Functional juice on the rise as Tropicana expands Essentials range

 

In the highly competitive global soft drinks market, brands are finding it tougher than ever to stand out to shoppers. Health-focused consumers, in particular, are spoilt for choice as companies place a greater emphasis on wellness. But as companies scramble to uncover the secret to soft drinks success, one trend has emerged in recent years, which appears to have worked.

There was a time when standard flavours of juice were the exciting new innovations to hit the shelves. As consumer tastes changed slowly over time, new flavours were introduced to keep interest high. Along came flavour mixes and smoothies, with inventive packaging designs aimed at satisfying the ever-evolving preferences for healthy beverages – but today, these ideas are still not enough. Now, leading brands have uncovered the notion of functional drinks, and consumers are paying attention.

Functional drinks offer a specific benefit or purpose to consumers, often focused on but not limited to health and wellness. They can also be associated with hydration, energy and weight management, but in soft drinks categories such as juice, brands appear to have tapped into the potential of health-centred functionality in order to boost volumes.

Tropicana is the latest brand to jump aboard the bandwagon. It recently announced an expansion of its Essentials range: ‘Berry Boost’ and ‘Vitality’. These additions are noticeably different to previous beverages in the Essentials range, in that they actively convey the health benefits on the main face of the bottle (‘Vitality’, for example, claims to ‘reduce fatigue’).

The new variants have some similarity with the Innocent line of functional smoothies; the Coca-Cola brand has enjoyed significant success over the last few years following the launch of its functional ‘super smoothie’ portfolio, which provides energy and defence benefits among others. The idea of certain drinks providing specific health advantages has certainly caught on, and Tropicana appears keen to capitalise on the trend.

From a marketing point of view, the function helps even more. Its inclusion on the packaging effectively replaces the need for any catchy slogans, which have become repetitive promises of nutritious ingredients and low sugar content. As concerns over sugar content continue to rise and consumer trust remains fragile at best, these slogans could, in fact, be turning shoppers away and having the opposite effect to what the original intention. The added functions have the potential to re-establish that trust between consumer and brand.

Equally as exciting is the emergence of a serious contender to Innocent’s super smoothie range, potentially leading to a thrilling tussle between Coca-Cola and PepsiCo at the summit of the juice category. The announcement has raised eyebrows, and the imminent contest could well change the concept and focus of juice production entirely.

Related links

https://www.globaldata.com/store/report/rp08963cs–juice-soft-drinks-market-in-the-united-kingdom-outlook-to-2021-market-size-growth-and-forecast-analytics/