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When Yoo-hoo, the 70-year-old beverage brand with the odd name, wanted to increase nationwide availability and still grow its core markets, it knew exactly what to do: Mix things up a little.
The result? Yoo-hoo Mix-ups: new flavors that promise to get those who already drink the No. 1 chocolate beverage in America to down more Yoo-hoo products, while allowing new customers to sample any of seven Yoo-hoo variations.
"It's a two-prong approach," said Raja Kort, vice president of marketing for New-York based Austin, Nichols & Co., U.S. marketers of Yoo-hoo, Orangina, and the anisette liqueurs of its French parent company, Pernod/Ricard. "To maintain your leadership position in core markets, you have to come out with new initiatives, and this reaffirms Yoo-hoo's growth in markets where it is well-known. In introduction markets, it helps people get into the franchise." Mix-ups bring chocolate-strawberry, chocolate-banana, chocolate-coconut, and chocolatemint blends to Yoo-hoo's venerable lineup of chocolate, strawberry, and coconut flavors. "Everybody has their own preferences when it comes to flavors," Kort said, adding that more Mix-ups are in the works. Chocolate-cinnamon and chocolate-raspberry flavors may be next.
Yoo-hoo is no stranger to new product formulations. The original chocolate-flavored drink itself was the invention of Natale Olivieri, an Italian-American purveyor of fresh-fruit soft drinks living in...