The brand is called Ice Dew ‘Chun Yue,’ or Pure Joy, and a single serving bottle costs $0.32 – just a little more than most other local bottled water brands.
While The Coca-Cola Company has initiatives in many markets to make soda and water bottles more sustainable, the Chun Yue brand is the first created specifically with the goal of charitably helping communities. The entire brand is designed around a cause, with the slogan ‘Drink Good, Do Good, Feel Good.’
The Coca-Cola Company’s concept is bringing clean drinking water to schoolchildren in rural villages where droughts are common, or where people have to walk long distances to reach a water supply. The company says more than 50 schools are already being supplied, and it plans constant expansion. It has paired with prominent local non-governmental aid group One Foundation.
Ice Dew targets Chinese millennials who are concerned about societal issues and share their views on social media.
Socially conscious brands are not as present in China as in some other markets. Coca-Cola saw an opening to do something innovative, especially since the water category is ‘pretty generic’ in China, said Pratik Thakar, The Coca-Cola Company vice president-Asia Pacific for creative and content excellence.
“This is the right category because water impacts everyone – you can sell it as a commodity, like ‘Water is water, at the end of day,’ or you can say, ‘Water is so precious, some people call it transparent gold,” he said.
While bottled water may be seen as an eco-unfriendly luxury in the United States, people in China increasingly view it as a necessity for their health because water pollution is constantly in the news.
Coca-Cola already sells a water product called Ice Dew in China. According to Euromonitor, it had a 6% share of the market in 2013 and was the No 5 brand in China, behind several local brands.
Source: Advertising Age
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