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Tuesday, 10/30/2012 5:10:38 PM

Tuesday, October 30, 2012 5:10:38 PM

Post# of 289423
READ THIS!!!!! i "bold" the part on BBDA to find it easier :)
BBDA mentioned in this vary good article talking about the relaxation market. Bob Marley's relaxation drink was pulling in 500 mil in 2011.

BBDA to the moon!!!!!!!
limited to 1 message a day on this board so cant reply

MAY 2011



CHILLED DRINKS
After the heavily manufactured energy drinks boom, a soothing alternative has become a $500m business. And it is going to get much bigger. Josh Sims reports
By Josh Sims
Its ingredients include chamomile and valerian root, rose hips, lemon balm and melatonin, the natural hormone that encourages circadian rhythms. Drink it and supposedly you will be enveloped in the fuzzy feeling of a lunchtime tipple without the headache or guilt. Welcome to the latest, rapidly growing sector of the beverage market – relaxation drinks, designed to wind us down, much like the energy drinks so popular during the past couple of decades were concocted to pep us up.
In the US relaxation drinks, which retail at $2-$3 a pop, make up a market already worth $521m (€369m), according to Zenith International. Nielsen expects 20% year- on-year growth through to 2013 and other analysts predict sales of seven relaxation drinks for every 10 energy drinks within 18 months. And with the energy drinks market predicted to be worth $19.7bn by 2013 in the US alone, the soothing equivalent of a Red Bull – still the global market leader in energy drinks some 25 years after its launch – will be a prize worth pursuing.
Unsurprisingly, some of the companies behind relaxation drinks – around 100 of which have launched in the US in the past three years, with names like Mini Chill, iChill and Vacation in a Bottle – are pretty juiced about international markets.
“We live in crazy times, with technology driving an ever faster pace of life and the demand for instant gratification on the rise. There’s a need for products that are more balancing, that allow consumers to take a step back,” says Paul Fuegner, marketing head at Marley Beverage Company, which launched last year. The Southfield, Michigan outfit sells the Marley’s Mellow Mood range, which come in berry, citrus and peach and raspberry tea flavours, all featuring singer Bob Marley on their cans and bottles.
“As there are a lot of companies getting very excited about the potential of relaxation drinks, what is going to separate them, taste and effectiveness aside, is the branding,” says Fuegner, a former marketing chief at Skyy Vodka. According to E-Score Research in 2007, the reggae star has a 91% likability rating. Fuegner concedes that there is a risk of his products being perceived as gimmicky but emphasises that the Marley family are part-owners of the manufacturer. A portion of the profits go to 1Love.org, the Marleys’ non-profit organisation, which funds charities that “promote youth, protect the planet and strive for global peace”.
Nevertheless, Fuegner notes that the energy drinks market has proven the importance of a well-defined image and has changed the rules of marketing for functional drink launches. “The energy drinks market took time to build to its huge size – nobody really understood what they were for and acceptance had to grow. That ground has been paved now. Relaxation drink brands have to be faster to market and with a very clear message,” he adds. “The Marley brand means starting on a secure base with a message that resonates.”
The problem right now, Fuegner stresses, is that crucial differentiation will more than likely have to be achieved with marketing budgets as unenergising as the drinks. With low barriers to entry, high demand – everybody drinks – and with most people seeing a purpose in each drink they have (even if it is simply to quench a thirst), the market is attracting more small entrepreneurs than the soft drinks giants.
As Brian Weber – managing director of Mooresville, North Carolina-based BeBevCo and creator of the Koma Unwind relaxation drink – notes, they are banking on the same delay that saw the likes of Coca-Cola roll out its own energy drink, Burn, only in 2009, more than two decades after Red Bull.
The winners of this potential ‘cold rush’ will, he adds, both be among the first to market – as Red Bull was – and those that can best find distinction on the traditional battleground for innovative drinks launches: competing for space not behind swanky bars, as energy drinks have later in their market evolution, but on the shelves of corner shops and convenience stores. Here the basics could prove decisive. “It may be the drink itself that gets the second purchase, but in this market it’s brand name, packaging and position that will get it noticed in the first place,” say Weber.
BeBevCo’s range includes a lightly carbonated berry-flavoured ‘chillaxation drink’ and a ‘Chillaxation Coffee’ that promises “the taste of coffee but with the calming affect [sic]”. Packaging-wise, they resemble the sort of grooming products you’d find in any teenager’s bedroom. In the meantime, BeBevCo is hatching distribution deals for France and Israel.
“Every detail counts in shaping a brand, because there are just so many products in such a small space offering to do much the same thing,” says Mark Bair, whose relaxation drink Blue Cow was the first to market in the US, in 2004. The name is more than an obvious joke – the more laid-back counter to Red Bull – says Bair, who used to work in Coca-Cola’s business development department and is now Blue Cow’s chief operating o?cer. “Our name stands out and as Red Bull has proven, you can be esoteric and still be a market leader. In a crowded market of drinks launched by independent companies without huge budgets, we think a memorable name will be key.” A case in point is the German brand Antistress Brennessel, which failed to catch on when it was launched in 2008.
In the run-up to the European launch this year, Blue Cow’s plastic bottles – designed to stand out in a sea of cans – have been replaced by a tiny 2oz shot bottle, easier to ship, merchandise, sell over the internet and fit into a handbag. And this hints at the different audiences that the different brands hope to make waves in, without, as yet, major advertising or promotional resources to make it happen.
Blue Cow has women on the verge in its sights, based on research suggesting the harassed working mum will be a primary consumer. Marley is aiming at a cosy, family-friendly familiarity. Others are going for the shock factor beloved of teens: Purple Stuff , by Funktional Beverages of Spring, Texas, Mary Jane’s, from The Relaxing Company of Riverside, California, and Novocaine, by Malava Beverages of Newport Beach, California, all make sly allusions to narcotics: “Don’t stress... Get numb!” as Novocaine’s tagline advises. Meanwhile, Drank is rock to Marley’s reggae. Riding growing health awareness it may be – relaxation drinks are in part positioning themselves as alternatives to alcohol – but the brand is pursuing an edgier fashion appeal (taking its name from Sex & the City’s “let’s get our drank on” call to party).
It aims “to be a drink you’d choose because it’s trendy, about taste-making,” says Peter Bianchi, chief executive of the brand’s owner, the Innovative Beverage Group, which also distributes energy drinks Jolt and Rock Star. “It’s why we’re a brand that is already being cited in rap songs.” This, according to Bianchi, is what has made the brand the US market leader, selling 17 million units since it launched in 2008, seeing consistent 20% growth quarter on quarter and winning a 70% market share. Profile, he argues, is crucial, which is why the company was careful to select a large 16oz can and graphics in lavender, an atypical colour in the soda industry. This will be crucial for the European market – Drank is shipping to Eastern Europe now and will be available throughout the rest of the EU within eight months – especially if relaxation drinks are consumed in unexpected ways. Red Bull, after all, was embraced as a mixer throughout the continent but not in the US.
“Drank may have a scientific basis but it is also a product about style,” Bianchi adds. “Compare it with the launch of Fiji Water. Big celebrities started to drink it because it had that distinctive square bottle. It was just water otherwise, whether from Fiji or
not. The purple can is a statement. In this race, brand is going to prove more important than for many product innovations, because although there are flavour varieties the ingredients in one relaxation drink and another are much the same. It’s about fighting for position, getting the right brand feel for the right consumer.”
Indeed, Bianchi is not alone in expecting to see a similar pattern of growth with relaxation drinks as occurred with energy drinks, albeit over a timescale measured in months rather than years – a huge proliferation of brands, followed by a rapid dropping off of most to leave three or so with market dominance. Being fast to market could prove vital because, says Bianchi, “when a new kind of product appears in such numbers, consumers get confused and reach for the leader, the innovator”. With sports drinks it was Gatorade, with health drinks Vitamin Water.
Certainly a clear proposition will help in what looks set to become a cluttered and confusing sector. Some drinks claim to be simply calming, others to promote sleep; some to help prevent jet lag, others to improve concentration; some to be natural, others using more esoteric ingredients (both of which have been uncertainly linked to unwelcome side effects); some to be drinks, others more dietary supplements (which is how Drank has eff ectively circumvented Federal Drugs Administration concerns about melatonin not being an approved substance for foodstuff s).
Helpfully, the regulatory minefield is, Blue Cow’s Bair suggests, one reason why the beverage giants may be slow to take to the market themselves. Certainly regulation could prove as much an issue in Europe as the US, although just how far EU and other national health and safety directives will impede the market remains unclear – the addition of melatonin to food and drink is banned in the UK, for example, but not elsewhere. Red Bull has in its time been subject to bans in Denmark and Norway over concerns regarding its active ingredient, taurine. The drink in its original recipe was banned in France for 12 years (a modified version, containing caff eine but not taurine was offered instead) until the French government was forced to legalise it because EU regulations state that a product made or sold in other EU countries cannot be banned unless a health risk is proven. Yet bad publicity has had little impact on sales. Last year 4.2 billion cans of Red Bull were sold, 7.6% more than in 2009, with much of the growth from Europe and the Middle East.
Cecilia Martinez, an analyst with food and drink consultancy Zenith, says: “There is demand for relaxation drinks, but their success in Europe will depend on market harmonisation, as well as how well companies can explain the product benefit. It’s not necessarily an easy one to explain. But once these issues are addressed, the number of entrants will rise significantly.”
Clearly, this is no time to relax.




MAY 2011



inShare
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CHILLED DRINKS
After the heavily manufactured energy drinks boom, a soothing alternative has become a $500m business. And it is going to get much bigger. Josh Sims reports
By Josh Sims
Its ingredients include chamomile and valerian root, rose hips, lemon balm and melatonin, the natural hormone that encourages circadian rhythms. Drink it and supposedly you will be enveloped in the fuzzy feeling of a lunchtime tipple without the headache or guilt. Welcome to the latest, rapidly growing sector of the beverage market – relaxation drinks, designed to wind us down, much like the energy drinks so popular during the past couple of decades were concocted to pep us up.
In the US relaxation drinks, which retail at $2-$3 a pop, make up a market already worth $521m (€369m), according to Zenith International. Nielsen expects 20% year- on-year growth through to 2013 and other analysts predict sales of seven relaxation drinks for every 10 energy drinks within 18 months. And with the energy drinks market predicted to be worth $19.7bn by 2013 in the US alone, the soothing equivalent of a Red Bull – still the global market leader in energy drinks some 25 years after its launch – will be a prize worth pursuing.
Unsurprisingly, some of the companies behind relaxation drinks – around 100 of which have launched in the US in the past three years, with names like Mini Chill, iChill and Vacation in a Bottle – are pretty juiced about international markets.
“We live in crazy times, with technology driving an ever faster pace of life and the demand for instant gratification on the rise. There’s a need for products that are more balancing, that allow consumers to take a step back,” says Paul Fuegner, marketing head at Marley Beverage Company, which launched last year. The Southfield, Michigan outfit sells the Marley’s Mellow Mood range, which come in berry, citrus and peach and raspberry tea flavours, all featuring singer Bob Marley on their cans and bottles.
“As there are a lot of companies getting very excited about the potential of relaxation drinks, what is going to separate them, taste and effectiveness aside, is the branding,” says Fuegner, a former marketing chief at Skyy Vodka. According to E-Score Research in 2007, the reggae star has a 91% likability rating. Fuegner concedes that there is a risk of his products being perceived as gimmicky but emphasises that the Marley family are part-owners of the manufacturer. A portion of the profits go to 1Love.org, the Marleys’ non-profit organisation, which funds charities that “promote youth, protect the planet and strive for global peace”.
Nevertheless, Fuegner notes that the energy drinks market has proven the importance of a well-defined image and has changed the rules of marketing for functional drink launches. “The energy drinks market took time to build to its huge size – nobody really understood what they were for and acceptance had to grow. That ground has been paved now. Relaxation drink brands have to be faster to market and with a very clear message,” he adds. “The Marley brand means starting on a secure base with a message that resonates.”
The problem right now, Fuegner stresses, is that crucial differentiation will more than likely have to be achieved with marketing budgets as unenergising as the drinks. With low barriers to entry, high demand – everybody drinks – and with most people seeing a purpose in each drink they have (even if it is simply to quench a thirst), the market is attracting more small entrepreneurs than the soft drinks giants.
As Brian Weber – managing director of Mooresville, North Carolina-based BeBevCo and creator of the Koma Unwind relaxation drink – notes, they are banking on the same delay that saw the likes of Coca-Cola roll out its own energy drink, Burn, only in 2009, more than two decades after Red Bull.
The winners of this potential ‘cold rush’ will, he adds, both be among the first to market – as Red Bull was – and those that can best find distinction on the traditional battleground for innovative drinks launches: competing for space not behind swanky bars, as energy drinks have later in their market evolution, but on the shelves of corner shops and convenience stores. Here the basics could prove decisive. “It may be the drink itself that gets the second purchase, but in this market it’s brand name, packaging and position that will get it noticed in the first place,” say Weber.
BeBevCo’s range includes a lightly carbonated berry-flavoured ‘chillaxation drink’ and a ‘Chillaxation Coffee’ that promises “the taste of coffee but with the calming affect [sic]”. Packaging-wise, they resemble the sort of grooming products you’d find in any teenager’s bedroom. In the meantime, BeBevCo is hatching distribution deals for France and Israel.
“Every detail counts in shaping a brand, because there are just so many products in such a small space offering to do much the same thing,” says Mark Bair, whose relaxation drink Blue Cow was the first to market in the US, in 2004. The name is more than an obvious joke – the more laid-back counter to Red Bull – says Bair, who used to work in Coca-Cola’s business development department and is now Blue Cow’s chief operating o?cer. “Our name stands out and as Red Bull has proven, you can be esoteric and still be a market leader. In a crowded market of drinks launched by independent companies without huge budgets, we think a memorable name will be key.” A case in point is the German brand Antistress Brennessel, which failed to catch on when it was launched in 2008.
In the run-up to the European launch this year, Blue Cow’s plastic bottles – designed to stand out in a sea of cans – have been replaced by a tiny 2oz shot bottle, easier to ship, merchandise, sell over the internet and fit into a handbag. And this hints at the different audiences that the different brands hope to make waves in, without, as yet, major advertising or promotional resources to make it happen.
Blue Cow has women on the verge in its sights, based on research suggesting the harassed working mum will be a primary consumer. Marley is aiming at a cosy, family-friendly familiarity. Others are going for the shock factor beloved of teens: Purple Stuff , by Funktional Beverages of Spring, Texas, Mary Jane’s, from The Relaxing Company of Riverside, California, and Novocaine, by Malava Beverages of Newport Beach, California, all make sly allusions to narcotics: “Don’t stress... Get numb!” as Novocaine’s tagline advises. Meanwhile, Drank is rock to Marley’s reggae. Riding growing health awareness it may be – relaxation drinks are in part positioning themselves as alternatives to alcohol – but the brand is pursuing an edgier fashion appeal (taking its name from Sex & the City’s “let’s get our drank on” call to party).
It aims “to be a drink you’d choose because it’s trendy, about taste-making,” says Peter Bianchi, chief executive of the brand’s owner, the Innovative Beverage Group, which also distributes energy drinks Jolt and Rock Star. “It’s why we’re a brand that is already being cited in rap songs.” This, according to Bianchi, is what has made the brand the US market leader, selling 17 million units since it launched in 2008, seeing consistent 20% growth quarter on quarter and winning a 70% market share. Profile, he argues, is crucial, which is why the company was careful to select a large 16oz can and graphics in lavender, an atypical colour in the soda industry. This will be crucial for the European market – Drank is shipping to Eastern Europe now and will be available throughout the rest of the EU within eight months – especially if relaxation drinks are consumed in unexpected ways. Red Bull, after all, was embraced as a mixer throughout the continent but not in the US.
“Drank may have a scientific basis but it is also a product about style,” Bianchi adds. “Compare it with the launch of Fiji Water. Big celebrities started to drink it because it had that distinctive square bottle. It was just water otherwise, whether from Fiji or
not. The purple can is a statement. In this race, brand is going to prove more important than for many product innovations, because although there are flavour varieties the ingredients in one relaxation drink and another are much the same. It’s about fighting for position, getting the right brand feel for the right consumer.”
Indeed, Bianchi is not alone in expecting to see a similar pattern of growth with relaxation drinks as occurred with energy drinks, albeit over a timescale measured in months rather than years – a huge proliferation of brands, followed by a rapid dropping off of most to leave three or so with market dominance. Being fast to market could prove vital because, says Bianchi, “when a new kind of product appears in such numbers, consumers get confused and reach for the leader, the innovator”. With sports drinks it was Gatorade, with health drinks Vitamin Water.
Certainly a clear proposition will help in what looks set to become a cluttered and confusing sector. Some drinks claim to be simply calming, others to promote sleep; some to help prevent jet lag, others to improve concentration; some to be natural, others using more esoteric ingredients (both of which have been uncertainly linked to unwelcome side effects); some to be drinks, others more dietary supplements (which is how Drank has eff ectively circumvented Federal Drugs Administration concerns about melatonin not being an approved substance for foodstuff s).
Helpfully, the regulatory minefield is, Blue Cow’s Bair suggests, one reason why the beverage giants may be slow to take to the market themselves. Certainly regulation could prove as much an issue in Europe as the US, although just how far EU and other national health and safety directives will impede the market remains unclear – the addition of melatonin to food and drink is banned in the UK, for example, but not elsewhere. Red Bull has in its time been subject to bans in Denmark and Norway over concerns regarding its active ingredient, taurine. The drink in its original recipe was banned in France for 12 years (a modified version, containing caff eine but not taurine was offered instead) until the French government was forced to legalise it because EU regulations state that a product made or sold in other EU countries cannot be banned unless a health risk is proven. Yet bad publicity has had little impact on sales. Last year 4.2 billion cans of Red Bull were sold, 7.6% more than in 2009, with much of the growth from Europe and the Middle East.
Cecilia Martinez, an analyst with food and drink consultancy Zenith, says: “There is demand for relaxation drinks, but their success in Europe will depend on market harmonisation, as well as how well companies can explain the product benefit. It’s not necessarily an easy one to explain. But once these issues are addressed, the number of entrants will rise significantly.”
Clearly, this is no time to relax.


http://www.cnbcmagazine.com/story/chilled-drinks/1368/1/