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It’s a hot
day. You’re thirsty, and you head into the kitchen for
a drink of cold water. Do you: a) turn on the tap and fill
your glass; b) take your glass to the refrigerator and fill
it from the door dispenser; or c) reach inside the refrigerator
for a bottle of cold water?
More and more frequently, the answer is likely to be “c.”
Over the past few years, bottled water sales have grown at
double-digit rates in both the U.S. and Canada. Other beverage
segments, including soft drinks and fruit juices, have experienced
much slower growth, as more consumers are choosing bottled
water as the beverage of choice.
Why Consumers Switch to Bottled
Water
Today’s health conscious consumers are shifting away
from beverage products that offer poor or no nutrition, high
sugar content, caffeine and sodium and are choosing healthier
options, particularly water. Water offers many health benefits,
including cleansing and flushing of body systems, hydration
and increased energy. While today most people still get their
water from the household tap, in recent years there has been
a growing shift to purchased bottled water.
Consumers have become more aware of the potential dangers
in drinking from the community water supply. And tap water
may have an unpleasant taste in some locations—possibly
from processing elements like chlorine or from mineral deposits
or sulpha found naturally in the water.
There is also the convenience factor. For the fast-paced American
lifestyle, it’s just more convenient to grab a bottle
of water and go than to try to scout out a place to find something
to drink.
Choices, Choices, Choices!
The bottled water category offers a plethora of choices to
the consumer. And to the untrained eye, one might think all
bottled water is the same. Many people assume that when they
purchase plain bottled water, they are getting spring water.
This is not necessarily true, so the consumer must read the
product label to be sure. The Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) strictly regulates the bottled water industry and regularly
checks labels to ensure that statements are not misleading
to the consumer.
Basic unflavored bottled water types include: artesian (from
a well that taps a confined aquifer); mineral (minerals occurring
naturally, not as additives); purified (municipal water that
is processed, treated and carbon filtered); spring (from underground
spring); and sparkling (containing carbon dioxide in the same
amount as it had naturally at its source).
Top brands for still/flat bottled water in the U.S. and Canada
include Pepsi’s Aquafina, Coca-Cola’s Dasani,
and Evian. In the U.S., Nestlé’s Poland Spring,
Arrowhead and Deer Park are also favorites. Perrier and Pellegrino
are among the favorites in the sparkling water segment.
Going Beyond ‘Just’
Water
Beverage manufacturers, ever mindful of fickle consumers’
growing demands for something new and better, have been pushing
the limits on category definitions for their beverages. For
example, the fruit juice/drink category now contains “smoothie”
beverages containing either a soy or yogurt base. Are these
really juice drinks, or do they more likely fall in the dairy
products category? At least one milk processor has launched
a carbonated milk beverage. In which category does it belong—dairy
or carbonated soft drinks?
In the bottled water category as well, the lines are becoming
more blurred as water processors and bottlers are enhancing
their water products to the point where one could question
whether the beverage is a water or something else.
When Is a Water Not a Water?
A walk down the bottled water and carbonated soft drink aisles
highlight the confusion about some of these new “waters.”
Are they truly “waters” in the sense that plain,
still or carbonated waters are?
Some of the carbonated brands include tastes more in line
with soda pop, with added flavors such as raspberry, lemon
and lime. La Croix lime flavored bottled water, for example,
has about as much fizz as a lemon-lime soft drink, a similar
refreshing taste but without the sweetness of either sugar
or artificial sweetener.
Another example is Clearly Canadian fruit-flavored sparkling
waters. However, these “waters” contain about
90 calories from the addition of fructose corn syrup, so they
have nearly the sweetness of a carbonated soft drink.
The latest development in the category is the “enhanced
waters” or “premium waters” genre. This
genre is characterized by the addition of a strategic ingredient
or nutraceutical. These additives are unique in that each
“flavor” has a different component to it for a
specific health benefit. It may be an energy booster, a calming
ingredient, a hydration element or a multi-vitamin additive.
Enhanced waters are lighter alternatives to the “energy,”
“sports” and “alternative” beverage
categories, although they do contain sweeteners and a small
caloric content.
One example of this genre of waters is Glaceau Vitamin Waters.
Formerly sold mostly in health food stores, the brand is now
available in supermarkets. It sports several fruit flavors,
with each flavor fortified with different vitamins, minerals
and herbs to elicit a specific health benefit along with names
to suggest that benefit, such as “Rescue,” “Revive”
or “Endurance.”
Glaceau’s success with its enhanced waters has prompted
the likes of Pepsi and Coke to join the competition with their
own brands, Aquafina Essentials and Dasani Nutriwater.
The bottled water trend has been growing at double-digit levels
over the past few years. With continued consumer concern with
health benefits and safety and continued produce enhancements,
growth is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.
The question again becomes how these enhanced waters should
be categorized. If this segment continues to grow, a new beverage
category could emerge. According to ACNielsen data, the enhanced
water segment—while accounting for only 4% of total
dollar sales of total bottled water—contributed 10%
of total category growth. This could be a branding opportunity
for large soft drink or fruit juice marketers as they develop
and market their entries to the new category.
For the consumer, all the choices available continue to blur
the lines among the various beverage categories. The bottle
chosen from the beverage cooler could be water, soda, juice
or sports drink. If the consumer gets what he or she likes,
it doesn’t matter how it is categorized.
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