Five hour energy has never been accused of making particularly highbrow ads. Previously they offered themselves as a midday boost, but now they’ve gone after the morning ritual of coffee. Strategically they’ve moved from creating a new occasion for their product use, to trying to replace a use.
The strategy makes some sense. It’s easier to convince someone to try an alternative than to create an entire new use for a product. One detail that seems lost is the actual occasion. 5 hour is positioned against home brewed coffee, and is offered as quicker and easier. This lacks some believability as there are both instant coffee products like Starbucks via that are nearly as easy and taste pretty good. Also if we have the ability to plan, many coffee makers have timers.
The missed opportunity seems to be to position 5 hour energy against cafe coffee. Even the fastest barista can build up a consderable backlog in the morning rush, and the product is pretty expensive. Given the economic climate, a product that’s faster and cheaper than an alternative might have better results than one that’s just faster.
However, what do you think? Is 5 hour on track with their marketing or could they do a better job.