THE SNAPPLE MARKETING SUCCESS STORY
Snapple was founded in 1972 by Leonard Marsh, Arnold Greenberg, and Hyman Golden when they began selling pure fruit drinks to health food stores in New York's Greenwich Village (Berkowitz, 1997, A44). The company began as UAF, for Unadulterated Food Products Inc., which included a health food store in New York and a building maintenance company (Berkowitz, 1996, 1D). The three partners came up with a carbonated apple juice and called it Snapple for "snappy apple." They paid a Texas man $500 to give up rights to the name. The apple soda failed.
But in 1979 the partners started signing up distributors for Snapple juice drinks, and in 1987 they created a hugely popular iced tea that was bottled while it was still hot (Berkowitz, 1996, 1D). They modeled their wide-mouth bottles on a variation of Gatorade containers. A now-defunct small New York ad agency came up with the slogan "Made From the Best Stuff on Earth." With the help of quirky advertising, Snapple sales soared, reaching $674 million in 1994 as dozens of flavors and diet versions were added and Snapple distribution was expanded across the country.
According to one of the founders Mr. Greenberg, "We were street guys; we didn't go to Harvard. We went more with guts. We would buck the market surveys" (Berkowitz, 1996, 1D). Yet, while "Snapple was the first company to explode on the 'New Age' scene... by the time they sold, the market started to catch up. The competition got heavier" (Berkowitz, 1996, 1D)
In the early days, the trio built Snapple's customer base through deli and convenience stores, then moved into supermarkets. Snapple's all-natural flavored teas were said to taste better than the canned varieties that had been on store shelves for years, consumers claimed. Snapple quickly became popular among health-conscious consumers in the Northeast and on the West Coast.
Annual sales soared to $516 million i...