifestyle.  The employees are ambassadors of the brand and I have the opportunity to experience it first-hand.  Starting mid-January I was hired to work customer service at the franchise located in Sherway Gardens Mall in Etobicoke.

My uniform is a sport style shirt with the phrase “Fruit Full Life” on the back, emphasizing the healthy fruit and yogurt smoothies, freshly squeezed vegetable juices, and the popular wheat-grass shot.  The wheatgrass shot is wheatgrass, a nutrient rich type of grass which is juiced and taken like a shot.

I have about ten co-workers who are friendly, outgoing and are great at teaching me the tasks I need to learn, the recipes and the menu.  The fruit and yogurt smoothies are a combination of juice, sorbet, yogurt, ice, and 0 to many Boosters. 

Boosters have various benefits:

·         Heightened Metabolism

·         Energy

·         Memory Boosting

·         Calcium

·         Protein

·         And many more!

After my first three shifts I learnt more about the company, its policies  and  how much Booster Juice means to customers.  In upcoming posts I look forward to learning and reporting more about this modern company!

More on Wheatgrass: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheatgrass)