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*At the beginning of 2008, news broke that Danone’s Volvic Revive, the company’s first functional water brand launched in the UK less than a year earlier, was under threat of being delisted due to a poor response from consumers. *

The brand is thought to have failed against established competitors such as GlaxoSmithKline’s Lucozade and Hydro Active brands, as well as a burgeoning number of vitamin enhanced water drinks with fruit flavours in the marketplace.

Danone had reportedly decided to delist Volvic Revive Citrus Kick, but that it had no intention of delisting the Berry Blast variant, which it claims has performed well and will be the focus of its future efforts. We talked to Steve Flanagan, Grocery Customer Marketing, Danone Waters UK & Ireland, about the functional water brand.

Volvic Revive was an ambitious launch. Did the gamble pay off?

Although ambitious we did not consider the Volvic Revive launch to be a gamble, as extensive consumer research demonstrated a very strong consumer interest in a “better for you“ hydrating energy drink, linked without doubt to a growing demand for healthy yet functional products which fit into consumer’s busy lifestyles. Throughout research consumers responded very well to the Volvic Revive concept and product, which reached a higher Purchase Intent level in tests than leading competitor brands.

So how has Volvic Revive performed since its launch?

Volvic Revive was the biggest soft drinks launch in 2007, despite the challenge of launching in a year in which the soft drinks market was dampened by poor weather. Moreover, strong launch activity drove an outstanding return on sales (ROS) across trade channels, with Volvic Revive outselling established competitor brands at key times of year. Analysis of current consumer trends suggests that functional water has strong growth potential and we look forward to building on Revive Year 1 success in the future.

Are you going to delist Volvic Revive Citrus Kick?

Volvic Revive has done extremely well in its launch year and overall the brand was in fact the biggest soft drinks innovation in the UK in 2007. As with all our products we track all key success factors and emerging trends very closely and based on these we have decided to proactively delist Volvic Revive Citrus Kick from the market as it has not met our internal success hurdles.

What about Volvic Revive Berry Blast?

We remain highly confident in our strongest performing SKU, Berry Blast, which has a very strong repeat rate demonstrating that with the right offering consumers are genuinely connecting with the Revive product.

Have you pinpointed why Berry Blast is connecting with its target audience?

Throughout 2008 we plan to drive as much trial and awareness on Berry Blast as possible via frequent in store promotions and activation, and we are confident that this will deliver good volume growth. This will act as a launch pad for any future developments on Volvic Revive beyond 2008.

What is Volvic Revive?

Marketed as an alternative to mainstream energy drinks, Volvic Revive is targeted at 18 to 35 year olds. The no added sugar drinks contain guarana and ginseng extracts – which, it is claimed, has energising properties. The functional water range has been sold across supermarkets in sports cap bottles, along with multipacks of four, in an effort to appeal to a young demographic. The sub-brand recently won an award for Best Marketing Campaign in the 2007 water innovation awards.