With the improvement of consumers' health awareness and the gradual advancement of consumption upgrades, the drinking water market is also showing a trend of segmentation.
How to play new tricks with simple water? Give consumers the elements of health, nutrition, function and so on? In addition to the taste, manufacturers began to attract consumers by adding plant materials, vitamins, fiber components, supplementing energy, increasing muscle and many other functions.
Electrolyte water
In the post-epidemic era, electrolyte water has become a hot product in the beverage market.
From going against the trend in 2022 to continuing to expand in 2023, the electrolyte water track is ushering in greater market opportunities. Tmall's latest report shows that electrolyte drinks have been a high-growth track for functional drinks in the past year. With a year-on-year sales growth rate of 225%, they have surpassed energy drinks and vitamin drinks in one fell swoop, becoming a new outlet in the water drink track.
As an outlet, Nongfu Spring, the leader of traditional beverage companies, will launch the third-generation "isotonic" scream in 2021, and Yibao has also upgraded its sports drink "Magic". In addition to the entry of traditional beverage companies, other players have also joined the electrolyte water track one after another, including Daily Shandao, Shuilisu, Panpan, and Liziyuan.
Fruity water
In the past two years, the combination of water and fruit has become a major trend in the flavor innovation of flavored water.
With the continuous development of health trends, many people have begun to say goodbye to carbonated drinks and return to the era of drinking water. But for some younger consumers, switching from sugary drinks to plain water can be difficult, as they find the taste too bland. Therefore, the emergence of fruity water provides them with a better choice, which can not only increase nutrition such as flavor and vitamins, but also control the intake of lower sugar or even no sugar.
Plant water
Health trends are a major driver of plant waters, which, in contrast to popular sports drinks, offer functional hydration without the synthetic ingredients many consumers shy away from. Therefore, plant water has risen against the trend as an alternative water drink and has become a potential stock in the beverage industry.
For example, maple water, birch water and cactus water are welcomed by many consumers. In the North and South American markets, the plant water category grew strongly, and the sales of coconut water and maple water were excellent. Among them, coconut water occupies a dominant position.
Specific function water
With the continuous subdivision of water categories, functional water with specific functions began to appear in the eyes of consumers. Euromonitor International predicts that the global consumption of functional water products is expected to grow by 3.6% per year, reaching 1.56 billion liters by 2022, with a market value of US$3 billion.
Layout of the functional water market, Tibet 5100 launched the functional drinking water brand "Busuzui", which focuses on solving hangovers; Coca-Cola and the nutrient-flavored drink Ranex, which focuses on the concept of healthy living, have both launched vitamin water; Bloomage Bio-launched the first hyaluronic acid drink Aquatic product "Shuijiquan"......
With the gradual improvement of consumers' health needs, functional water will gradually become an important part of the water category.
