Despite a 35% increase in year-on-year sales in the US, Coca-Cola's £7m UK launch of Dasani looks to have been felled before it even has a chance to reach the mouths of young, health-conscious Brits.
Extensive negative press coverage over the past two weeks about the brand's use of purified tap water from a Thames Water source in Sidcup, Kent, has surely filtered through to the majority of the newspaper-reading and TV-watching public.
The writing is on the wall for source and mineral water brands. Purified water takes the top two slots in the US bottled water market
The media coverage has dwarfed press and outdoor ads for Dasani, created by Lowe. It has also succeeded in rousing public outrage by highlighting the 3166% mark-up on a 95p 500ml bottle of Dasani, compared with the 0.03p equivalent cost of the tap water.
However, Coca-Cola never claimed that Dasani is a mineral water. In fact, on both the bottle's label and the website it makes clear reference to the process of reverse osmosis to purify the water and the addition of minerals and ozone to maintain its purity.
But despite Coca-Cola's protestations that it has not misled the public, Dasani appears to need the sort of miracle that even Coca-Cola's widespread distribution channels will struggle to deliver.
Coca-Cola remains defiant. "The writing is on the wall for source and mineral water brands. Purified water takes the top two slots in the US bottled water market," says Coca-Cola new product director Patricia Macnamara.
She believes that consumers are also ready for a brand that "gives them more than just great taste", with shelf standout key to Dasani's image.
It may well just be positive thinking, but Coca-Cola is still confident that Dasani will be accepted as the purest bottled water on the market.
But as the UK was considered to be Dasani's springboard to the rest of Europe, what lies ahead for the brand? We asked Isobel partner Steve Hastings, who has worked on the Snapple and Pepsi brands; and Mark Borkowski, founder of Borkowski PR, who has handled crisis situations for drinks clients.
STEVE HASTINGS - DIAGNOSIS
Now the genie is out of the bottle, we have a fight between those who believe a brand's success rests on real product credentials and those who believe that sheer weight of spend, distribution power and self-belief can work.
Coca-Cola will succeed with Dasani. The bottled water market is growing fast - leaving room for newcomers. The secret is to target the right people. Originally, when bottled water was sold in restaurants to foodies, the source of the water was vital and justified the premium. These people will turn their noses up at Dasani.
But Dasani's core group is the 22-year-olds who walk around clutching a bottle of water in one hand and mobile in the other. The bottle is part of their wardrobe and, as marketing people like to say, part of their lifestyle. The precise credentials of the water are less important than its portability, availability and brand.
They don't drink spring water because it comes from a spring, but because it is better than tap water. Dasani fits that bill and will come with some added value if the advertising is right. The only real worry for Coca-Cola is the way people may start to feel about their core brand.
Has the magic gone?
MARK BORKOWSKI - DIAGNOSIS
This crisis happened because the product was positioned as a competitor to Volvic and Evian, which it patently is not, and the PR team failed to understand how fast the media would turn on it.
If Coca-Cola wanted it positioned this way, the PR agency should have had the guts to stand up to the company and warn them off.
Anyone who wants their brand to make news needs to deconstruct it top to bottom to identify what stories there are to use in the media. During that process, you find the positive stories you can place in the media.
You also discover the bad news by casting a cynical journalist's eye over the brand.
Getting on Coca-Cola's roster is not easy. Once people are there, they are loath to upset the apple cart. They provide box-ticking processes because it's an easy life.
Brands need to be robust enough to take the counsel of PRs who know what journalists get up to. While agencies need to understand that good PR sometimes involves telling the client what it doesn't want to hear. We have all made mistakes and these are usually the result of failing to challenge the brand.
TREATMENT
- Carry on with the launch plan, but consider a two-week delay to let negative stories subside.
- Stay true to the idea of creating a brand promoted on its style and image credentials.
- Use the full distribution strength of Coca-Cola.
- Place the brand in the hands of carefully selected celebrities and make sure it is stocked in trendy watering holes.
- The PR team should do what government ministers never do - offer to resign immediately.
- Coca-Cola should reduce the price and eat humble pie or consider withdrawing the product.
- If it decides to keep Dasani in store, it should build the product's personality, positively exploiting all the media coverage to date.
- Develop a guerilla marketing campaign for a repositioning.
VITAL SIGNS
US sales of bottled water
Company Brand 2002 2001 % 2002 market
(dollars m) (dollars m) increase share (%)
PepsiCo Aquafina 725.7 564.3 28.6 10.8
Coca-Cola Dasani 665.2 492.2 35.1 9.9
Nestle Poland Spring 537.5 474.2 13.3 8.0
Nestle Arrowhead 396.4 348.2 13.9 5.9
Danone Evian 168.0 186.1 -9.7 2.5
Source: Mintel
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