Husky Cola Puts Bite On Market
KENT
Very soon, no Husky tailgate party will be complete without Husky potato chips, Husky hot dogs on Husky buns, Husky seltzer water and Husky Cola.
The dogs, buns and water aren't on the market yet, but the chips and cola are. Husky Cola is the latest food product licensed by the University of Washington, and, already, it is a big seller.
Conceived in July by three Seattle advertising executives, the cola is produced by A&W Bottling Co., a Kent company that distributes A&W Root Beer, Sunkist Orange and Clearly Canadian sodas. And, it is canned by Shasta Beverages, in Tukwila.
Sold in stores all over Puget Sound, and even in Yakima, A&W has sold 20,000 cases of the purple-and-yellow cans in just three weeks, without any major advertising, except giveaways outside the Huskies' home game last Saturday. "It has been very well-accepted in the supermarkets," says Roger Schilling, A&W's vice president and general manager. "We're pretty happy with it."
Husky Cola's main selling point is, of course, its identification with the UW mascot and sports teams. The can has the university's colors, and its logo is a Husky dog with a yellow bandanna and shades. On the diet version, the dog is slimmer.
Mike Jaglois and two colleagues at Borders, Perrin & Norrander came up with the concept. They then formed a company, called Fun Stuff inc., with the object of kicking around ideas for a product and bringing that product to market. For Husky Cola, the can came first.
"We thought it would be terrific, if we could affiliate with a well-known entity in the marketplace," says Jaglois, who is not a UW graduate. "The Huskies have a reputation and image. We're fortunate, that it came out at a time of renewed focus on the university, with classes starting and the football team ranked fourth in the nation."
Fun Stuff drew a rendering of the can and took it to David VanDerHyde, the university's director of trademarks and licensing. UW already had one food product licensed, Husky Chips, made by Tim's Cascade Style Potato Chips, in Auburn. VanDerHyde immediately loved the cola idea.
Jaglois called Schilling, who was skeptical about the idea, until he saw the rendering for the can. A&W had three cola formulas but no concept of its own to break into the highly competitive cola market. The three formulas were given to VanDerHyde for testing.
"One of the flavors everybody liked, and we had some serious cola drinkers," VanDerHyde says. "You can't just stick a Husky label on any product and expect people to drink it. We had to develop a special product."
Husky Cola is less sweet and fizzy than its counterparts. It has a subtle flavor but one that was thought to appeal to an older palette; college students and Husky fans. This is no kiddy cola.
In a market dominated by Coke and Pepsi, getting a new cola on the shelves is usually difficult, but A&W succeeded in selling it to major supermarkets and convenience-store chains in the region. Nearly everyone, it seems, thought the cola would be a hit. It was just two months from the time Fun Stuff thought up Husky Cola, until it hit the stores.
UW gets 6.5 percent of the wholesale price, as it does for all the products it licenses. That percentage is a hefty chunk of the profits, so A&W doesn't make as much on Husky Cola, as it does on other sodas it distributes. Fun Stuff makes only a few cents per case.
"We never wanted to make a lot of money with this; it was to have fun," says Jaglois.
UW uses its Husky Cola profits to pay for athletics, general scholarships, a topical talk show on KCTS TV, and programs for professors to speak in public forums.
Ironically, Husky Cola can't be sold at Huskies games, or on campus. Another cola brand has the exclusive contract.