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by jader201·2y ago·view on hn ↗
Re: Gatorade’s 63% monopoly, I’ve recently thought about how quickly Prime went to mass market. It seems like it blew up on YouTube and stores couldn’t keep it in stock.

Then all of the sudden, it’s sitting next to Gatorade in huge volumes at Costco.

I’ve never seen a product so quickly “disrupt” a long-time monopoly. It remains to be seen whether it’s a fad or if they could actually compete with Gatorade, but it seems like they could, if anyone could.

To be clear, I’m personally not a fan of how companies like this use marketing (especially on YouTube) targeting young — impressionable — audiences, so I’m not necessarily rooting for either one of them (Gatorade is horribly unhealthy). But I have found it interesting at the very least.

3 comments
Where do you live? I'm in the northeast and I've never heard of Prime before, and I can't remember ever seeing it (maybe in one or two stores), although maybe my eyes just skip over it since I'm usually looking for Gatorade.
I, too, live above the Mason-Dixon line and I've never heard of Prime either.

But maybe this has less to do with geography, and more to do with the media that we allow ourselves to be exposed to.

For instance: I haven't watched regular advertising-supported TV (OTA or streaming or otherwise) for at least a decade, and my general online experience (including with things like YouTube) is generally completely ad-free (thanks, Sponsorblock and uBlock Origin).

I am, very purposefully and intentionally, rather "out of the loop" when it comes to advertising for trendy things.

I go into shops pretty often in my area but never see it, so I don't think it's just a case of media exposure.
It’s all over eastern Canada. Driving through New Brunswick every gas station had the common selection.

My small town gas station in Ontario had supply issues because as soon as some cases got delivered the zoomers/αoomers would buy it all.

The beverage industry spends a huge amount on advertising, and Prime is probably a good example of why!
Pepsi did a public case study on advertising spend for drinks. One year, they took their super bowl budget and spent it on community service projects. That year, sales were way down.

The next year, they went back to super bowl ads.

I'm not sure how you can even call 63% market share a 'monopoly'?