Darren Rovell's Gatorade blog

Check The Facts!

In recent years, companies have spent a significant amount of money trying to research their history. Nike recently took some employees off their PR staff to research the company's history -- they are calling it "The Nike Story" and there's a company in Chantilly, Va., called The History Factory (http://www.historyfactory.com/), a brilliant company that gets paid to research the background of companies and sometimes even makes museums for them. But, as I can attest to from reading every article on Gatorade ever written from 1966 to 1986, it's very hard to understand every little detail of a company's history. That being said, I'm shocked at the lack of research the people at Gatorade did when unveiling a fact on their new "Cooler Orange" drink (Orange and Cherry).

Here's the fact on the bottle verbatim: "Harry Carson and Jim Burt upended the Gatorade cooler onto the head of Bill Parcells after the Giants' 39-20 victory over the Broncos in Super Bowl XXI. The superstitious coach insisted his lineman continue the dunking the next season, beginning the now legendary 'Gatorade Dunk.'"

That is so dead wrong. As readers will find out in my book, or find out now devoted blogees and blogettes, the first dunk on Parcells was Game 7 of the 1985-86 season and continued through the Super Bowl. Burt actually started the trend, but he wasn't there to dunk it on Parcells at the season finale. Not only that, Parcells hardly insisted that his team continue the dunking the next season. He tired of it and so did Carson and the tradition stopped. My book even questions if Burt and Carson even invented the Gatorade Dunk. You might be surprised to find out the strong evidence against the two credited pioneers.

What's Your Gatorade?

My favorite part of the presidential state of the union speeches comes when the president tells great stories of individuals, who are placed in the audience. In the spirit of my upcoming book release and tour, I've decided to use this blog in order to reach out to you. I want to tell those types of stories. Over the next couple months, send me a photo of you (to TheGatoradeGuy@aol.com) with your favorite Gatorade flavor. Please include your name, age, years you've been drinking and your best Gatorade moment. I should stress, this doesn't have to be all positive. If you hate Gatorade, feel free to tell us about why you can't stand it. The top two submissions will win a free autographed copy of "First in Thirst." By the way, a site that has done this really effectively is www.starbucksgossip.com if you want to check it out. Look forward to hearing from you.

Gatorade Celebrates 10th Anniversary in Mexico

Gatorade hit Mexico in 1995 and the sports drink is doing extremely well there. The product is produced and distributed by a Mexican company called Exel, whose Mexican operations are based in Mexico City. The company employs over 100,000 people in 2,000 locations in more than 135 countries. Gatorade unveiled the Xtremo line a couple years ago -- a three flavor group that includes my favorite Mango Electrico. Gatorade doesn't disclose the sales figures of their flavors -- as I had requested for my book -- but I'm told from people inside the company that Mango Electrico is  now one of the top flavors.

Gatorade For Chickens?

We've written before about Gatorade being served to butterflies and horses, now we've confirmed chickens. According to the Akron Beacon Journal, people who are showing animals at this week's Summit County Fair are concerned about their pets overheating after 12 birds died from heat stroke on Monday. Said chicken tender Lindsey Burley: "We give Gatorade to the chickens to keep them hydrated."

The Crosby Show

If the NHL's No. 1 draft pick Sidney Crosby lives up to the hype, Gatorade Canada might have signed the best endorsement deal in Canadian sports history. Crosby is the much heralded 17-year-old from Nova Scotia, who will be selected first by the Pittsburgh Penguins this upcoming Saturday. Since the NHL's return from the lockout was imminent, about 25 percent of the people coming to this site have found their way here by typing "Sidney Crosby Gatorade" in Google. I know because I always check how people found my site. Gatorade Canada signed a multi-year deal with Crosby to promote its X-Factor brand. Fans can learn about winning Crosby jerseys and Gatorade logoed phones at www.gatoradexfactor.com. If you are intrigued by Crosby, you might want to read my ESPN.com article about how being in Pittsburgh won't hurt his endorsement potential: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/sportsbusiness/news/story?id=2114555.

Do Pitches During NASCAR Interviews Work?

I was watching the NASCAR race today and, even though I'm a business reporter, I can't get over how blatantly the pitches come in post-race interviews. Has any NASCAR driver ever said anything of substance besides thanking his sponsors in these situations? Has anyone ever tested if this method is even effective? The funniest one was Mark Martin. They welcomed him in and he put his right hand on top of the car, so the Gatorade logo was in full view of the camera. The reporter asked him his first question. He was handed his Gatorade. The reporter finished. And, only then, did Martin START drinking the Gatorade. Essentially, this meant that the reporter and the viewer had to wait about three seconds to hear Martin's answer. Right after the second question, Martin did it again. If anything, I wouldn't go buy a Gatorade after that in-your-face sponsorship approach.

Guantanamo Bay detainees slug Gatorade

According to the Associated Press, 52 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are on a hunger strike to protest their detention by the American government. The nine who have refused meals for the past three days have been given Gatorade and nutritional supplement, Ensure. Guantanamo Bay houses people with suspected terrorist connections.

New Gatorade Facility Breaks Ground

The building of Gatorade’s 8^th manufacturing plant got underway on Thursday in Wytheville, Va. The facility will produce Gatorade as well as the brand’s fitness water, Propel, when it opens in Sept. 2006. To celebrate the opening, NASCAR driver Matt Kenseth, who is a Gatorade endorser, drove onto the building site in a bulldozer.

"This is an exciting day for us and we've been looking forward to celebrating this occasion with the Commonwealth of Virginia," said Gatorade president Chuck Maniscalco, in a news release. "The Wytheville area is a wonderful community with excellent resources and economic factors, and is an important transportation hub to the Mid-Atlantic and Ohio Valley regions. We are happy to call this area home to our new plant."

The plant will reportedly yield 250 new jobs. The other Gatorade manufacturing facilities are located in Atlanta, Ga.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Dallas, Texas; Mountain Top, Pa.; Kissimmee, Fla.; Oakland, Calif.; and Tolleson, Ariz.

Psychological Marketing

Gatorade is having an exceptional summer due to the heat wave. But I'm betting it's also due to great, aggressive marketing. When I was walking in my local Mobil mini mart, I noticed the "Gatorade, 3 for $4" sign on the window. I wasn't going to buy three. It wasn't that I didn't want to save 44 cents per bottle, which is what I figured out the difference between the usual price and the sale was. It was that I already had enough Gatorade in my fridge. When I went to the refridgerators in the back -- if anything, I'd want cold ones, right -- I had made up my mind: I was not going to get three.

But then I saw them -- warm Gatorade bottles sitting in the middle of the shopping area in cardboard boxes. Something in my head went off. I started saying to myself, "Wait a minute, this is a great deal." Before I knew it, I had 3 32-ounce Gatorades in my hand as I made my way to the checkout counter (and two of them were coming out warm straight from the cardboard box). So what happened? Having recently read, Seth Godin's "All Marketers Are Liars," I know exactly what happened. Seeing the cardboard boxes got me excited. It screamed to me, "This is really a sale." I know the whole "right off the truck" mentality entered my head because the same drink, even though it was warm instead of cold, looked more appealing to me in the boxes. In the book, Godin talks about a group of entrepreneurs who sold speakers to kids at Harvard out of a U-Haul truck. He hypothesizes that the speakers sold out, unlike the local electronics store that had the same speakers for a lower price, because the truck suggested that the speakers were perhaps stolen.

The fact that there were so many Gatorades in the boxes should have meant something to me. They weren't going to run out anytime soon, right? But the packaging -- the cardboard boxes -- won out over the quantity rationale. I always paid attention to the packaging of the product itself. But now I'm paying more attention to the packaging around the packaging. People go crazy for anything in buckets. Cardboard? Forget about it. Although this really was a discount, I bet the Mobil could have sold 2 Gatorades for $5 by this method. Just watch how people go nuts at Costco and Sam's Clubs for items loaded in cardboard boxes that don't even present them with a great deal. I don't know if Gatorade sets this up by telling the convenience stores that, if they can, to keep them in the boxes and place them in the middle of the floor. But I wouldn't put it past them. As you will be able to read in my book coming out in September, Gatorade's innovative tactics in convenience stores in the late 80s and early 90s is one of the reasons for the product's continued dominance today.

Review: X-Factor Orange+Tropical Fruit

In continuing on my quest to try every Gatorade flavor before my book comes out in September, I tried X-Factor -- Orange and Tropical Fruit -- today. X-Factor drinks are certainly more sweet than the one flavor Gatorades (save for any Fierce subline). But I've liked every one that I've tried. Flavor Rating: 7 out of 10.