Vitamin Water Mega C Discontinued

Vitamin Water Mega C Discontinued

BevWire has learned that there may be more vitaminwater flavors on the way.  Speaking with some industry sources and then browsing through the trademark database, BevWire has found that there's two new flavors registered with the Canadian trademark database – Balance and Endurance.  In the United States, Balance is a Cranberry-Grapefruit flavor and Endurance is a Peace-Mango flavor.  Will these flavors be the same in Canada, or are they merely the same names for other flavors (ie. Mega C in Canada is Power C in the U.S., Restore in Canada and Revive in the U.S., and so on)?

BevWire has always been very critical of a product over-extending its reach and this is a classic example of this scenario.  With these two new flavors entering the Canadian market, that brings the total number of vitaminwater flavors up to eleven. What threshold is vitaminwater using to determine that there is enough sales potential to release additional flavors?  Will these two new flavors replace two older flavours, and which ones will be replaced?

While the enhanced beverage category is still growing, it's at a decreasing growth rate.  This indicates that vitaminwater is still increasing its sales and has not reached a market saturation point, but the saturation point may be close.  At the end of March 2010, the enhanced beverages market was over $6 million in sales.  Vitaminwater garners about 60% market share, thus accounting for $3.6 million overall and $400 000 for each flavour (rough numbers since some sell better than others).  If that's the case, then a simple threshold to pass would require than each flavour sell at least $400 000 in order to stay on the market – without accounting for cannibalization.  BevWire thinks that $400 000 for new flavors may be difficult to hit, and therefore some flavors must be discontinued to make way for Balance and Endurance.  The question then becomes which flavors currently underperform and justify being removed from the shelf?

In any case, no word on official launch dates yet.  The trademarks have been approved and are awaiting registration (pending official complaints from other people over these names).  Keep an eye on for which flavors disappear from the shelves when these two hit the market.



In the past, BevWire has blogged about glaceau's vitaminwater leading the Canadian enhanced water beverage category, but what about Sobe Lifewater?  The current enhanced water category really only has two players right now, Coca-Cola's glaceau vitaminwater, and Pepsi's Aquafina Plus.  Vitaminwater has pretty much dominated the market landscape with more than 50% market share, stealing Aquafina Plus' market share hand over hand.  What if Pepsi were to launch Sobe Lifewater into Canada?  Would that combat the market share decline for Pepsi in this category?  In the United States, while vitaminwater is the leader, Sobe Lifewater is a strong second.

In Canada, Aquafina Plus has done everything it can to try and appear like a strong second compared to vitaminwater.  They have made a bottle adjustment to provide easier grip (and also copy the Sobe Lifewater bottle shape).  They have changed the packaging copy to show more focus on the vitamins.  They have changed and enhanced the formula to include natural sweeteners and lower the calorie content (Aquafina Plus10).  Aquafina Plus has also gone to price reductions such as Buy One Get One offers to give consumers incentives to buy their product over glaceau vitaminwater.  However, these actions have only really led to a temporary increase in sales and market share.  Most of all, when the product is on a price reduction consumers that are price sensitive will choose Aquafina Plus and when the price rises again they will choose something else.

The Sobe brand itself has morphed a lot from when it was first introduced on the market as a ready-to-drink tea beverage.  It has also become an energy drink and an enhanced water.  The Canadian marketplace's strongest brand association is tea, but even then Sobe had to re-brand itself.  Sobe has to revive the tea offerings through re-packaging from glass bottles to plastic bottles.  This indicates that even though Sobe's strongest association in Canada is with tea, they are not the leader in this category (having to revive the brand and change the packaging).  Therefore, this may be the perfect time to introduce the Lifewater series and provide a stronger competitor against vitaminwater than Aquafina Plus.  And seeing Sobe Lifewater's strength in the United States, Pepsi should strongly consider introducing this enhanced water beverage into Canada as well.

An online article from Beverage Spectrum's Gerry Khermouch sheds light on how some beverage categories are strong with opportunity to grow while others just have one strong brand while other competitors barely make a dent (article link here ).  In the article, Gerry Khermouch mentions that vitaminwater, 5-Hour Energy, and Gatorade spawned a new beverage category (enhanced water, energy shot, sports drink, respectively) and copycat products eager to captialize on the category have entered the market but without much success.

"It implies that what appears to be abundant opportunity really is a solo success story, and all the pretenders are doomed to exhaust a lot of money, energy and credibility in a fruitless effort. That doesn't mean there aren't ways to build off that conspicuous success, but it won't happen just by throwing your hat in the ring with your own version. " ~ Gerry Khermouch

The article mentions that there has been success for other brands, but the success has not been easy to come by. Pouring lots of money to market the product doesn't always bring success either (as seen by numerous enhanced water beverages, energy shots, and sports drinks in the marketplace).  Sobe Life Water, Red Bull, and Powerade have all seen limited success given the amount of resources they have put into growing their brands.  Competing on price doesn't always help either.  If you have poured significant funding just to enter and compete on price alone, the likely result is that your product is no better than a private label product – so why bother entering the market?

The real opportunity to gain market share would be through innovation.  Innovation either improves on a beverage already on the market, or launches a new category altogether to meet a previously unmet need.  Let's use the energy drink category to draw examples from.  Jolt Cola and Red Bull.  While Jolt Cola entered the market first in 1985 with their offering, Red Bull came in two years later with their version of an energy drink.  Red Bull improved on areas where Jolt Cola was lacking and quickly gained the majority of the energy drink market.  Jolt Cola may have contained more caffeine, or Red Bull's marketing expertise helped them gain the leadership position.

Or Red Bull and 5-Hour Energy for another example.  Red Bull may have been the first to launch an energy drink and grow the category, but 5-Hour Energy innovated and spawned a segment within the category.  While other energy drinks entered the market to compete against Red Bull in the cold vault and cooler doors, 5-Hour Energy developed a small energy shot that was located at the till rather than where the rest of the energy drinks were.  Customers shopping on impulse would still see 5-Hour Energy at the checkout counter after the rest of the energy drinks are left behind in the cold vault.  As the article mentions, Red Bull's energy shot offering is still fighting to gain significant market share.

As Gerry Khermouch says, "Healthy skepticism must be maintained about brands that are just expecting to cruise down the roads carved by segment pioneers." You just cannot rely on your brand name to bring you success.  The beverage company has to work on developing a great product through innovation and market it properly in order to succeed.

As of November 2009, the Canadian enhanced water beverage market was around $50 million dollars, and nearly half of that was Glaceau Vitaminwater sales.  Aquafina Plus controlled about 35%, and the remaining percentages was divided between Aquafina Flavor Splash, Dasani Essentials, Nestle Pure Life flavors, and the private label brands.

Some notable brand's disappearing in 2010 include Dasani Flavors and Propel, with Dasani Essentials possibly being discontinued as well.  Not that it's a surprise, but the overall number of players in this category are mainly Glaceau Vitaminwater and Aquafina Plus.  And Glaceau Vitaminwater has been gaining market share consistently since their release – while the enhanced water category itself grew nearly $20 million dollars, Glaceau Vitaminwater increased by close to $25 million dollars.  Not only is Glaceau Vitaminwater growing this category, they are taking it away from its competitors.  As a result, both Aquafina and Nestle have resorted to compete through pricing promotions, trying to limit their losses and temporary maintain their market share.  In the end however, both Aquafina and Nestle may be perceived as inferior brands because  of this.  They will be selling more product but still make less money, and consumers will still choose Glaceau Vitaminwater because it's the "premier" brand of enhanced water.

So as we go forward into 2010 (actually when BevWire posts this it will already be 2010), what will happen to the enhanced water category?  BevWire sees the market stabilizing and continued growth, albeit at a slower rate.  Barring any major player coming in the landscape won't change too much.  Sobe Lifewater does not have an expansion plans into Canada yet (maybe PepsiCo will run Sobe Lifewater and Aquafina Plus in the US, and just Aquafina Plus in Canada) so they aren't a major factor.  Smartwater is still slowly being launched and promoted across Canada, and they are still not listed at a majority of retail chains which limits their market impact.

Any one want to venture a guess of what might happen to this category in 2010?

vitaminwater10, the low calorie (only 10, hence the name) and naturally sweetened flavored water will double its offerings next month.  Starting August 17, 2009, go-go, mega-c, recoup, and revitalize will join xxx, energy, multi-v, and essential in the beverage company's low calorie product offerings.  Here's what vitaminwater has to say about their new flavors:

• vitaminwater10 go-go (mixed berry): contains 250 milligrams of ribose, 100% vitamin c, 25% vitamin e and four b vitamins per bottle, because we know that every day is a marathon. we've formulated go-go to give you a little sumthin' sumthin' to help you reach your daily finish line.
• vitaminwater10 mega-c (grape raspberry): formulated with 250% vitamin c, 25% zinc, plus four b vitamins per bottle, to help keep your immune system fighting the good fight to stay healthy.
• vitaminwater10 recoup (peach-mandarin): armed with 100% vitamin b3, b5, b6 and b12, per bottle, plus 100% vitamin c, because recoup was created to help you cope with whatever life throws at you.
• vitaminwater10 revitalize (green tea): it can't give you back your childhood, but it can load you up with 140 milligrams of protective antioxidants like vitamin c, egcg and green tea polyphenols per bottle. protective antioxidants can help to support your metabolism and immune system so you can fight those "aging" free radicals.

BevWire wonders what the impact (if any) these new flavors will have on consumers.  The regular vitaminwater green-tea flavor is called Rescue, whereas the 10-calorie edition is called Revitalize.  Power-C (also known as Mega-C) in Canada is a dragonfruit flavor, whereas the 10-calorie edition called Mega-C is a grape-raspberry flavor.

Has vitaminwater10 taken a new direction?  The original 4 flavors (xxx, energy, multi-v, and essential) kept the same name from both vitaminwater and vitaminwater10.  Now these 4 new flavors have different names and flavors.  Consumers may get confused about what the company is doing with these new flavors, since the names and flavors don't match with what they expected from the regular flavors.

In addition, vitaminwater10 appears to be going down the same path as vitaminwater: too many flavors.  With 15 flavors of regular vitaminwater, and 8 flavors of vitaminwater10, that adds to up a total of 23 flavors!  Unless the company starts to narrow out the flavors, they risk cannabalization.  Sometimes, less is more.  The market is already saturated with numerous variations of this beverage, and consumers will simply be switching back and forth between the flavors.  In the end, the loser may be vitaminwater.

Vitaminwater recently added two more flavors to the Canadian market: Formula50 and Energy.  The Formula50 is grape-flavored and named after 50cent.  Energy is citrus-flavor and named after…energy?  Anyway, the American and Canadian market generally sees a difference in the marketing message on the bottle for each of these flavors of vitaminwater, but the Formula50's message is the same.  BevWire has not found a bottle of Energy yet, so can't quite say if the marketing message is the same for both U.S. and Canada.

Meanwhile, rumor has it that the green tea-flavored Rescue may be narrowed out of the Canadian market.  Maybe the Canadian market isn't interested in green tea.  Or, there could be too many other flavors and choices available and Rescue just lost out to the other flavors.  Maybe Vitaminwater has finally found out that the proliferation of their flavors has reached its maximum number.  Or they are genuinely discontinuing this flavor, and will continue to release more flavors.  Let's wait and see.

This summer, vitaminwater will be cross-promoting their new vitaminwater flavor in a collaboration with MySpace.com.  To promote their new flavor – Sync – vitaminwater will be producing 24 million bottles of this Berry-Cherry flavored drink nationwide with the MySpace logo and an under the cap code.  Users may redeem this code to download a free MP3 song by going to the MySpace website.

This marks the first time that vitaminwater launches a flavor through a cross-promotion with another company.  The campaign, which runs until July 31, will be supported through radio and magazine advertisements.  In-store advertisements will also support this campaign, with celebrities like Carrie Underwood, Alicia Keys, and 50 Cent making appearances to promote this flavor.  Sync, which was released in April, is already among vitaminwater's top performances.

vitaminwater has been existence for quite some time, this does mark the first time where cross promotion is used to market one of its beverages.  However, given the success of the brand, and the struggles that MySpace is having, one has to wonder why MySpace has been chosen for this partnership.  The on-package advertising tagline –  "Download of vitamins and antioxidants" – certainly helps with making this work, but wouldn't iTunes have been a better partner for vitaminwater?  Or they were aiming to build a strong social network following, wouldn't Facebook have been a better option?

If selecting a strong music partner, iTunes would have been a better choice than MySpace.  And Facebook may have been a better partner if vitaminwater was only interested in building a social network following.  However, MySpace offers the best combination of functionality for vitaminwater.  iTunes would have been too narrow of a choice (music only) and therefore wouldn't have been the most appropriate choice.  MySpace is stronger in the United States (where this marketing campaign is being executed) so they would make a better partner.  MySpace's website seems to offer its users more functionality and would therefore allow users to express themselves better with the brand.  Not to mention that the celebrities (Carrie Underwood, 50 Cent, etc) have a stronger tie to MySpace than to Facebook.

It will interesting to see if this campaign meets expectations.  Conversion metrics indicate that social networks are among the lowest to convert consumers into customers, and MySpace is currently struggling to turn a profit.  BevWire will stay updated on this and try to evaluate this after the campaign is fully executed…

On April 2nd, vitaminwater10 was officially released.  This beverage is naturally sweetened and contains only 10 calories, and promises to taste the same as the regular vitaminwater beverages.  The low calorie drink is available in 4 flavors: xxx (Acai-Blueberry-Pomegranate), essential (Orange), citrus (Tropical Citrus), and multi-v (Lemonade).  To celebrate this launch, the company had Carmen Electra host a launch party in the New York Soho district.  The launch party was a highly exclusive event that only included the brand's closest friends (guests included Madonna and 50cent, among other celebrities).  After this April 2nd launch party, vitaminwater10 extends the party to the public from April 3rd to April 12th from 10am to 7pm.  During this time, anyone interested can go and attend this event.  So what happened during the launch party?  Guests played on the Wii, competed on the foosball table, and snapped shots in the photo booth.  Waiters/waitresses also served guests vitaminwater10 in mini shotglasses.  If you are in the area, you can go and experience this launch party and bring some news back to BevWire, thanks in advance.

Now that vitaminwater is available in low calorie flavors, which promises to offer the same taste as the regular calorie flavors, why still make the regular calorie flavors?  Should they discontinue making these flavors?  The answer is no.

Not that vitaminwater has the same brand stature as Coke or Tropicana, but if they stopped making the regular flavors and phased customers into the low calorie flavors, they would be just as bad as New Coke or Tropicana's one-and-done packaging.  The brand is still in its expansion phase outside of the United States, where vitaminwater10 isn't even widely available yet.  To phase out certain flavors would stunt the brand's growth, not to mention it would confuse customers on what the manufacturersare really offering.  You may find vitaminwater10 xxx listed in one place, while the regular vitaminwater xxx is only listed down the street.

However, glaceau is certainly walking the fine line between providing options to capture every last consumer and overloading the consumer with variety.  The company does seem to know what it is doing, so we'll have to see if and when they reach the critical point where there are too many options available to consumers.

There is more Vitaminwater coming – Vitaminwater will be introducing Vitaminwater10.  This drink promises to have the same taste, but with only 10 calories per serving.  Available to the United States in March, the enhanced water beverage will be available in 4 flavors: xxx, energy, multi-v, and essential.  These four flavors will be packaged in 4-pack 16oz bottles and single 20oz bottles.

Vitaminwater is currently available in 13 flavors (2 were discontinued) and 3 package formats.  Although the brand is successful and popular, how many more flavors do we need?  A consumer has a limited amount of money to spend, and there are enough choices as it is.  The more choices there are for the consumer, the greater the possibility for cannibalization between the flavors.  Maybe it is better to lose the money to cannibalization than to lose it to a competitor; at least the money is coming to the company in one way or another.  The distribution channels may also feel the need to rationalize which particular flavors to carry.

How much shelf space would this brand need if a retailer was to carry all the different product varieties?  Store managers undoubtedly will have to de-list the slower movers that are underperforming in favor of the top sellers.  This puts enormous pressure for each product to perform in order to be an average mover in order to avoid being de-listed.

Does the consumer really need that many options for a product as simple as enhanced water?  Is this just really a cash-grab?  Sooner or later, the brand will become over-extended.  At that point, consumers may migrate to a new drink that makes it easier for them to enjoy it without the complexities of choosing between a flavor, caloric-content, nutritional content, functional benfit, and package format.

Vitamin Water Mega C Discontinued

Source: https://bevwire.wordpress.com/tag/glaceau-vitaminwater/page/2/