evian Continues Live Young Campaign with Baby & Me

Image sourced from http://www.campaignlive.co.uk

In a continuation of their Live Young global campaign debuting in 2009 with Roller  Babies and extended in 2011 with Baby Inside, evian has released the 2013 extension of the campaign: Baby & Me.  Maintaining their focus on babies and aligning that with natural purity, evian carries through their message of living young.  As adults look into mirrors and see a reflection of themselves in baby form – “babyfied” according to evian – they break out in dance as they connect with their inner youth.  See their commercial below:

Since 2009, there has been more digital involvment and evian has embraced that with this year’s campaign.  Aside from the global launch of this video in 14 countries, evian’s facebook page is launching a “Baby & Me” app that uses facial recognition software to babyfy the user.  The user can then share the babyfied version of themselves with their friends and social network.

With the incremental digital effort, there will likely be stronger engagement than the 2009 and 2011 campaigns.  Can’t wait to see the app and try it out.  BevWire readers can see a babyfied version of me here, and try it out for yourself.

AQUAhydrate Grows Through Distribution and Celebrity Partnerships

Has anyone noticed the amount of press that AQUAhydrate has gotten recently?  After their rebranding effort in 2012, they have reached some significant milestones.  Most recently, they gained more national availability in the grocery channel with new distribution agreements at Safeway and Kroger’s.  They secured even more publicity after Mark Wahlberg and Sean “P. Diddy” Combs announced they were partnering with AQUAhydrate to help develop and execute the beverage brand’s business strategy.  What does all this mean for the brand and for Canadian consumers?  Will their continued success lead to stronger availability in Canada?  And how will celebrity partnerships help the beverage refreshment perform better?

Let’s answer the latter question first: will celebrity partnerships with Mark Wahlberg and Sean “P. Diddy” Combs help deliver stronger business performance?  It all starts with making the right choices; there must be mutual benefits beyond previous arrangements like the celebrity endorsement compensated financially.  When you are endorsing a beverage or any other product, you are mainly communicating the product or service benefits to the public.  There is no guarantee that you believe in its success or benefits – you are simply saying what you’ve been paid to say in order to make money.  However, what more and more companies realize that without any vested interest from the celebrity, it’s mainly a one-way transaction.  There is no passion for the refreshment beyond the financials.

Mark Wahlberg and Sean Comb speak to the media at the AQUAhydrate press conference. Courtesy of AQUAhydrate’s facebook page.

Through this realization, more companies are finding celebrities that truly believe in the product’s success.  Diet Coke found Jean-Paul Gaultier, Taylor Swift, and Marc Jacobs.  Pepsi found Beyonce.  Evian has been doing this for years, and has found a plethora of fashion designers willing to put their mark on collectible glass bottles each year.  All these celebrities are not just being paid to talk up their favorite beverage, rather they are involved with the business in some shape or form.  Beyonce is involved with Pepsi’s creative process and how the soda brand is represented to music fans worldwide.  In a similar sense, Wahlberg and Combs are expected to be involved with the business strategy component for AQUAhydrate.  They are expected to actively participate in helping get AQUAhydate into more grocery stores and more consumer shopping carts.  The fact that both celebrities chose to partner with AQUAhydrate, they must believe in the beverage’s business prospects and how they can add value.  Therefore, this business partnership should stand a very high chance of success.

To answer the former question on what this means to Canadian retailers and consumers, the new distribution arrangements should help.  Safeway is a grocery chain with an American presence as well as a Canadian presence, so the incremental distribution for AQUAhydrate could likely be the result of having the refreshment merchandised in Canadian Safeway grocery stores.  Some research and a quick question to the AQUAhydrate team revealed that the water beverage is indeed found in Safeway stores, as well as most Canadian GNC and Quebec Couche-Tard outlets.  Some readers have said that the beverage brand was also found in high-end grocery stores, so it can be expected that AQUAhydrate will continue to expand its Canadian presence.

Since its September rebranding effort, AQUAhydrate has rebounded and made some great strides forward.  With its expanded distribution and strong celebrity partnerships, there’s no doubt that the beverage brand is primed for even more success in the future.  With Walhberg and Combs on board to help with the business strategy, who knows what celebrity wants to sign on next with the brand to help propel it to new heights?

Diane von Furstenberg designs 2013 evian Bottle

As with every year since 2008, premium bottled-water manufacturer evian has selected a fashion designer to come up with a limited edition design for their glass bottle.  Click here to read about the 2012 design by Andre Courreges.  This year’s designer is Diane von Furstenberg.  This also marks the first year that evian has used an American designer.  von Furstenberg is also the first female designer chosen by evian, but I don’t think that this should be a big deal since gifted designers are both male and female.

In von Furstenberg’s design of the bottle, here’s what the Martin Renaud, President of evian® Volvic® World said:

Diane von Furstenberg is a globally-recognized pioneer in the fashion industry through her eponymous DVF brand and has also established herself as an icon through her philanthropic ventures and mentorship as president of Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). Her design for evian’s latest limited edition bottle symbolizes von Furstenberg’s youthful mindset and inspirational way of life, while perfectly embodying evian’s Live Young attitude and brand values.

The glass bottle’s design features words printed with the designer’s own handwriting, “Water is Life is Love is Life is Water is…” and is explained in the video above.

Something noticeably different in the packaging design this year: the bottle cap.  The bottle is sealed with a screw cap rather than a twist cap, which appears to be easier to open than the previous designer bottles (I’ve only collected them, but have not opened any of them).  In which case, this should make it a tougher decision for purchasers to collect them without opening them up.

According to the press release, the bottles can also be found throughout the of the year in hotels, bakeries, and select restaurants.  In looking to purchase this collector bottles in Canada, I recommend going to your high-end specialty grocery supermarkets (Pusateri’s, McEwan, IGA, Urban Fare, etc).

HappyWater Enters Vancouver’s Beverage Market

HappyWater – a premium alkaline-based bottled water product – is launching in Vancouver this summer.  From their Twitter account (@LiveHappyWater) and media kit, their bottled beverage can be described as a “100% blend of pure, natural spring and lithia waters from ancient Canadian mountain springs.”  Their Twitter feed also tweets where they’ll be around Vancouver this summer to sample out product to passerbys, so feel free to seek them out for a free bottle if you work downtown.

First of all, what is the difference between “alkaline” or lithia water relative to other types of water and beverages?  Scientifically speaking, there is a pH scale that determines the acidity and alkalinity of all beverage products. On a scale from 0 (acidic) to 14 (alkaline), 7 would be consider neutral.  Searching on the web revealed the following results on beverage acidity: soft drinks (~3.2), juices (~5.0) and coffee (~5.0) are acidic.  Waters have varying degrees of acidity or alkalinity depending on its manufacturing and purifying process.  Aquafina (~5.4) and glaceau smartwater (~5.9) are slightly more acidic on the scale while evian (~7.4) and Fiji (~7.6) are slightly more basic on the scale. HappyWater’s (~7.4) alkalinity puts it in the same arena as evian (~7.3) and Fiji (~7.6).  Since our stomach produces acid to break down our consumables, neutral (milk) and alkaline-based drinks would be some options to stabilize an upset stomach (or balance out the natural acids in our stomach).

Vancouver should be a good market to launch this premium product, given its local sourcing.  HappyWater originates from the Canadian Rocky Mountains, relative to evian (French Alps) and Fiji (Fiji Islands).  While I’m not sure if the location factors into the product pricing, they can be expected to be priced competitively with other premium waters.  Their current availability is localized to Vancouver and parts of the Lower Mainland at the moment, but national and American expansion would be a great opportunity given the premium waters potential in the marketplace.

Until their expansion out East or me making a trip to Vancouver, I’ll just wait to try a HappyWater.

evian Smart Drop: Buy Water From Your Fridge

 

Evian is launching a home delivery service through an innovative fridge magnet.  The water droplet shaped magnet is called “Smart Drop” and connects through your WiFi network for ordering the type of water you want, and your choice of delivery day and time.  It is currently being tested in parts of France right now, specifically Paris.  There has been no plans to launch the Smart Drop outside certain parts of Paris and close by suburbs, but we would have to wonder how successful this magnet can be if it comes to Canada.    This may be a good idea based on European’s consumer and shopper behavior, would this item find success in Canada?   The Smart Drop essentially cuts out the retailer to make buying water easier at home, so how does this affect Canadian retailers?

Retailers may react unfavorably toward the Smart Drop’s launch in Canada.  evian would now be competing directly against the customers where they list their products.  As a function of retailer consolidation in Canada, Canadian retailers typically hold more power than their European counterparts.  Losing one retailer in Canada (ie. Loblaws/Superstores or Wal-Mart) could prove to be very significant.  In addition to losing the evian bottled water sales, retailers are also afforded less opportunities to build a grocery trip sale with the “evian consumer”.  This potentially takes out sales from fruit, bread, and a broad assortment of other grocery products.

On the other hand, it may not have as dramatic an affect as described above.  evian could alleviate the problem by incorporating location services into the Smart Drop magnet, suggesting closely located retailers that may have evian on hand.  This way, evian would be partnering with the retailer to reach the consumer rather than competing for the same consumer.  Better yet, evian would branch out to become the delivery service for the retailer, helping deliver not only evian water but a variety of items to the consumer at home.

At the end of the day, this may simply be a novelty item for consumers to play with once or twice.  It may not be sustainable since consumers still end up going to the grocery store for other products and bottled water exists as a grocery list item.  The only consumers that may end up using this Smart Drop magnet long term would be die-hard evian consumers, but even then they would still need to go to buy other grocery products.

Retailers should have less to worry about than the worst-case scenario described above.

André Courrèges Designs evian’s 2012 Designer Bottle

evian had started a tradition of  producing designer glass bottles for their premium water a few years ago, and this year the House of Courrèges’s André Courrèges follows in the footsteps of famous design partners Jean Paul Gaultier, Christian Lacroix, Paul Smith, and Issey Miyake.   Jerome Goure, VP Marketing, Danone Waters of America, has the following to say about the new limited edition bottle:

“evian and Courreges both share the idea that youth is a matter of attitude rather than age,” said Jerome Goure, VP Marketing, Danone Waters of America. “The idea here was to bring Courreges’ timeless taste for fresh concepts to conceive a water bottle design that radiates a joy and a freedom from convention.”

The bottle is white and pink in color, and its ink is 100% organic, making the bottle fully recyclable.  Although I doubt anyone would be recycling this bottle if they bought it for their personal collection (like me).  Judging from the amount of comments the Issey Miyake evian designer bottle post received (see here), I would say that they have created a cult following for these collector bottles.

evian and these designers lend strong credibility to each other with these limited edition bottles.  All the designers have already made a name for themselves in the fashion industry while evian has made bottled water from the French Alps famous.  The partnership of these two may mean that these bottles attract a new following and puts the product in the hands of more influential people in the fashion industry.  Shoppers may be buying the bottles only because its made by their favorite designer and not even care about the product itself (bottled water).

Since they are so popular, should evian be making these bottles available permanently, around the year?  I would say that limiting its availability creates much stronger demand and keeps their tradition alive.  After all, no one seems to keep a product top of mind when it becomes abundantly available.  And the pricing would ultimately have to come down to increase its market penetration.  As a company that is positioned in the higher-end bottled water market, lowering prices may not make the most sense since it takes away the luxurious aspect of the product.  Keep its availability as it is – release it once a year and let the die hard fans (for either the designer, evian, or both) seek out the product to pick it up.

The release date for this year’s designer bottle is November, and will be available in select hotels, restaurants, and retailers.  I will be on the lookout to add this bottle to my collection (still missing the Christian Lacroix).