In this digital age where music and the virtual world dominate most of the younger generation's daily lives, marketers have to change and adapt their strategies to reach their target market. Recently, the American soda brand Sunkist has initiated a brand repositioning. They are now aimed at trend savvy teens and young adults. "Sunkist fans are young adults who are mobile, live online and love music ― we just can't rely on traditional marketing," said Derek Dabrowski, Sunkist's brand manager. "To reach this target, you need multiple touch points with engaging content."

The brand's mother company, the Dr Pepper Snapple Group, is now utilizing YouTube, MySpace and Facebook platforms to promote their products. The company has also partnered with MySpace to promote its project of “12 ounces of awesome” pitch and has used Internet famous YouTube stars such as Tay Zonday (famous for singing the song Chocolate Rain) and Judson Laipply (a dancer whose performance called Evolution of Dance is the 1 most viewed video on YouTube) to promote their Cherry Chocolate Diet Dr. Pepper. Sunkist has also created four new videos featuring young break dancers out at night.

Many brands and companies are now using digital communication mediums and social media tools for a more relevant communication strategy that is in line with their target markets’ interests and ways of life (see LG, Unilever ,and Nutella examples). In an era when people are switching from television to computers and mobile phones, companies cannot only use traditional advertisement channels and must find new ways to reach their customers. Today, the proliferation of online platforms seems to be a great opportunity for marketers to enter this new age of communication.

There is no doubt that Sunkist’s new strategy will help the brand increase its global awareness and successfully reach their consumers, but will it really help sell more soda? Today, the young generation is more health conscious and probably less willing to buy drinks containing huge amounts of sugar. Let’s just hope Sunkist did their market research before launching the new campaign to ensure their brand repositioning is a success.