…well, Gatorade seems to think it is. Gatorade Water debuted nationally with a line of 7.5 pH, electrolyte-infused waters aimed at their audience of athletes and physically active people. Gatorade has found that their athletic consumers haven’t felt like the market had created a market that satisfies their needs.
“Water is more than a $25B category today, but we also know that there are tens of millions of consumers not reaching for enhanced water at the store shelf,” Emily Boido, senior director of marketing for Gatorade enhanced waters, … “As a brand with longstanding consumer trust and credibility within hydration, we see a strong opportunity to incrementally grow the category in a meaningful way. The water aisle has been missing Gatorade swagger and we’re changing that with our first unflavored water.” 1.
Big Water!
Of course, premium water has been a growing segment of the beverage market for a long time. Sales of bottled water in the U.S. have recently reached over $19 billion. Big players in the category are well-established brands like Smartwater. Gatorade’s parent company, PepsiCo, also markets LIFEWTR and Auafina, which Gatorade Water needs to compete with.
The problem for the big bottlers, PepsiCo and Coke is that sales of standard brands of water have been declining.
Premium Water!
By targeting the premium water market, Gatorade is going after Coke’s premium sports drink BodyArmor, which grew almost 15% last year.
Consumers seem to be more open to the idea of premium water as a social lubricant. Younger consumers have been shifting away from alcoholic beverages and are less interested in sugary carbonated beverages. This provides a real opportunity to grow premium water sales with new products and marketing.
Some independent brands have found opportunity and have taken great advantage of these trends. Hawaii-based Waiakea had remarkable growth in 2023 of 44.8% in retail to over $68.6 million. That’s not to say all independents have been winners. Fiji water was down almost 3% in the same period.
Packaging Matters
Aluminum bottles are a growing trend. Consumers have been concerned about plastics and the chemicals that leach from them, but the market still primarily uses plastic.
While the advent of aluminum packaging – be it bottles or cans – has been among the most disruptive trends in the category in recent year, from the “Death to Plastic” touting Liquid Death to reusability-minded brands like PATH, plastic has remained the king of the category as the top performers hold to the format. 1.
Still, concern about microplastics and sustainability provides an opportunity for some companies
to differentiate themselves. Targeting Gen Z’s concerns, Open Water is trying to provide the healthy beverage experience they want while addressing their sustainability concerns.
Open Water produces unflavored still and sparkling waters in aluminum bottles and cans, and has recently made deeper expansions out of on-premise channel accounts and into retail via partners like Whole Foods and Kroger, going from six divisions of the latter retailer to 21 in April. 1.
1. bevnet.com
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