Naked® Juice is a brand of all natural 100 percent juices. Naked Juice Company (NJC) is based in Los Angeles. In 1983 a young man started blending fresh produce and walking the beach “towel-to-towel,” handing out his concoctions to thirsty beach-goers. Early in the morning, he home-squeezed and blended his juices before heading to the shore with a backpack full of ice. From the first day, this has been Naked Juice’s mantra: “We are dedicated to creating the best all-natural, 100% juices and juice smoothies, made from the best bare-naked fruits, with no added sugar and no preservatives – ever.” Combined with one pound of fruit in every bottle, Naked adds natural vitamins, minerals and herbs for healthy living.
Today The Naked Juice Company produces and ships 6 million bottles of juice every month. There are 24 flavors divided into six families: Antioxidants, Just Juice, Energy, Protein, Superfood, and Well Being. The juices are available in the produce section of grocery stores across the Unites States and most recently, the United Kingdom. After 25 years of squeezing and blending, the company has grown. The “blenders” work as teams to create small batches of juice, tasting and testing the juice in every stage of production.
The Naked Juice Company is a major player in the individually bottled juice market. Its only competitor in this market is Odwalla®, which produces the same type of juices, smoothies and other healthy food products. In the broad, organic juice market, NJC competes with companies such as Santa Cruise Organic®, Columbia Gorge Organic ™ and Purity Organic™. None of these companies participate in social media.
Social media represent a large sector of the media that The Naked Juice Company has not yet approached. The Internet has created an ever-growing online population, which commands a substantial portion of the consumer market. The blogosphere has given an independent voice to millions of people around the world. Bloggers have used their individual Web sites to present their opinions and discuss topics of their interest. This social media movement has added new and ever-changing dimensions to American culture and the commercial market. If The Naked Juice Company were to participate in an online social media strategy, it could quickly inform and possibly influence a large and untapped juice-loving audience to the benefit of Naked Juice.
Through social media, NJC should target an audience that ranges in age from 14 to 34. Members of this audience maintain middle to upper-middle socioeconomic status and have home or office Internet access. The target audience is most likely health conscious. They could purchase other organic food and materials, and they could belong to a gym. Using the situational theory of publics, this audience would be classified as latent or aware. This is because they can have all ranges of recognition or awareness of Naked Juice but have high constraints that keep them from being customers. They might know that Naked Juice exists, but they are not actively seeking Naked Juice, which is what this social media strategy should change.
To increase awareness of Naked Juice and influence the target audience’s consumer behavior to the benefit of the Naked Juice Company.
The first type of social media that should be employed is a blog. This would be a Web site that visitors can reach through a link from NJC’s existing Web site. On this page NJC can announce business news, discuss its products and engage its loyal visitors. NJC should begin by monitoring the sector of the blogosphere that it wishes to address. That sector will most likely be health and nutrition.
To monitor the blogosphere, NJC should register with Google Reader and subscribe to the "food" and "sports" bundles. These bundles will help to browse health, fitness and nutrition blogs and Web sites in a focused arena.
To fully incorporate NJC into the health and nutrition blogoshpere, it is important to interact with other bloggers. To accomplish this, NJC will register its blog with several blog directories. The author(s) of this blog should comment on other prominent blogs that discuss fruit juices, health, nutrition, and diet. It is important to react or reach out to other bloggers who mention NJC in their posts. To monitor this, NJC will set up a Google Alert.
It is suggested that several employees of NJC write posts for the blog, including executives and "blenders." The topic of each post should discuss Naked juices from the individual's point of view. It could include the employee's personal experiences with the juice, customers and career at NJC. Posts should be added weekly. Author(s) should respond to comments left on their posts.
When confronted with negative coverage, if NJC has committed injustice, NJC should employ crisis management tactics. If NJC is not at fault, sympathy for this issue should be expressed through a post on the blog, written by an executive.
Starting this blog and discussing Naked Juice in the social realm of bloggers would introduce Naked Juice to its audience from a new angle. Currently, this audience only comes into contact with Naked Juice in its grocery stores. Incorporating Naked Juice into their regular social media intake will increase their awareness of Naked Juice and encourage them to choose Naked Juice when they are thirsty or need a healthy meal replacement.
The Naked Juice Company should also initiate a Facebook profile, application, and social advertisement. Facebook.com is an online social network frequently used by young people to communicate with their peers. Registered users maintain personal and professional profiles and use selected applications to socialize.
The Naked Juice Company should either elect a current employee or hire a spokesperson to maintain the account. The profile should portray the employee as any other young, active and healthy Californian through "interests" and "activities;" however, these sections should also include the person's enthusiasm for Naked Juice. The account profile should clearly explain that a NJC employee owns it. The pictures on this profile should show the employee drinking different Naked Juices.
NJC should also design a Facebook application that allows the spokesperson and other Facebookers to give and receive virtual Naked Juice. He or she can accumulate friends by giving Naked Juice as virtual gifts.
The Facebook profile and application is a sharp new way to approach young audiences online. Facebook provides a news feed that tells users what all of their friends are doing on Facebook, such as which groups they join, who they are talking to and what they are up to on Friday night. Incorporating NJC into the Los Angeles network and other networks of Facebook would help NJC introduce the juices to young people who technologically spread the word.
To execute the blog, NJC should register and create a profile at www.wordpress.com. A possible title for this blog is “Naked Juice: Nothing to Hide.” Each week an employee should write a blog post. The chief executive should write the introductory post and announce the beginning of this new blog. Each post should be tagged as “juice” or “nutrition,” which will plunge the posts into the correct sectors of the blogosphere. By monitoring NJC’s blog comments and Google Alert, blog authors can review the comments, questions, and critiques from their readers. Authors should quickly respond to these readers by commenting on their blogs or mentioning them or their blogs in NJC’s next post. Social interaction in the blogosphere is important to gain credibility and popularity. It is important to register with directories so that people can easily find NJC’s blog through search engines like Google and Yahoo. NJC should register its blog with these directories:
http://www.blogflux.com
http://www.blogcatalog.com
http://www.totalblogdirectory.com
http://www.blogged.com
http://www.blogginfusion.com
http://www.blogtoplist.com
To execute the Facebook profile, application and social ad, NJC should go to www.facebook.com and sign up. The employee or spokesperson should use his or her real name, but other personal information can be omitted. In registration, the employee should mark that he or she is part of a company. Upon crafting the “activities,” “interests,” and entertainment preferences of the profile, the employee should incorporate his or her personality while enthusiastically mentioning Naked Juice. One example might be, “I love to surf in the morning after I drink my Mango Madness Naked Juice.” The employee should never publish nude photographs. However, because the name of the company is Naked, photos that imply nudity are allowed, as long as they prominently feature the juice.
Once the profile is complete, scroll down to the bottom of the Facebook Web site and click on “Businesses.” A collective group of NJC executives, advertisers and public relations professionals should navigate through this page and select “Facebook Social Ads,” “Facebook Beacon” and “Facebook Platform.” The social ads section will allow NJC to create ads that will appear on any Facebook user’s sidebar and integrate NJC’s ads into the News Feed.
The Facebook Beacon will “allow your customers to share with their friends the actions they take on your website. For user actions you define, Facebook Beacon will publish a story in the user's profile and to friends' News Feeds with a link back to your site.”
The Facebook Platform is where NJC will create its own application. Click on “Create a Facebook App” and add the Facebook Developer Application to NJC’s profile. From here, the group will be able to download a “client library” and create custom experiences for Facebook users to interact with NJC. Some possibilities for the application include creating bottles of Naked Juices as “gifts” for users to give and receive through NJC’s “Get Naked” application.
To evaluate the success of this social media strategy, it is suggested that NJC measure the amount of hits on its blog, reader comments and the mentioning of Naked Juice in other blogs. To do this, NJC should regularly visit the “blog stats” link on its wordpress dashboard. This page allows bloggers to see how many people have read their blog, how people found their blog, which search engines directed people to their blog, and which of their posts were viewed the most.
NJC can also register its blog with Technorati and Feedburner. At www.technorati.com, NJC can further monitor its blogging community and measure its authority within that community. Authority would accumulate when other bloggers mention Naked’s blog in their own, or list Naked in their blog roll. With www.feedburner.com, NJC can register its blog and use Feedburner’s tools to analyze its blog traffic. NJC will be able to view how many people have visited its blog and how many people actually subscribe to the blog and read it regularly.
NJC will be able to evaluate the success of its Facebook strategy within www.Facebook.com. Not only can NJC track its success by the accumulation of friends and wall posts, but through the “Businesses” link NJC can also employ “Facebook Insights” and “Facebook Polls.” With Facebook Insights, NJC will have access to data on activity, fan demographics, ad performance, and other trends. This will give NJC a deeper understanding of who is interacting with Naked Juice. With Facebook Polls, NJC can survey target audiences based on demographics. It can create polls within minutes that will immediately appear on the audience’s news feeds. The results can be viewed in real-time even before the poll is closed.
Appendices
It is suggested that NJC monitor these ten blogs in the health and nutrition blogging community to examine trends in the natural juice market and in consumer behavior.
HungryGirl
http://food.yahoo.com/blog/hungrygirl
Hungry Girl’s name is Lisa. She is an average female with typical food anxieties that women struggle with every day. She is not a nutritionist, yet she considers herself a guru of guilt-free foods. On her blog she provides fun diet tips, low-calorie recipes, food shockers and product reviews.
Eat This!
www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis
Eat This! Is part of the Health Diaries Network, which published blogs, articles and news on health and fitness topics. The blog features healthy recipes, food information, news and everything else about food in relation to health and well being.
Healthful Berry Anti-Aging Health and Nutrition
http://www.healthfulberry.com/blog/blogger.html
Goji Juice, “The Hidden Health Secret of the Himalayas”, sponsors this blog. The posts are written by Bob Oakland. He discusses current health issues pertaining to business, marketing, sports and of course, the benefits of Goji Juice.
Keys to Good Nutrition and Tips to Eating Healthy with Organic Whole Food Feast
http://eatinghealthynutrition.blogspot.com/
This blog helps its readers discover eating whole foods, how to eat the right organic and super foods and juices, and diet and weight loss. Josiah Friberg, who calls himself the “Naked Nutrition Knight”, writes the blog. In an age of “advertising lies and misinformation,” the naked nutrition knight is here to defend your health.
Pure Noni Juice Blog
http://purenonijuice.blogspot.com/
Noni is a tropical fruit that has been used for healing purposes on tropical islands for centuries. Christian Wilson in Honolulu, Hawaii writes this blog. He discusses noni juice facts, trivia and health benefits while including information on Hawaiian Noni Juice and Tahitian Noni Juice.
Health and Wealth
http://nutritionandwealth.blogspot.com/
Written by Marty G. in California, this blog discusses health, fitness and the beneficial effects of eating whole, organic foods. He posts many product reviews on his blog and regularly raves about the benefits of fruit, berries, and antioxidants.
Health Drinks
http://healthycup.blogspot.com/
This blog is written by Chalacuna, who is the author of more than 25 blogs on a variety of topics. She has been blogging since 2004. The Health Drinks blog addresses newly discovered antioxidants like the ones found mangosteen fruit. The blog promotes a product call Xango, which produces the mangosteen fruit in a juice that helps the body fight infection and disease.
The Fruit and Vegetable Blog of Life
http://thefruitandvegetableblog.blogspot.com/
This blog gives insight and information on enjoying an active and healthy lifestyle. The purpose of the blog is to spread the news about the health benefits of eating fruits and vegetables. “Fruit Guy,” who is likely associated with CherryPharm Natural Juice, writes the posts. Each post discusses the health benefits of fruit and vegetables.
Acai Juice Blog
http://www.acaijuiceblog.com/
The blog is written by a man who was traveling in Brazil and became familiar with the acai berry, which is an amazing source of antioxidants. The posts discuss the benefits of the acai berry and have recently featured the MonaVie juice company.
Supermarket Guru
http://supermarketguru.ivillage.com/food/
The supermarket guru is actually Phil Lampert. He is a correspondent and food trends editor for NBC News' Today Show, where he reports on consumer trends, new products, food safety and money-saving tips. Lampert posts reviews on his blog of over 40,000 products found in supermarkets around the country.
Naked Juice’s Blogging Code of Ethics
It is crucial that the author(s) of Naked’s blog comply with the inherent ethical guidelines of the blogoshpere. Here are a few suggestions for Naked’s blogging code of ethics:
We take responsibility for our own words and for the comments we allow on our blog.
We won't say anything online that we wouldn't say in person.
If material exists online, we will link to it when we reference it.
We will publicly correct any misinformation.
We will disclose any conflict of interest.
We will note questionable and biased sources.