Turning on the Juice

Procter & Gamble does everything in a big way. The company is the $12 billion enterprise behind such household names as Charmin, Folger's, Crest and Crisco. When P&G decides to add a new product to this list, competitors view the marketing assault as a D-day invasion, and with good reason. Last week P&G launched Citrus Hill, its entry into the $3 billion market for chilled and frozen orange juice. "There's a year of sunshine in every sip," goes the slogan for the ads that blossomed on TV and in newspapers. The commercials portray a citrus grower who says, "That is one sunshiny, sweet-tastin' orange juice." Cost of the national blitz: an estimated $100 million.

P&G hopes that Citrus Hill will put the squeeze on the two leading brands, Coca-Cola's Minute Maid and Beatrice Foods' Tropicana. In test markets in Indiana and Iowa during the past year, Citrus Hill has reportedly grabbed a respectable 14% to 17% market share. But P&G hopes to better that next year when it replaces its current Citrus Hill formula with a patented concentrate produced by freezing the fresh juice rather than boiling it. A marketing battle is likely to ensue. Said a Tropicana spokesman: "We intend to aggressively defend every area where we're doing business." This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.