I took the 32 mile trek to the second closest retailer carrying Celsius. My first attempt to acquire Celsius was thwarted by poor information on the Celisus.com website. The website had told me there were two Krogers in the town I live in which sold Celsius. Not the case. The Celsius website has since posted a bit of info saying it has cleaned out some bad locations. However, the website still lists a GNC in my town which no longer exists. I'd have to give the website, all things considered, a very poor C- with F being no website and D being a barely functional site. Booooooo!!
Marketing
Below I have attached 4 pictures of varying angles of the can for reference. These were 12 ounce cans and I purchased them for $2.19 per can, before taxes. The convenience store/gas station had a 5 door cooler system. 1 Coke, 1 Pepsi, 1 energy drink/water, 1 tea/juice/misc/, and 1 milk/cheese random foodstuffs door. Celsius was located one shelf below what I would consider eye level, with five flavors taking up 5 slots. The flavors I can remember are Lemon Lime, Orange, Green Tea, and Green Tea Raspberry Acai. The can resembles a Red Bull, only a little larger and with more colors. At $2.19, it seemed much more expensive than the drinks in the same door, but would have been at home in the energy drink door. So far, however, Celsius does not seem to be marketing itself as an energy drink, but more as a weight loss supplement. I give the marketing team a B, since after all they are actually starting to be in coolers now.
In The Can
What stands out on the can are the ingedients. We have 100% of vitamin C, Riboflavin, niacin, B6, B12, biotin, and pentothetic acid. There is also 5% calcium, 41% chromium and 1810 mg of their proprietary mix of taurine, guarana extract, green tea leaf extract, caffeine, glucuronolactone, and ginger root extract. Reads like an energy drink, but marketed as a diet drink. After two drinks I feel a bit more energetic than before, but I am not overwhelmed like I would be with a Monster or other energy drink.As far as weight loss, there are a lot cheaper ways to lose weight than to drink Celsius.
What I was really after here was the taste. I have seen scores of drinks go through retailers over the years with a whole bunch of different marketing ploys. So renting an ad in Times Square and plastering Mario Lopez all over the place is not going to sell the drink if it tastes like crap. The Green Tea Raspberry Acai was pleasant and good enough for an energy drink/weight loss drink. Was it worth $2.19 plus tax for 12 ounces? Heck no. But I am not one to regularly buy such things. In front of me in line was a lady buying multiple Monster coffee drinks which cost $2.99, though the can was larger. Next my wife and I tried the Orange flavored Celsius. My wife gave it a big thumbs down and would not drink more than the first sip. She basically called it a powdered orange drink mixed with seltzer water. My reaction was Tang meets ginger ale. Tang is the forerunner to every powdered drink we know of today. I drank the rest of the can, but it is not a flavor I would prefer. I like ginger ale and I like, to some extent, tang. But the two together is just not what I have in mind for $2.19 per can. I give what is inside the can a C for high cost and a flavor which will undoubtedly turn off some people on the first can.
Conclusion
My first Celsius experience was sub par. The drive to get the drink was enjoyable and we got to see an average Indiana winter sunset. The drink itself disappointed me due to a surprisingly poor flavor and a high cost for 12 ounces of liquid. The website I give a very big thumbs down to and does nothing from my perspective to better the company's chances of succeeding. Overall I like the chances of this company succeeding less now than before my first experience trying the product.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment