While you can’t just try to transfer the effect of Coca-Cola’s branding to your new product, I think you can, in fact, try to compete on branding.
La Croix did this. It’s just flavored seltzer, the same as the 59c store-brand bottles, but it became wildly successful. What’s more, it had been around for a while before becoming successful.
The first MAI study identified a highly-attractive target segment of prospective sparkling water users not at all interested in the Perrier brand and its “snobbish / expensive / for special occasions” positioning
Among package designs evaluated, MAI research led to recommendation of the design considered least appealing by the Heileman Marketing Group. The MAI-recommended design:
a. Promoted an “all occasion” image
b. Offered strong LaCroix name presence
c. Used elements that were most consistent with water imagery to the newly-identified target segment
Another unexpected research result was the surprising consumer enthusiasm for sparkling water in cans, a packaging idea that had not yet been introduced in this category. LaCroix’s subsequent introduction of sparkling water in cans allowed the brand to capture the lion’s share of new category growth from this innovation
I don’t think that’s the whole story. La Croix was originally positioned as an alternative to Perrier, whereas now (maybe as a result of the packaging in cans) it’s positioned as an alternative to soda. And the copy on the box is pretty distinctive—“calorie-free”, “innocent” and so on. (It isn’t quite grammatical, but that must be intentional. Trying to affect a European accent?)
There’s a plausible narrative where La Croix succeeded because no one else had tried packaging seltzer in cans, but there’s also a plausible narrative where it succeeded mostly because of its unusual branding.
If pressed, I’d favor the first—Poland Spring also has a line of expensive brand-name flavored seltzers, but the bottles are a little unwieldy, not the sort of thing you’d pack with a work lunch. But I’m not in the target audience for its branding, so.
La Croix did this. It’s just flavored seltzer, the same as the 59c store-brand bottles, but it became wildly successful. What’s more, it had been around for a while before becoming successful.
What did they do?
I don’t think that’s the whole story. La Croix was originally positioned as an alternative to Perrier, whereas now (maybe as a result of the packaging in cans) it’s positioned as an alternative to soda. And the copy on the box is pretty distinctive—“calorie-free”, “innocent” and so on. (It isn’t quite grammatical, but that must be intentional. Trying to affect a European accent?)
There’s a plausible narrative where La Croix succeeded because no one else had tried packaging seltzer in cans, but there’s also a plausible narrative where it succeeded mostly because of its unusual branding.
If pressed, I’d favor the first—Poland Spring also has a line of expensive brand-name flavored seltzers, but the bottles are a little unwieldy, not the sort of thing you’d pack with a work lunch. But I’m not in the target audience for its branding, so.