Snapple Ads Don’t Add Up to an 800% Increase in Sales
“Californians are out of it,” declares Snapple Beverage Co. in newspaper ads this month. Citing a huge demand, the company says in its ads that its ice teas and juices are “temporarily sold out” in groceries across the state.
Well, not exactly. It turns out that some flavors were in short supply this summer because the company stopped making them here in order to boost production of its best-selling flavors. The less popular flavors were trucked in from elsewhere.
“The shelves were never empty,” says Norm Davis, grocery buyer for Hughes Markets. A spokeswoman for Vons Cos. said the same thing.
A Snapple executive described the ads as “tongue in cheek” and said they were aimed at “Snapple loyalists” who are accustomed to more variety. “We never claimed you couldn’t find Snapple anywhere,” says Jude Hammerle, marketing director.
Indeed, so much Snapple found its way to California that sales are up 800% so far this year. Tom Pirko, a beverage industry consultant, said Snapple appears to be “flooding the market” to win over consumers before such giants as Coca-Cola and Pepsico bring out a line of ice teas.
According to some grocers, Snapple is now downright plentiful. “There is plenty of Snapple available,” says Jack H. Brown, chairman of the Stater Bros. grocery chain, with stores in San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange counties. “We are not out of it at all.”
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Getting carded: American Express brought its campaign against credit card interest charges to Los Angeles this week, this time without support from the state Department of Consumer Affairs.
Consumer Affairs Director Jim Conran decided to pass on the Los Angeles event after attending previous American Express-sponsored seminars in San Francisco and San Diego. American Express said rival card company Visa pressured Conran to drop out. Visa and Conran say hogwash.
“He had some misgivings,” says department spokesman Louis Bonsignore. “You have to look closely at what is being promoted at these forums.” Bonsignore said the department favors “credit responsibility,” but not one credit card over another.
American Express has been attacking credit card interest because it does not charge any. Its cardholders must pay balances in full each month. But that fact alone does not make American Express the low-cost alternative. Its annual fee of $55 is three times the average on Visa or Mastercard.
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Don’t put away the checkbook yet: “No annual fee,” proclaims the brochure from Intuit, a Menlo Park software company now marketing a Visa card to its customers.
And that is not the only thing that makes the card special, according to the brochure. People who use the card won’t have to bother with paper charge statements every month. Intuit will deliver monthly statements electronically to people using the company’s home-budgeting program.
There’s a catch, though. Electronic statements cost between $36 and $54 a year--significantly higher than the $18 average annual credit card fee. And an Intuit customer service representative said you have to buy the statement service to get its card.
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About those billing errors: Last week, we reported that the California Public Utilities Commission had received a large number of complaints from Pacific Bell customers who said they were being billed for a telegram service they did not order.
The firm, American Telegram Corp., said it was doing several things to prevent billing mistakes.
Paul Bernadou, customer service manager, said customers who order the service from telephone solicitors are being sent confirmation letters. In some cases, follow-up calls are made.
Bernadou speculated that billing complaints resulted from data entry errors or from customers who forgot that they ordered the service. The charges show up on Pacific Bell phone bills because American Telegram pays the phone company to do its billing.
PacBell is now required to provide billing for certain types of firms requesting it, such as telegram companies or voice-mail services. PacBell spokeswoman Kate Flynn confirmed that it may seek a rule change allowing it to refuse billing services to firms generating many complaints.
