What Even is an Electrolyte? Breaking Down the Emotional Appeals and Ad Techniques Behind Gatorade's Multibillion Dollar Empire
In an industrial looking room full of light, former NBA superstar Dwyane Wade and his wife, model and author Gabriella Union sit at the front of a gym spin class, locked in a fierce battle for the best time, with Gatorade bottles and towels hanging from their bikes. With a determined push, Union pulls away from Wade and cements her place on top of the leaderboard. While this could be a behind the scenes clip from a documentary about the superstar couple or the strange dream of a Miami Heat fan the night before Wade's retirement, it's actually the latest ad by sports hydration company Gatorade in their "Keep Moving" campaign. Since their inception in 1965 as a sports drink designed by University of Florida scientists for their sports teams, Gatorade has become a multibillion-dollar brand on the back of their successful marketing techniques and consumer appeals. Today, we'll be looking at some of these techniques and appeals and how Gatorade has used them so successfully.
First, we'll look at the emotional appeals that Gatorade employs in this advertisement using Jib Fowles's list of "Advertising's 15 Basic Appeals." While most of these 15 appeals could be seen present in this ad, the five most prominent are the need for affiliation, the need to achieve, the need to dominate, the need for autonomy, and physiological needs. The need for affiliation is seen with the presence of Union and Wade. When someone sees this commercial they create a link between these celebrities and Gatorade and thus want to use Gatorade because they want to become successful and relatable to Union and Wade. The need to achieve and the need to dominate are seen with the ongoing fitness battle between Union and Wade throughout the commercial. With Union and Wade using Gatorade to pull ahead of each other and give them the fuel they need to compete and win, the consumer sees Gatorade as a product that gives its user the power to get things done and beat others. The need for autonomy can be seen with Union and Wade being the top two people on the leaderboard in the spin class while they are the only two with Gatorade. This makes the case that by using Gatorade, you stand away from the crowd and hold a unique advantage. Only a special breed can utilize Gatorade and you can be one of them! Finally, physiological needs are seen as the Gatorade shown is bright colors and flows in an appetizing way, splashing out of the bottle in a way that makes the viewer thirsty. By using these various advertising appeals, Gatorade makes a compelling commercial that hooks in consumers.
Now, we can look at the advertising techniques that Gatorade uses in this commercial. The four most prominent techniques present in this particular ad are magic ingredients, testimonial, glittering generalities, and repetition. Magic ingredients can be seen with Gatorade's trademark "electrolytes" claim. For decades, Gatorade has marketed the electrolytes within their products as a sort of special sauce that replenishes your body when you sweat. Even though that isn't necessarily true (you have to sweat a lot for electrolytes to be at all useful), this marketing has made Gatorade seem like something special and therefore necessary. Testimonial is easy to see with the presence of Dwyane Wade and Gabriella Union in the commercial (and Missy Elliot on the background music). These figures are all seen as very successful for their careers and as importantly, they are all seen as positive role models with few negative things tied to their public image. Who wouldn't want to make Dwyane Wade proud and happy? Glittering generalities are seen with Union winning her competition with Wade with the help of Gatorade. While she easily could have won the battle on her own, the ad implies that she won because she drank Gatorade which tells the consumer that they should also drink Gatorade so they can win their own battles in life. Finally, repetition is seen with the many uses of the Gatorade logo, Gatorade logo, and the bright colors associated with Gatorade displayed throughout the ad. Say what you will, but you won't walk away from this commercial without Gatorade's name floating around in your head. Ultimately, Gatorade is able to appeal to its customers by using a variety of effective marketing techniques.
In the end, Gatorade creates an effective marketing campaign to buy its product through the use of various emotional appeals and ad techniques. We see this commercial and want to buy Gatorade because they make us believe it will make us as successful as Gabriella Union or Dwyane Wade without the thousands of hours of dedicated training that they had to go through to get to the top. So who cares that Gatorade is basically just flavored water unless you train for hours on end? The Electrolytes strike again and so the money flows.
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