Glacéau: Marketing Vitaminwater

Energy Brands, the parent company of Glacéau, was one such company, which advocated healthy living through low-calorie, low sugar drinks, and non-carbonated water with additional nutritional supplements. Glacéau's line of enhanced water products comprised vitaminwater, Smartwater, and Fruitwater. Energy Brands was credited with creating a new category of drinks popularly known as 'enhanced water products.' According to analysts, Glacéau's success in a scenario in which major soft drinks and beverage manufacturers like Coca-Cola and Pepsi had a strong hold over the distribution network and spent aggressively in marketing their products, illustrated that even the most saturated markets could accommodate innovative products.

In the early 1990s, when Manhattan was hit by water contamination, Bikoff⁸ set out to buy bottled water and found that except for the brand name, there was very little difference between the different brands of bottled water sold. Bikoff was looking for additional nutritional value rather than plain water. Finding none, he started conducting an in-depth study about different companies making bottled water. He found that he could use vapor distillation⁹ to create an alternative to bottled water. Bottled water was generally procured from springs and contained some dissolved minerals, which could be removed using vapor distillation...