Dodo Juice Ltd

Dodo Juice Ltd is an UK based manufacturer of detailing-related products. The range differs from shampoo’s, wax to clay, washmitts, polishingmachines.

Dodo Juice

Dodo Juice was formed in june 2007 by Dom Colbeck and PJ Aass. Paul Dalton was also asked to participate but declined the offer. Although they often joke about being from Mauritius, they are located in Elsenham, Essex in the United Kingdom.
Dodo Juice has made a name to turn many things into a small joke. For example, on their website they say “and only one web developer had to be fed to our pet shark during the exhaustive production process.” Among other things. They have a fictional Dodo mascot called “Mr Skittles the Third” that travels the world and meets celebrities and photo models. They also have a fictional monkey called “Malcolm the customer care monkey”, who is described as: “Malcolm, our customer care monkey, will gladly open complaints letters, eat half of them and then wipe the leftovers on his bright purple bottom.”. Despite these small jokes Dodo Juice takes quality, customer care and service very seriously. They are often used to compare the level of quality from another brand. The expression “second to none” is often used to describe their customer service.

Dodo Juice’s own description

Dodo Juice is a company that is proud to be different, proud that its logo is difficult to read, proud of its distinctive website (www.dodojuice.com) and proud to be friendly, approachable and educational. One day it may even achieve its ambition of buying a volcano island, complete with monorail and laser. Then its competitors will have even more reason to worry.
Dodo Juice’s unofficial slogan is: Livin la vida Dodo.

The beginning

Dom Colbeck got the task to write a website and a press release for a detailer that marketed him as the most expensive “car washer” in the world. He had a play with the high-end waxes this detailer had. Wanting to make himself useful for future cooperation he decided to have a play with creating his own wax. The job with the detailer never came to fruition, but he left his day job anyway and developed Dodo Juice with pj in his spare time whilst running a Porsche service centre.
After creating a usable wax he enlisted some chemist (who became known as the JAK crew) and eventually, the Dodo started to fly. The first prototype made by Dom would later become “Rainforest Rub”, a much appreciated wax within the detailing community with a reputation of being a useable wax for application by hand.

Dodo Juice Ltd.

Dodo Juice was started in 2007 and took the detailing community by storm. Their completely new approach was a breath of fresh air in the serious world of detailing products. Dodo Juice is known for their funky labels, funny product names, setting new trends, excellent customer service and innovative products. Their complete range is divided into 3 sub-brands: Basics of Bling (aka B.o.b.), Dodo Juice and Supernatural.
“Basics of Bling” is a simplified range of products that have easy to follow steps. Each stage of detailing has its own color and the products are designed to be easy to use.
“Dodo Juice” is the main range of products that cover almost every stage and has a wide variety of products from wax, sealants to cleaners and accessories. Many of these products are known for their luscious colors, addictive fragrances and funky labels. Some fragrances are so good smelling that customers have been asking for air fresheners for years.
“Supernatural” is the no-nonsense range of products. Products that are designed to be the best they can, without the funky color, sweet fragrance, or other nonsense. Just good performing products without unnecessary bells and whistles.

People behind Dodo Juice Ltd.

Dom Colbeck – Dom is the man behind the idea and the marketing. Dom has a background in marketing and was inspired to get into the detailing scene after doing PR work for the famous “5K car wash”. Dom started out with trying to make his own wax at his home, this resulted in the prototype of what is now called “Rainforest Rub”. Dom is the slightly more serious man behind Dodo Juice and has an incredible wealth of knowledge in all things related to detailing.

PJ Aass – pj is the tall crazy, creative salesman who makes everything as delicious as possible. Pj is from Norway but spent time in America for college and ended up in England where he was approached by Dom to get involved with Dodo Juice. Pj is an IT wizard with incredible creative designing skills. He is responsible for the creative and funky designs of Dodo Juice’ labels, posters, flyers, website and much more. Pj is also well known for his friendly manners and his “man hugs”.

Dom and pj are known to have fierce arguments. They have different views and opinions regarding many things regarding Dodo Juice, but those arguments always help to propel the brand forwards. It’s a productive relationship and Dodo Juice wouldn’t be the same without one of these 2 people.

Mister Skittles The Third – Mr Skittles is Dodo Juice’s mascot and a specially designed stuffed animal (made out of microfiber fabric) that gets to travel the world, take photos with his celebrity friends and/or his beautiful female fans. He is a friendly but macho bird who loves to live an active life with his personal bodyguard: pj. The stuffed animal version of Mr Skittles the Third is made by Wally Plush Toys from Mauritius, the same island where the Dodo bird used to live.

Rest of the crew – Dodo Juice is made out of several people helping out with production, shipping, packaging, answering e-mails and many other different tasks. Not all of these people are known to the general public.

Funny product names

Dodo Juice uses several product names with a twist. For example; Ferrous Dueller is a fallout-remover (Ferrous = a divalent iron compound), but the name is also a reference to the Ferris Bueller movie. Future Armour is a spray-on sealant (armour = protection) but also a reference to the popular animated series Futurama.
There is often no real connection between the product name and what the name refers to, but they are often designed to give a hint of what it does and to put a smile on your face.
“Crudzilla” is a traffic-film-remover which is designed to remove the “crud” from your car. The resemblance of the name with “Godzilla” is probably used to let people know that it is big, powerful and ferocious at doing what it is designed to do. Other names, like Red Mist have less of this double meaning in the name.

Initial launch

Dodo Juice launched in 2007 with just 5 products; Rainforest Rub, Banana Armour, Light Fantastic, Orange Crush and Purple Haze. All car wax products. They grew quickly to 29 products in 2008 and currently count approximately 300+ products. The range covers wax, sealant, coatings, cleaning agents, glass cleaners, pre-wax cleaners, leather care, metal polish, car-shampoo, snow foam, dressing, washmitts and sponges, wheelcleaners, polishers, wash buckets and much more.
On average they launch new products every year. Often around the end of the year and/or around mid summer.

Waxstock

Dom Colbeck, John Hole and PJ Aass decided that the United Kingdom needed a big car care event, and created “Waxstock”. The first edition was in the summer of 2012 and was an instant hit. Every year Waxstock becomes bigger, with more customers and more manufacturers. Waxstock is Europe’s biggest car care event that centers around valeting and detailing. There are show cars on show, manufactures with their own stand selling products, demo’s, workshops and even awards given for best car. Visitors can enter the “Arrive and Shine” competition where the cars in the parking lot are judged by their looks. 16 chosen cars are allowed to park inside the main hall and put their cars on show. Several manufacturers have special products for sale made just for Waxstock, others will have a special discount for Waxstock.

DAD’s and DAR’s

When Dodo Juice became more popular, they created the DAD and DAR program. These stand for Dodo Authorized Detailer (DAD) and Dodo Authorized Reseller (DAR). A DAD is a detailer who is approved by Dodo Juice to use their products in a commercial way to detail cars. A DAR is a reseller who is approved to sell Dodo Juice products.

Dodoholics

Dodo Juice has gained many loyal customers over the years. These fans became known as “Dodoholics”. The fanbase exists of websites that mention the quality of Dodo Juice and Facebook groups and Facebook pages that revolve around Dodo Juice and their development.
A particular characteristic of these Dodoholics is that they share the friendly approach that Dodo Juice itself upholds. Comradery, patience, friendliness and high willingness to help are typical manners that you’ll find among Dodoholics. They often respond to such things with “We’re all a friendly bunch”.

The Difference

Dodo Juice has set itself apart from other detailing brands. When Dodo Juice started out in 2007, most of the products where aimed at professionals. The labels where simple, straight forward and lacked personality. The products themselves where often very simple and cheaply made or more based on the use of bodyshops. This created a big difference between professional products and commercially available products. This also offered no need for any gimmicks and/or accessories. Dodo Juice is proud that they have a logo that is difficult to read, that the labels are very funky with colorful words and funny names. They enjoy being different. By pushing their products and the quality they have raised the bar.
They don’t believe that a product has to cost and arm and a leg when the production costs are fairly low. So they put a lot of effort into providing excellent products with high-end ingredients for very affordable prices. Making quality products affordable for everybody.