Mirinda

Mirinda

Type	Orange drink
Manufacturer	PepsiCo
Country of origin	Spain
Introduced	1990

Mirinda is a brand of soft drink originally created in Spain, but with global distribution. The word Mirinda means "admirable, wonderful" in Esperanto. It is available in fruit varieties including orange, grapefruit, apple, strawberry, raspberry, pineapple, pomegranate, banana, passionfruit, lemon, hibiscus, tangerine, and grape flavours. A "citrus" flavour is also available in certain areas of the Middle East. It is part of a beverage area often referred to as the flavour segment, comprising carbonated and non-carbonated fruit-flavoured beverages. The orange flavour of Mirinda now represents the majority of Mirinda sales worldwide following a major repositioning of the brand towards that flavour in the early 1990s.

Mirinda is owned by PepsiCo and is primarily commercialised outside North America. It competes with Coca-Cola's Fanta and Dr Pepper Snapple's Orange Crush brand, with flavour brands local to individual countries. As with most soft drinks, Mirinda is available in multiple formulations of flavour, carbonation and sweetener depending on the taste of individual markets.

History

Mirinda was originally produced in Spain.

It became available in the United States in late 2003 in bilingual packaging, and initially sold at a reduced price, presumably to become a competitor against Coca-Cola's Fanta brand. Since 2005, Mirinda flavours have largely been sold under the Tropicana Twister Soda brand in the United States except in Guam, where Pepsi began selling it under the Mirinda brand in 2007 (replacing Chamorro Punch Orange). Pepsico also tried to sell Mirinda in Brazil in late 1996 , but the brand was discontinued in 1997 after weak sales, keeping the local brand Sukita under production.

Recent events

Mirinda campaigns over the years have included the Mirinda Woman campaign in the 1970s and a campaign in the 1994-1996 time frame with a campaign using the tag-line 'The Taste is in Mirinda' with the Blue Man Group. In some markets, including Mexico, the Blue Man Group campaign re-launched Mirinda away from a multi-flavour positioning to a brand solely focused on the orange flavour. The Blue Man Group campaign showed the Blue Man Group competing to drink orange Mirinda and celebrating a successful drink with an open-mouth exclamation of 'Mirindaaaa'. Also in this same country Mirinda launch a campaign with the Pokémon anime series to the children with a promotion of many gadgets with the characters of the manga series.

Mirinda advertising campaigns over the last fifteen years have been handled by Pepsi's stable of creative agencies, including BBDO and J Walter Thompson.

Mirinda also regularly introduces special movie-themed editions in Asia. Recent ones included Batman (Blueberry) and Superman (Fruit punch). Mirinda has also recently released a new flavour of drinks called Mirinda creme. They come in three flavours: Mango, Raspberry and Lime.

Mirinda is no longer sold in New Zealand, replaced with the introduction of Pepsico's new Mountain Dew range (code red, live wire, pitch black & electro shock) of similar flavours.

Facts

Pepsi and Mirinda (orange flavour) with Arabic labels (bottled, left to right).

• Mirinda is available in most continents of the world with other PepsiCo products. It is also in the Middle Eastern markets, but the name is commonly mispronounced as "Miranda" due to its Arabic spelling.
• In Italy is known as Slam.
• The name "Mirinda" means "wonderful" in Esperanto.^[1][2] There is a claim that the original manufacturer of Mirinda, which later sold the brand to PepsiCo, was an Esperanto-speaking individual.^[3]
• An alternative theory behind the brand name links the drink to the town of Mirinda in the north of Qatar.
• Mirinda's primary formulation is as an artificially flavoured beverage; however, it has been produced in the past with a percentage of fruit juice, usually due to local tax benefits tied to non-artificial juice ingredients.
• Mirinda was sold in a distinctive ribbed glass bottle in Australia and parts of Southeast Asia, when originally released there.
• Mirindas asesinas ("Killer Mirindas") was the first short film of the Spanish filmmaker Álex de la Iglesia.
• In the Middle East, Mirinda made a TV advert that featured footage from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.^[4]

References

1. ^ Esperanto World Convention (Geocities.com)
2. ^ Behindthename.com
3. ^ Leipzig.de
4. ^ YouTube - The Legend of Zelda Miranda Commercial