Dasani Grows its Category

Atlanta — Coca-Cola Co. is targeting a psychographic, not a demographic, with the rollout of its Dasani Drops brand extension, which gives consumers a choice of four flavors to mix into Dasani bottled water. "We're going after the flavor enthusiasts – people who enjoy adding a little bit of flavor to their water, which can range from teenagers through older adults," says Geoff Henry, Dasani brand manager. "We believe we can help grow the overall [bottled water] category by bringing in new shoppers."In rolling out Dasani Drops, Coca-Cola was motivated by consumer product tests that "blew through those benchmarks" that the company generally uses to evaluate potential launches, Henry says. "We have more [flavors] in the works," which would take the product beyond the current strawberry kiwi, pink lemonade, mixed berry and pineapple coconut. "Flavor enthusiasts are always looking for new things."As the campaign rolled out in the fall, shoppers have been encountering touchpoints everywhere from digital and social media, to print and television, to sampling events, Henry says. Social media "will be the backbone" of the path-to-purchase campaign, Henry says. In particular, Coca-Cola will build onto its existing Facebook community for Dasani to carve out space to promote Drops. The sampling will take place at "teaser events" on beaches and college campuses, and all of the path-to-purchase elements will work in tandem to reinforce the tagline, "Drop Into Delicious.""We want to connect with shoppers in different points of their journey," he says. "Visually, it's a pretty tight story when it comes to how we're leveraging core Dasani attributes. … The consumer will have a pretty good journey seeing it from print ad to online, to when they then come across it in a store. It'll all be tied together there."In-store, Coca-Cola has customized pieces by channel and was exploring opportunities to customize by retailer but had not firmed up any such relationships as of early October, Henry says. Those pieces range from custom injection-molded carriers that suction onto cold vault doors in convenience stores – into which a couple cases of the product "nestle in perfectly" – to large floorstands that carry six to 10 cases of the product in grocery stores and "showcase and tell the story," he says. "We have certain pieces that will work well in groceries or supermarkets, and other pieces designed more for smaller outlets, like convenience or drug, knowing the constraints of real estate."The packaging leverages Dasani's familiar visual identity, playing off the brand's blue color scheme with fruit imagery that highlights the flavors, Henry says. "We did a lot of work on the package to make sure it looked great and felt great," he says, adding that it's 32 servings to a 1.9-fluid ounce package. "We wanted something that works well, is easy to hold, easy to dispense and easy to reseal." Consumers just flip the cap and squeeze the bottle into their bottle of water.In rolling out the campaign, Coca-Cola worked with several agencies: Lambesis, San Diego, on creative; Stag & Hare, New York, on packaging, RockTenn Merchandising Displays, Norcross, Ga., on merchandising equipment; CPC Intersect, St. Paul, Minn., on experiential marketing; and Engauge, Columbus, Ohio, on social media.To gauge the campaign's success, Coca-Cola will measure overall volume, awareness, trial, repeat purchases and total household participation, Henry says. "We'll be looking at it from a variety of metrics," he says. "How much traction are we making? How well are we linking it back to our base Dasani brand?"Coca-Cola does not reveal investment in such campaigns, Henry says. But, he adds, "This is a big initiative for the company, so we're going to support it with the proper marketing investment. There's a lot of excitement behind it. We expect we're going to get some pretty strong awareness and traction in year one based on the investment."The campaign for Dasani Drops is planned for at least a year, and "we're looking out to year two," Henry says. "From a campaign standpoint, we're looking at years, not weeks or months."

Dasani Grows its Category

P2PI MEMBERS

JOIN P2PI

Related Images

Business Topic

Company

Market Segment