BEVERAGEREPORT
Power
Up
Energy and sports drink
beverage categories continue
to grow by meeting the needs
of a new group of consumers
By Treena Hein
T
hanks to increasingly busy lifestylesand mounting interest in the relationship between
health and diet, demand for energy and sports drinks remains strong in Canada.
In fact, last year this category ranked first in growth in North America and third
globally, according to ACNielsen market research.
Energy drinks are those that contain stimulants such as caffeine and ginseng.
Sports drinks contain electrolytes and carbohydrates for replenishment after exertion.
However, the line between energy and sports drinks is becoming blurred, and the addition of healthy additives is on the rise.
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BEVERAGEREPORT
That development and other new beverage trends are a result of a major change
in consumer thinking. As with food, consumers now want beverages that provide
more benefits in one serving. Consumers
are looking for drinks featuring electrolytes,
stimulants, herbal extracts, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and more. That’s why, for
example, Bigg Juice Industries Inc. of Laval,
Que. created Reload. According to associate
Vincent Langlois, “Reload energy drink is
part of the second wave of energy drinks on
the market…We added minerals in the formula, making
Reload the first ‘hybrid’ between the sports drink (minerals/electrolytes) and the energy drink (herbal extracts).”
Vancouver-based Leading Brands also offers hybrid energy
drinks (Nitro and the new Stoked) that contain vitamins
in addition to stimulants caffeine and taurine.
A Wider Market
The “more-benefits-in-one-bottle” trend is also a reflection of who is consuming energy drinks. Although the
high-sugar, high-caffeine beverages currently hold most
of the energy drink market share (used mostly by teenag-
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ers and post-secondary students to maintain
stamina for partying and studying), major
market growth is occurring among those in
the workforce. “Energy drinks certainly have
a following among teens and young adults,
but I would say that equally important if
not more, is young professionals, people
who work long hours and who are concerned about their health,” says Raymond
Jolicoeur, vice-president of Marketing at
Montreal’s GURU Beverage Inc. These
young professionals – lawyers, executives,
graphic artists, IT developers – are steering
clear of artificial ingredients (and in some
instances, carbonation) and seeking out beverages with
natural ingredients, more health benefits and exciting flavours that will enable them to achieve higher performance
at work and play.
“Energy drinks certainly
have a following among
teens and young adults,
but I would say that equally
important if not more,
is young professionals,
people who work long
hours and who are
concerned about
their health.”
Health Matters
However, admits Jolicoeur, a lot of adults “are afraid of
energy drinks,” and many aren’t yet aware that all-natural
organic energy drinks such as GURU exist. In addition to
original GURU and GURU Lite – both slightly carbonated organic energy drinks containing botanical extracts
– the company offers three organic hybrid non-carbonated
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energy drinks that meld the comfortable with the exciting: an energy-sports
drink, an energy-green tea drink, and
an energy-fruit juice medley. “The
hybrids give consumers the proprietary
GURU botanical complex that provides them with the benefits of drinking a natural energy drink in a format
and with flavours they are familiar
with,” says Jolicoeur.
Based in Vancouver, Clearly Canadian Beverage Corporation also targets
young busy adults with their line of
enhanced waters, dailyVITAMIN and
dailyHYDRATION (organic) and dailyENERGY. Marketing co-ordinator
Carolyn Corcoran says these beverages target “people [who] are becoming
more and more health-conscious and
are crunched for time when it comes
to properly taking care of themselves.”
Says Corcoran: “This was definitely a
trend that we identified when developing these waters. [They] provide many
consumers with an easy solution to
delivering the essential vitamins and
minerals that they are not necessarily
getting on a daily basis.”
Peterborough, Ont.-based Pepsi
QTG also offers enhanced waters that
“do double duty,” says account manager Sarah Rutka. “Propel and Propel
Calcium are positioned for active individuals who are looking for an alternative to plain water that offers unique
flavours and additional benefits of vitamins.” Leading Brands is also addressing the increasing demand for natural
ingredients with their sports drink
Trek, which contains natural flavours,
fruit juice, sea salt and cane sugar,
rather than high fructose corn syrup.
These beverages target “people [who]
are becoming more and more
health-conscious and are crunched
for time when it comes to properly
taking care of themselves.”
is effective [in providing energy]…and
two, it is suspected, by a number of
studies, to cause cancer cells. When we
don’t have reliable data on an ingredient
we avoid it, and maintain our focus on
guarana, ginseng, echinacea, vitamins,
gingko biloba and minerals.”
Without taste, however, all the
health benefits and natural ingredients
in the world won’t sustain customer
interest. Says Corcoran: “Our new
Natural Enhanced Waters very much
address the boredom many consumers face in the bottled water category.”
Looking for options?
Recipe for Success
“The ‘healthy’ trend is obviously well
established,” notes Langlois. “People
look for an energy drink without having to ingest huge amounts of sugar
and carbs, so we have our new Reload
– Clear that has…no sugar and no
aspartame.” With health-conscious
consumers in mind, Bigg Juice also
decided to opt out of using taurine as
a stimulant in Reload. “Taurine…was
withdrawn from our recipe since we had
studies stating two elements: one, that
it is not proven that synthetic taurine
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BEVERAGEREPORT
She says the dailyENERGY line stands
apart compared to “other products…
that have a strong medicinal taste…we
have a ‘gulpable’ formulation with
refreshing and bold natural fruit flavours.” Leading Brands is also marketing its new energy drink, Stoked, primarily on the basis of exceptional taste.
“The energy drink category has been
dominated by brands formulated to
be functional drinks, with caffeine and
other additives, but also with a burnt
or caramelized taste that wasn’t always
pleasant to the mainstream consumer,”
notes Jill McRae, the company’s head
of Promotions. “The category has been
marketed primarily to 18- to 25-yearold males. In order for this category to
grow at the pace it has enjoyed historically energy drinks need to appeal to
“The energy drink category has
been dominated by brands formulated
to be functional drinks, with caffeine and
other additives, but also with a burnt
or caramelized taste that wasn’t always
pleasant to the mainstream consumer.”
a larger base of consumers – namely
18- to 40-year-old males and females.”
According to McRae, “this can only
be achieved by offering a broader taste
profile. To this end, we have gone
to great lengths to formulate what
we consider to be epic taste.” Stoked
is available in six flavours, including
Wind Chill, described in press releases
as delivering “a cooling sensation,” and
After Burn, which “causes a temporary
burning feeling at the back of one’s
throat.”
Bold is Best
Still, for all the companies marketing their drinks on the basis of more
natural ingredients and unique flavour,
others are sticking to a bolder marketing plan. This supports an August
2007 ACNielsen report, which states:
“Energy and sports drinks…fall in the
buzz-activated category. Shoppers are
most likely to be influenced by catchy
advertising, new product introductions
and the original packaging that leaps
off the shelves and grabs interest and
attention.” Pepsi, for instance, continues to take the bold route with
Gatorade. “Gatorade is driving innovation and differentiates itself from
the competitor by launching a new
variety of flavours and packaging every
year, like Gatorade Rain and the NHL
Team Packs in 2007,” says Rutka.
Langlois perhaps sums up the category best by noting that Bigg Juice
succeeds in meeting consumer demand
for new and interesting products.
“People who like RELOAD and tried
our line of products are mostly leaders
of opinion and trend-setters,” he says.
“Those consumers like to try new things
and be different. This is why they like
our packaging and the profile of the
brand. Changing, evolving and improving a category is a good thing.” FC
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