I just love the fact it is now trendy to ask for tap water in restaurants ! I was dining out with my friends a few weeks ago and we asked for a glass of Eau de Tap – you should have seen the waitress’ face: priceless!

Since 1945, the consumption of bottled water has experienced spectacular growth in France, in the context of a general development in industrialised beverages in Europe. Initially, mineral water had a clear medical status attached to it. This image changed over the century and bottled water is now seen as just one consumer product among many.

I have now been in France for over a week and have been amazed by the quantity of bottled water ads on TV, ususally two at lunch time. It’s interesting to compare the different product positionnings from one brand to another:

Times are tough for the bottled water market and I wasn’t surprised at all to see a proliferation of new products backed up by above the line campaign (including experiential marketing in Lyon town centre last week-end) for the new Contrex Frisson.

The flavoured water category in the UK is confusing with products such as Volvic Touch of Fruit and This Water coming across as completely different products. This Water (part of the Innocent family), to me, simply isn’t water! Water is not supposed to be pink or yellow, water is supposed to be clear… You can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t (quite) take the country of the girl!

The French have taken a more cautious approach by creating a new product category yet to be defined – it is definitely not water but it’s not quite soda either… Check out the ad for Contrex Frisson below and let me know what you think!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqDIMNErCNo]

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