Dr Pepper Snapple Group

Sunkist

THE ORIGINATION OF AN ORANGE NATION

The Sunkist Growers Association has marketed the Sunkist trademark for more than 95 years. It is one of the best-known trademarks in the world.

General Cinema Corporation, a large theater operator and soft drink bottler, first licensed the use of the Sunkist trademark in a soft drink. The new Sunkist orange soda went into test markets in 1978. The product was so well received by consumers that it was launched nationally in 1979. Soon, Sunkist became the best-selling orange soft drink and sales continued to climb. By 1981, Sunkist was one of the top 10 soft drinks, a first for any orange soda.

The mid-1980s marked many changes for the brand. The Sunkist soda license experienced two ownership and product formulation changes.

In 1986, Cadbury Schweppes acquired the Sunkist orange soda license from Del Monte. Under Cadbury, the Sunkist brand expanded to include diet orange, lemonade, diet lemonade, strawberry, grape, pineapple, peach and fruit punch. In addition to the new flavors, Cadbury set to work optimizing both the Sunkist advertising and the appeal of the packaging. This culminated in new Sunkist packaging graphics launched in 1998.

Sunkist maintains a high level of brand awareness with consumers and is often named as consumers’ favorite orange soda. The Sunkist soda license continues as part of Plano, Texas-based Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Inc., an integrated refreshment beverage business marketing more than 50 beverage brands throughout North America.

What’s in a name?

A copywriter from the Lord & Thomas agency coined the name “Sunkissed” for an advertising campaign promoting the Southern California Fruit Exchange. Shortly afterwards, the spelling was changed to “Sunkist” and adopted as the exchange’s trademark in 1908.