Recently, the Austrian beverage company Waterdrop completed a financing of 60 million euros and achieved outstanding results in the drinking water innovation track.
In 2021, the scale of my country's drinking water market alone has exceeded 200 billion yuan, and it is expected to exceed 300 billion yuan in 2025. As a necessity for public travel, bottled water will undoubtedly attract unprecedented fierce competition in such a large volume. "Pure water" Drinking water products such as "mineral water" and "sugar-free drinks" continue to attract consumers' attention under the general health trend. How to break through on this track, most companies seem to "innovate, but not completely innovate."
Waterdrop does not innovate in drinking water products itself like most companies, but tries to change the way people drink water through products, creating a new blue ocean in the traditional track, and achieving an annual growth rate of more than 400%.
This article discusses the construction ideas and highlights of Waterdrop's innovative products, aiming to provide new ideas for breaking through bottlenecks for the drinking water industry.
01 From changing products to changing concepts Waterdrop innovates from updating consumers' drinking water patterns
Waterdrop's innovation starts from changing people's concept of drinking water. Waterdrop's initial product is a small cube weighing less than 3g. This article is collectively referred to as the Micro-product family. " and "Microenergies" four product lines: Microdrinks products have a variety of flavors for consumers to choose from. Waterdrop has developed 48 kinds of plant extracts including pine plum, ginseng, ginger and other natural plants for this product, sugar-free and Rich in vitamins and trace elements, it is positioned as a daily drink; Microlyte is rich in five kinds of electrolytes and nine kinds of vitamins, targeting sports people, helping users quickly replenish a large amount of electrolytes after exercise; Microteas replaces traditional tea bags and is aimed at hot drinks. Consumers provide good-tasting fruit and plant extracts as hot tea to encourage consumers; Waterenergies provides refreshing drinks with natural caffeine for mental workers, and Waterdrop has also developed 36 trace elements for this product. Comprehensive Micro- Product design, it is not difficult to find that Waterdrop's aquatic product design starts with four drinking water scenarios that cover almost all consumer groups: daily drinking water, sports hydration, tea and coffee, and changes the way people drink water. For this reason, Waterdrop also launched insulation Eco-friendly products such as bottles and glasses.
Consumers' choice of Micro-products can effectively reduce the use of plastic bottles. On the one hand, it can reduce carbon emissions, on the one hand, it can alleviate consumers' concerns about the quality of plastic bottles, and it can also solve the pain point that drinking water bottles are not portable. The cube needs to be thrown into the water, and the cube can be dissolved quickly to realize nutrition perception. At the same time, a cube can ensure that it still has a strong fragrance when dissolved in 1L of drinking water... Such a novel and trendy way of drinking water can effectively encourage consumers to drink water in their daily life. Increase the frequency and volume of drinking water, effectively increasing product sales.
Starting from the drinking water track, and then constantly breaking through from competing products, focusing on changing the way consumers drink water rather than focusing on aquatic products themselves, it is not difficult to see that Waterdrop’s initial innovative ideas determine its rapid growth in the later period .
02 Technological innovation leverages product innovation Waterdrop solves the pain points of drinking water for contemporary consumers
If Waterdrop's Micro-series is not enough for consumers to discover the core of technology, then the LUCY smart bottle cap it launched is enough to satisfy people's imagination of technology changing the way of drinking water.
LUCY is a smart bottle cap that purifies water. It uses ultraviolet radiation technology to disinfect water and inactivate 100% of germs. It can also remind consumers to drink water by flashing according to consumers’ daily drinking water settings. LUCY matches Waterdrop’s official APP through Publish intuitive data reports to track consumers' drinking habits and water consumption, and encourage consumers to drink more water by issuing medals and drinking water progress bars.
LUCY's technological breakthrough is reflected in: as a bottle cap, LUCY does not need to be equipped with external filters and chemicals, and its own 70 mW / 265nm UV-LED disinfection technology can achieve comprehensive bacteria, mold, and germ disinfection by destroying the DNA of bacteria. Live, this technology has completed the authoritative certification of Eurofins water testing; at the same time, the built-in sensor in the bottle cap can accurately detect the amount of water, and remind consumers to drink water by flashing regularly, helping consumers develop good drinking habits. Compared with the general drinking water industry, these technologies are hard-core enough to capture consumers' interest and trust through fun and sense of technology .
And Waterdrop's product layout also has certain rules and forward-looking. In the early stage of product development, Waterdrop targeted young women more accurately. Its first Micro-series and LUCY both had product labels as "sugar-free", " Hydration” directly responds to the pain points of young women such as “hydration and beauty” and “drinking health”. The use of both products is based on consumers carrying their own water cups. Women under this age group usually carry handbags and water cups. Satisfying the consumption scenarios of the two products, the appearance design of Waterdrop products is also attractive enough. In this way, Waterdrop regards young women as the primary target group, which saves the cost of audience education, quickly opens up popularity and brand awareness, and actively Follow up products such as cup lids, cubes and water cups for fitness groups, infants and young children.
03 Online marketing is forward-looking to create a large pattern of hot topics
Founded in 2016, Waterdrop first focused on online marketing. It has more than 650,000 followers on Instagram, and its social media accounts have entered a stable period. At the same time, Waterdrop has cooperated with a large number of KOLs to continue online influence marketing. The founder of the brand Murray once revealed: Waterdrop’s online marketing investment exceeds six figures every year, and its sales channels are also mainly online. At present, it has accumulated more than 2 million online customers. After a long time, Waterdrop has earned enough momentum, so it will start in the later stage . In parallel with offline marketing , last year, Waterdrop opened its first offline store in Asia in Singapore's Lion City Building, and gradually entered supermarkets and pharmacies in Europe.
And Waterdrop's marketing pattern is not small. At the beginning, the plastic reduction initiative put forward by Waterdrop quickly won the favor of consumers. Later, Waterdrop began to turn its marketing attention to the sports world. At the beginning of 2022, Waterdrop became the drinking water partner of the FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup Kitzbühel Station Partner, noticed that the amount of plastic water bottles used in tennis courts is very large. In February this year, Waterdrop became a partner of the International Professional Tennis Federation and opened drinking water points for tennis matches. With superstar Novak Djokovic as the brand spokesperson, the brand awareness of Waterdrop continues to increase, and the market is therefore wider.
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