via http://www.bevnet.com
When Kevin Garnett’s endorsement contract expired with Gatorade in
December, 2011, he chose to go in a different direction. Garnett, one of
the most prestigious and accomplished forwards in NBA history, wanted
to partner with a brand that he felt better represented his healthy,
yoga-dependent lifestyle. A few months later, Garnett signed with ZICO,
the coconut water brand.
“He believed in his lifestyle,” said Bill Lange, ZICO’s VP of
marketing, “And his diet was a better fit with what we were all about
than who he was with before us.”
Garnett told reporters that ZICO is light on his stomach because of
its low acidity, preventing cramping and allowing him to keep up with
the younger stars of the NBA. Garnett’s avowed interest in ZICO also
signified a shift – not just regarding the changing perspective of many
athletes toward beverage consumption, but also regarding the gradually
changing landscape of the sports drink category.
“It comes down to all-natural,” Lange said. “That’s the biggest thing.”
While the initial combination of hydration-oriented ingredients
certainly played a vital role in the evolution of sports drinks, it’s an
ongoing move toward segmentation – the meshing of a product with an
occasion – that seems to be propeling the category forward and
broadening the field beyond the traditional two-horse race with Gatorade
and Powerade. With products that suit any hour of the day and pack a
wider range of ingredients, consumers are now seeking sports drinks
during times once reserved for water, juice or carbonated soft drinks.
It’s this versatility that is maturing the category and widening its
scope and marketability.
And even the big dogs are paying attention. Gatorade, for example,
created the G Series to complement this need-specific trend. Gatorade
Prime uses a blend of carbohydrates and B vitamins to deliver energy
before athletic activity. Gatorade Perform supports athletic activity
with carbohydrates and electrolytes. Gatorade Recover follows this
activity and supports muscle growth with 16 grams of protein and
electrolytes.
The increasing demand for all-natural products has influenced many
other developing brands, aside from ZICO, that also market themselves
toward active consumers. Lance Collins, founder and CEO of BodyArmor,
dubs sports drinks “a flawed category” because of what he identifies as
artificial flavoring, a lack of nutritional benefits and high sodium
content.
“Sports drinks sell themselves on bright artificial colors,” Collins
wrote to BevNET in an email asking to not be included in any sports
drink roundup.
BodyArmor, which Collins calls a “superdrink,” claims to contain
double the electrolytes of the leading sports drink, also one banana
worth of potassium, 50 blueberries worth of polyphenols, and A, C and E
antioxidant vitamins. And in case there was any confusion that BodyArmor
isn’t a sports drink, the brand has completely wrapped its bottles in
packaging, providing the opposite of the colorful, clear bottles of
Gatorade and Powerade.
Garnett’s role with ZICO helped put coconut water directly at what
marketers call the “point of sweat,” but it’s the natural qualities of
coconut water overall that serve as a point of differentiation and a
possible indicator of the future direction of sports drinks. While still
providing hydration via five electrolytes, potassium, sodium,
magnesium, calcium and phosphorous, ZICO itself has been heavily
marketed toward sports occasions — more so than its two largest
competitors, Vita Coco and O.N.E.
ZICO’s pitch has also paid off in the marketplace. Lange said that
the company has nearly doubled in sales each year of its existence. And
while that will likely become a challenging goal as ZICO continues to
grow, Lange feels confident that the still-encouraging growth will be
sustainable. As of February, Coke started to distribute ZICO nationally,
opening the once-miniscule company to a wider range of consumers.
“That just opens doors to the power of the red truck system,” Lange said.
To comply with this national launch, ZICO had to make a few
adjustments in its business plan. When Mark Rampolla founded the company
in 2004, he focused exclusively on targeting the Bikram Yoga crowd.
Once the product gained some steam, he widened his marketing scope
toward endurance athletes. Now, as a national brand, ZICO markets toward
what Lange called “try-athletes,” which includes cyclists, distance
runners, yoga practitioners and more. This broader demographic fits
ZICO’s rapidly growing business.
“It’s much more mainstream,” Lange said. “We don’t want to be just
about that hyper-competitive group. We want to be about anybody who sees
the value in living a healthy lifestyle.”
This approach coincides with the overall category’s aim for
occasion-based consumption; a goal that overlaps other categories, as
well. Caffeinated, coffee-flavored coconut waters, such as ZICO Latte,
Coco Cafe and a variety of RealBeanz, offer consumers an alternative to a
sugar-filled canned coffee. Lange said he’s been told that some
consumers choose ZICO chocolate instead of a candy bar; it craves the
sweet tooth, but contains less sugar and less calories than standard
desserts.
“When you make healthy choices for yourself, you just feel better,” Lange said. “And it’s kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
On the smaller side of things, Golazo serves as an example of another
beverage marketed toward active consumers, but one that banks on soccer
(futbol, for all you purists) as its key branding hook. This also
follows the idea of occasion-based marketing. A soccer ball sits on the
front of Golazo bottles and cans below the brand’s slogan: “born to
score.” Even the title, Golazo, has a soccer connection; it’s what some
Spanish players scream after scoring a goal.
“We’re not just going after the soccer mom. We’re going after any
soccer fan and soccer player. This is the passion brand for soccer,”
Golazo co-founder Richard Tait told BevNET. “We live it, breathe it, we
want to fuel football.”
Golazo throws another twist into the shifting web of sports drinks;
it’s all-natural and contains coconut water, but also uses non-GMO
ingredients, offers less sodium than the leading sports drinks, and
offers both energy and sports hydration options. It’s this versatility
and functionality that seem to be hallmarks of the future of beverages
for active consumers.
Golazo has focused on refined markets that have clearly expressed an
interest in soccer. Perhaps the company will go national if the U.S.
ever fully embraces soccer. Until that unlikely event occurs, Tait has
helped place his products in 1,600 stores in eight states throughout the
West Coast, including all Safeway and Whole Foods stores in the region.
He also believes that because soccer is the world’s most popular sport,
in time, Golazo has the potential to become an international brand.
While ZICO and Golazo both source natural electrolytes from coconuts,
A-GAME uses sea salt minerals as its alternative to replenish the
body’s water and electrolytes. It also offers eight vitamins, minerals
and carbohydrates, furthering its role as a functional sports drink.
A-GAME, which is based in Orlando, Fla., announced in April that it
secured national distribution across 3,000 GNC locations.
A-GAME’s expanding distribution results from the growing demand for
products catered toward another kind of consumer; the kind that doesn’t
win gold medals or consistently pass finish lines. Similar to ZICO – and
to Body Armor – A-GAME markets itself as a cross-functional product
compatible for both the health-conscious consumer or the sports
enthusiast. These aren’t new kinds of consumers. It’s simply the genesis
of brands targeting them in a direct manner.
“You don’t want to just be about elite athletes,” Lange said. “And
you look at some of those sports drinks, they feature elite athletes on
the TV commercial, but you know that the construction guys and the
hungover kids and people are drinking it for all uses.”
