Crazy For Soda Water: Marketing Gone Mad

Almost invariably a visit to the supermarket turns up another ripoff for the shoppers to be gouged by.  Here's the latest one I noticed. Now this first came to my attention when I spied these tiny cans  of soda water. "Crafted soda water" no less. WOW!- What does that mean? If it was even possible... how would you "craft" soda water? So I did some comparisons with other soda waters.

Here's what I found.

Five dollars and thirty seven cents for one litre will get you this salty water with fizz in it. 

If you want individual bottles, well you can get that for just four dollars and eight cents 

for a litre of salty water with fizz in it.

Of course few people drink soda water neat without putting it in glass with something else, so the purpose of all these small bottles is rather lost on me. If you are going to fill up glasses you don't really want to be opening up a bunch of sample-size cans when you can just open a container once. 

This is the store brand but there are other brands at about the same price.  

You can buy a litre of this salty water with some fizz for sixty five cents per litre. 

Now the cheapie on the store website comes with this information just so you know what you are getting for that 65c per litre.   The other brands do not have this information for viewing.  

Guess what is in them... kinda, sorta, exactly the same thing.

Here is a media release from Coca Cola the new owners of Cascade. Yep that's right that iconic Tassie company is now another arm of the Coca Cola behemoth.  The blue is my emphasis and my notes are interspersed.

July 4, 2013, Sydney, Australia – CASCADE non-alcoholic beverage brand has now joined the Coca-Cola portfolio and has been revitalised to drive sales as the range hits shelves from early August.

The range of adult sparkling drinks, sparkling apple juice, fruit syrups and cordials have been refreshed in a sophisticated new packaging design, as well as improved formulations. We are also delighted to announce a new range of CASCADE mixers, which include tonic water, dry ginger ale, soda water, cranberry, lime and soda.

“Under the CASCADE brand we will now be able to offer a complete portfolio of drinks to suit the needs of adult consumers,” said Caroline Bonpain, CASCADE Marketing Manager.

Two paragraphs, and two uses of the word 'adult'- one as in 'adult sparkling drink' - and one in 'adult consumers'.

Perhaps that means the sparkling drink is aged? Old salty water with fizz?  Or just old people they want to sell it to by pretending it has some imaginary status that goes with it when you buy these undersized cans of salty water with fizz.

They go on to say ...

“We are proud to build on the brand heritage of CASCADE which has been refreshing Australian’s for more than 100 years. With strong investment in a major brand refresh this year, CASCADE is set to make a lasting impact,” says Bonpain.

But let's get clear on this heritage of which they claim to be so proud.

There is no brand heritage. That stayed with the people who built the reputation. No sorry, goodwill is worth nothing when you buy a brand, particularly when you change the formula and the value proposition. Brand history to me, stays with those who were there and made it happen. The business owners who did the hard work and innovated and provided the something special that set them apart.  Your expenses for rebranding is not my problem as a consumer, and if you think consumers are so gullible as to swallow that bit of 'sepiawashing' (my term for trading on old history that has no connection to the current product) then we have a real conflict of interest between your company and your customers.

“For some time, we have been looking for opportunities to expand our portfolio of beverages to appeal to a broader base of Australian adult consumers, in a category worth an estimated $1.2 billion, growing +10%*.  This acquisition is part of our plans for growth in this area,” says Scott Cameron, Group Marketing Manager for New Growth Platforms at Coca-Cola.

Crazy stuff

$5.37 a litre or .65c - just how much do you need that 'status' hit?  And if that isn't bad enough you can get a "deal" on buying two packs of tiny cans that would not fill a glass - for just $12. A bargain! Not.  Marketing has become more like "Mugeting". "Mug the punters", they think. "They are too silly to notice."  $1.2 Billion silly.

This is another example of the beverage industry which has the other ripoff product we are being gouged on in Australia - the bottled water that we pay $2.50+ for 600ml in Australia -- the same water in a bottle as you can buy in a supermarket in Italy for .50 Euro cents for one litre.

Personally I'd rather the cheap salty water with fizz and spend my money on some good spirits to mix with it. Eighty one cents for a bottle of soda water to top up a cordial or slop on a red wine stain seems like a pretty good deal to me.

I don't know about you, but I really don't like being swindled. Time for the punters like you and me to wake up and start paying attention to who is trying to steal from us ... and who is providing us with value for money.

Support those businesses who have the goods and put up, don't just make it up.

Nearly nine bucks for some tiny cans of salty water with fizz? You'd have to be crazy.