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Enterprise Analysis of Jamba Juice

Sonika Suri
Loyola Marymount University
CMST 393: Media and Marketing Communication
Professor Daniel Freedland
28th April 2014

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Introduction
Healthy living activists, Kevin Peters, Joe Vergara and Kirk Perron, founded
Jamba Juice in April of 1990. While the first Jamba Juice began in San Luis Obispo, it
quickly had expanded to become the widely known smoothie chain it is today. The first
Juice club was an idea from Perron, and with the help of Peters and Vergara, the store
began understanding the unique system and training of making the icy fruit drinks
allowing the three to plan for further expansion.
According to its website, the vision of Jamba Juice is to inspire and simplify
healthy living, and was one of the leaders in the concept of healthy eating. Jamba Juice
has promoted the idea of good eats from day one featuring a variety of drinks on its menu
ranging from fresh squeezed juices to blended smoothies. Jamba Juices business is so
successful because the mission is not only about the smoothies and good eats; it is
focused on the consumer and their appreciation for the product.
As a brand, Jamba Juice appeals to many customers in particular because of its
unique concept and flavors and the constant changes in its menu. Jamba Juices speed and
different sizes allow for the smoothies to be a perfect snack or to serve as a healthy,
filling meal. Even though times are changing and there are always new trends and
innovative styles, one thing that always seems to be popular is being healthy and treating
oneself to things that promote this idea. Jamba Juice has always stuck to the concept of
health and creating a lifestyle that fosters this belief with its large variety of fruit flavored
drinks and boosts.

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MarComm Program
Much like all enterprises, Jamba Juice did not start from the top as a successful
business as widely known as it is now. Jamba Juice had to work its way to the image that
it has maintained today, with many twists and turns a long the way. The brands original
mission was Jamba! Enriching the daily experience of our customers, our community,
and ourselves, through the life of nourishing qualities of fruits and vegetables.
When Jamba Juice first began, the vision of the Perron, Peters, and Vergara was for it
to be a brand that included many choices, so that there was always an option to satisfy
whatever craving. The vision of the business was given the name FIBER, which stood for
fun, integrity, balance, empowerment, and respect. The brand wanted to not only serve as
a snack time or breakfast meal, it wanted to be a universal brand-one that would be
desired at all times of the day. Luckily for the three founders, the branding was not a
difficult process, as the brand acquired Zuka Juice Inc. stores in 1999, which was a
growing smoothie company at the time. As Jamba Juice expanded across the country to
New York City, the enterprise began to feel the rewards of success. In 2006, Jamba Juice
was acquired by Services Acquisition Corporation for a total of $265 million, a company
that was headed by the CEO of Blockbuster Inc.
Jamba Juice faced a decline of customer appreciation of the brand in 2007 and 2008,
as the brand noticed a stunt in their growth. It was not until James White, a successful
entrepreneur noticed the rapid decline of Jamba Juices performance as a brand took the
reigns of the company that it started to progress again. When White acquired the
company, Jamba Juices net income in 2007 was $22.4 million with a $12.4 million net

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loss in the third quarter of 2008. Without doubt, White took over Jamba Juice promising
growth in its image and overall brand strategy.
Though the company was changing its image rapidly since its expansion, Jamba
Juices 2009 advertising campaign caused a shake up in their customer approval and
image, two aspects that had already started to decline. The enterprise ran an advertising
campaign that was claimed to be a ripoff of the Get Your War On Series by cartoonist
David Rees. According to Rees, the company did not formally get his approval for
running the campaign with his idea and design, and was thereafter boycotted and
portrayed in a negative light as it was accused of copy write infringement.
While the company faced a bump in the road in terms of its advertising campaign,
Whites overall branding strategy for the enterprise was crucial in promoting positive
change and expansion for the business. Like most successful thinkers in business, White
rethought the business plan of the company, and strategized to make the company thrive
removing its debt, and further strengthening the overall brand through expansion and a
strong team.
Alongside its expansion process, Jamba Juice came up with the idea of transforming
the smoothie shop by adding food such as a variety of salads, flatbreads, and wraps. The
menu transformation was an essential unit in helping promote the health-friendly image
of the brand, especially among the nations youth. By targeting a younger audience for a
kick-start in health progression, the brand was able to gain more visibility in the
marketplace and brand awareness among its demographic, as its makeover was more
relatable to that group.

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In the spring of 2010, Jamba Juice has expanded to 745 restaurant locations, and over
35% of them had franchise operations. Jamba Juice since then has been able to grow
across the world, and drafted an agreement to develop 200 locations in South Korea
alone. According to White, One of the things I want to do very quickly is gain control of
the overall messaging in and outside of the company. We need to discipline what we
message and what were trying to get accomplished in the business.
The reason behind Jamba Juices increased success allowing it to expand to 809
global stores with plans in the next two years to open anywhere between 60 and 80 more
stores, is its increased popularity. Although Jamba Juice does not have the image of a
Starbucks Coffee where there is room and an environment to relax and spend time, this
actually helps the efficiency of the stores. According to B. Riley & Cos senior equity
analyst, Conrad Lyon, Jamba Juices seem to streamlined for the efficiency. In some
locations, there literally might just be a bunch of blenders, and thats it. The idea behind
Jamba Juices efficiency is one of sheer brilliance, as rather than creating a laid back
atmosphere, the drink itself is a grab and go, on the run drink, so why not make the stores
like so. The overall atmosphere created by Jamba Juice being its healthy on-the-go
attitude has allowed the company to reel in $229 million in annual revenue since its
makeover, making each individual store generate approximately $700,000.
In January of this year, Finn Partners was named Jamba Juices Public Relations
and social media agency, allowing the brand to be elevated even more. Finn Partners has
been working toward bringing Jamba Juices strategy of blending whole foods and new
juicing concepts to light, in order to further the customer experience when it comes to the
brand. Julie S. Washington, the S. VP and chief brand officer for Jamba Juice announced

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this year that all media relations including the social media strategizing would be handled
by Finn Partners.
The main focus of Jamba Juices 2014-2015 brand image is to highlight Jamba
Juices use of whole food blending and juicing. This year Finn Partners have already
continued to inspire Jamba Juices healthy living platform, and hopes to continue this as
well as assist in the fruit and veggie deficit as faced by most Americans in our country.
According to Washington, We believe Finn Partners bring the right skill-set to
effectively manage our marketing and communications assets while at the same time
delivering high-quality results that help drive our business even further. The goal of the
year is for Jamba Juice to pull back and grasp the original platform that the company was
once founded on. Rather than continue to focus simply on the progression of the
company, Jamba Juices PR team wants the company to stick to the original intent and
maintain the integrity of the brand by incorporating more fresh whole fruit and vegetable
juices. As part of Jamba Juices new brand initiatives, the business will team up with A
Healthy America and other charities in order to help maximize its opportunities for
promoting good health and healthy eating.
Though the brand struggled to maintain its reputation in the middle of its growth,
Jamba Juice is continuing to evolve as a business with the help of influencers such as
James White and their fabulous Public Relations Team. The brand has always been
perceived in a positive light as being associated with a healthy lifestyle, its PR initiatives
will further leverage this notion. In the last year itself since Finn Partners has taken over
the image of the brand, it has already captured the attention from its customers. Stressing
the appearance of Fresh Juices and whole fruit smoothies, especially since both of them

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are very popular items in the consumer market right now, is essential. Perhaps the most
integral part of this campaign is the efforts made by the company to gain its visibility by
going back to its original platform. Maintaining the concept of freshness and honesty
within the brand and among the customers who are loyal to Jamba Juice as a whole is
crucial when it comes to successful marketing strategies.
SWOT Analysis
As Jamba Juice is a brand that has fluctuated over the years when it comes to
overall growth and success rate, there are many strengths, weakness, opportunities, and
threats that the brand has faced.
As far as strength for the enterprise goes, perhaps the companys biggest
advantage has been its brand awareness. Jamba Juice has not only expanded as a
franchise over the years, maintaining over 800 different locations across the world, it has
also managed to keep up its appearance as it pertains to people knowing what the brand
is, something extremely important when it comes to both marketing and advertising.
Another key success factor in Jamba Juices brand is the consistency. The smoothies are
fresh and delicious, yet require a rotation of essentially the same ingredients so the orders
are not only easier to make, but there is never disappointment in the outcome. With
smoothies, if too many or too little ingredients are added, the change is not as drastic as if
a shot of espresso went missing from a Starbucks coffee. Additionally, Jamba Juice lives
up to their expectations when it comes to their overall marketing of their products. The
brand is known for providing its customers with healthy products that are made from the
ingredients listed on the menu. The concept is simple, and the customers are never
unsatisfied with what they get out of their experience at Jamba Juice. Lastly, the product

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itself as a whole is a strength as it successfully marketed to the Yogis and Health foodies,
who are the target market of the product.
When it comes to the weaknesses of Jamba Juice, there are definitely problems
with their competitors, especially Starbucks. Though Jamba Juice and Starbucks are two
completely different concepts, the dominance of Starbucks across the globe has made it
hard for companies such as Jamba Juice to stand a chance. The problem with Jamba Juice
is that it is not as popular during winter months, as this is when people generally dont
want frozen smoothie blends, but an extra hot chai latte. That being said, Starbucks
availability and variety of drinks all year round is another reason they pose as such a
threat to Jamba Juice. In addition to Starbucks, there are other smoothie competitors that
have tried to come up against Jamba Juice, utilizing the same concept to perfect their
individual brands. Another large problem with Jamba Juice as an enterprise versus its
competitors is their products. Though in the more recent years Jamba Juice has expanded
its menu options, providing more food than they have in the past, this still can be seen as
a weakness for the growth of the brand. Most people want more than just a fruit smoothie
to curb their hunger or appetite, unless they are dropping in only for a snack. Seeing as
Jamba Juice wants to be the one-stop-shop for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, there needs to
be a conscious effort to add more menu items. Additionally, when it comes to having
their newly added hot products for the winter, Jamba Juice needs to work on being more
aggressive with their marketing tactics so that people will be more aware of the existence
of these products. Finally, though the target demographic is the youth, Jamba Juice
should be reaching out to all available markets to sell their concepts, which they are
definitely not, especially since they have now added coffee drinks to their menu.

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Some opportunities the brand has are to definitely keep pushing and advocating
for the health conscious trend, as this is a concept that will virtually never go out of style.
Perhaps coming up with a variety of healthy foods and constantly changing and adding
them to the menu would also help maintain the healthy trend. Additionally, the brand
should capitalize on its young demographic and use them in a lot more social media and
PR stunts. Also, expanding the brand to younger towns and cities as well as onto more
college campuses and neighborhoods would help the brand immensely. Another
opportunity the brand has to overcome a brand such as Starbucks is by considering the
addition of seating in order to make their company a more desirable place for an
individual to sit and enjoy their drink. Perhaps the biggest way Jamba Juice can increase
its market opportunity is by spending time and money on campaigns or sponsorships that
have to do with a younger audience, since that is their target demographic. The brand can
even take advantage of big concerts such as Coachella or Stagecoach that take place in
the hottest days in the spring and set up a smoothie booth in order to not only gain a lot of
business, but also increase overall brand awareness by the thousands.
The biggest threats that come with running an enterprise such as Jamba Juice are
from the competitors. Especially in California, the idea of juicing and juice cleanses have
become a trend, causing a shift in traffic away from an enterprise such as Jamba Juice.
Pressed Juices have become a threat because there are many places all around California,
especially in Southern California that provide people with this. An even bigger threat to
Jamba Juice is their lack of marketing strategies. Though Jamba Juice highered a great
Public Relations team to increase their brand awareness and overall image in the media,
the enterprise has failed to integrate any larger marketing campaigns. A big issue with not

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having proper marketing strategies, campaigns, or advertising is the fact that if there is a
shift in the economy, this could make the enterprise very vulnerable. If a shift in the
economy causes a decline of Jamba Juice stores, the name of the brand name will
dwindle away in effect, as it will not be recognizable to the public. Therefore, it is crucial
that the company increase its advertising and marketing revenue to provide a solid
campaign for their enterprise. The final threat that has the potential to affect Jamba Juice
as a company is easy market entrance. The business platform and concept by which the
brand is built off of is one that is easy for entrepreneurs to get involved in, which would
ultimately cause an increase in competition in the world of fruit smoothies.
Recommendations
When it comes to the various business plans and strategies the company has
endured combined with the SWOT analysis, there are several recommendations I would
make to the company. Although Jamba Juice is an impressive and unique brand, as the
business was one of the first to come up with such an innovative concept, everything in
life comes with barriers and obstacles faced. Unfortunately, or fortunately, Jamba Juice
faced hardships and a rapid decline in their business growth not too long after their
establishment, however, with the help of James White and their PR team, the company
was able to get back up and hit the ground running. While the brand is focused primarily
on the good eats and healthy living, there is not enough focus and attention to the details
that come with this. If the company truly wants to stress the concept of health, perhaps
Jamba Juice can collaborate with a large gym such as Spectrum, Equinox, or another
large gym as a PR or marketing campaign. For example, Jamba Juice can do a promotion
for a few months (preferably in a month when they do not get as much activity) and

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advertise the promotion through social media in order to connect with their younger
demographic. With the promotion, the brand can have individuals fill out a punch card
equivalent to 10 drinks, once these individuals have reached their goal of 10 drinks, they
then get 5 free personal training sessions as Equinox or Spectrum. By implementing a
promotion such as that, then Jamba Juice will not only have guaranteed customer traffic,
this will also help in maintaining their reputation of the advocates for a healthy lifestyle.
Additionally, if this PR and Marketing stunt is in winter, this will draw traffic to Jamba
Juice at a time where business does not get too heavy.
When it comes to social media, Jamba Juice should work on compiling a digital
campaign, something as simple as making tap-and-go available at every location. The
idea of tap-and-go is the fact that an individual can order drinks from Jamba Juice off of
their cell phone, so by the time they arrive at the Jamba Juice, their drinks will be ready
to pick up without the wait. The implementation of tap-in-go in all stores will allow
Jamba Juice to maintain their image as a brand for people who are active and always on
the move.
Perhaps the biggest success in todays digital age is mobile advertising. The boom
in mobile advertising has allowed companies such as Facebook to gain over 50% of their
profits from advertising through mobile phones. Jamba Juice should definitely try to push
for more mobile advertising, especially when it comes to applications such as YouTube,
because that would gain a lot of awareness of the brand, and would serve as a good
reminder for people to check it out. Going off of the mobile technology, Jamba Juice
could create a mobile application to further enhance the idea of tap and go. This mobile
application could be for individuals using a credit card and want to save some time. With

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this application, individuals are able to scan a bar code directly on their menu, their
computer screen, or at an actual Jamba Juice location, and their order will automatically
be processed through their phone and then to the credit card on file. Evidently, this idea
of mobility will save those individuals on the go plenty of time to carry on with their
hectic schedules while still being able to stop at Jamba Juice and get their fix for the day.
Clearly, there should be more overall brand awareness of Jamba Juice and
interesting campaigns to promote their brand in order to set them apart from their
competitors such as Starbucks Coffee.
Conclusion
Jamba Juice as a brand stands for the image of good health and real refreshing
flavors that customers are able to get on their way to the gym or to yoga. Jamba Juice is
constantly striving to maintain its image as the healthy alternative to quick and fast food
targeted mainly at the youth as that is their main demographic. Adding low calorie snacks
and salads to their menu was a great decision, as the brand is expanding to be more than
just frozen smoothies and juices. The company really wants the customers to feel a sense
of comfort with what they are ordering, so most, if not all locations have the back set up
in a way where individuals can see what goes into their drink, and all the ingredients with
calories are listed on their menu.
Though their intent is mainly for the younger generation crowd, Jamba Juices
customer profile varies. Because the drinks are generally on the healthy side, they are
great for young children or even people much older. The average customer age is
probably in their late teens to mid twenties. Most people within that particular age group

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are more likely to be attracted to Jamba Juice as a brand and what they have to offer, as
the younger generations are more focused on being health conscious.
Jamba Juice has changed an incredible amount over the years, from their initial
opening, to their early struggles, to their makeover boost. Though Jamba Juice is still
struggling to keep up with some of its top competitors including Starbucks because of
their variety, the brand will continue to evolve and change as the years progress. After
only coming out with the grassroots idea of fresh squeezed juices and using whole fruits
in January of 2014, the brands selling tactics and brand awareness have already started to
increase. While there are still many other aspects of successful marketing and a variety of
campaigns that Jamba Juice can work on in order to increase their brand and its
reputation, they have done an incredible job so far. Changing the brand so much over the
years while still maintaining the original messages and demographic is really impressive,
and not as easy as it looks for a brand to execute.
As a whole, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Jamba Juice and analyzing the
overall brand to figure out what strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats the
brand possessed. The component that I enjoyed the most from this paper was the SWOT
analysis and recommendations. I personally love analyzing different aspects of a brand in
order to identify the problem, and make the final outcome stronger than it would have
been before. Most of all, I absolutely love giving recommendations. Coming up with new
ideas on what a brand can do in order to better sell their product is something that really
interests me, as I love to think both critically and creatively. All in all, I enjoyed
identifying the different components of Jamba Juice that makes it run as a successful
business, and I now understand the enterprise more than I did before.

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Bibliography
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30 April 2014. Web. 30 April 2014.
Coppola, Cindy. Jamba Juice Selects Finn Partners as PR and Social Media Agency Of
Record. PR Newswire. 13 January 2014. Web. 28 April 2014.
Hawkins, Gregg. Jamba Juice: A Recipe for Success. Gregg Hawkins Blog. 19 August
2009. Web. 28 April 2014.
Hughes, Ivy. Smoothing Over Company Operations. Success. Web. 28 April 2014.
Popken, Ben. Jamba Juice Rips off Get your War On Comic for an Ad. Consumerist.
20 July 2009. Web. 28 April 2014.