Perfect Water
Empowering a Brand to Achieve Perfection

Crux
Electric Aquagenics Unlimited (EAU) and its proprietary technologies had been tested and proven effective in electrolytically modifying water for a variety of uses focused on healthier living. To extend the company’s capabilities, EAU acquired Aquagen International, Inc., owners and marketers of Aquagen®, the premier stabilized oxygen supplement product. This proprietary formula molecularly binds oxygen with sodium molecules and suspends it in distilled water. So it was a natural progression to apply the technology in creating what could and should be the best bottled water available.

Having enjoyed the success of our brand building for both EAU and its Zerorez franchise partner, management once again entrusted the team, giving us the challenge of creating the bottled water brand, its packaging and all of its integrated marketing communications.

Challenge
Bottled water is an $8.3 billion dollar industry, which presents a huge opportunity for the right product. But with more than 500 bottled water products on the market already, how can you carve out a niche? Differentiate in a saturated market? Get the message across that there really is nothing better? Our answer: you make it Perfect.

We researched the market intensively, personally sampling more than 50 different brands, with particular attention given to their brand identities, bottle form factors, label designs, taglines and supporting sales copy. Our observation was that most bottled waters are marketed in one of four categories: Promise, what it can do for you (Hydrators, Fitness Water); Place, typically “bottled at the source” (Evian, Fiji); Positive Association (Trinity, Ethos, Evamor, Infinity); and Science, or something like it (e.g., Penta, Eon). In keeping with our brand-building methodology, our competitive positioning gave birth to our proposed solutions.

Solutions
Our strategy was to communicate that this bottled water combines the most positive features of the highest quality bottled waters available -- it’s purified, remineralized, ionized, microstructured and oxygenated. With Aquagen, we had a true competitive advantage because it molecularly binds oxygen to water molecules so it won’t “gas off” like others on the market. The rest of the top features are strengths upon which EAU was founded. Our positioning was that this ideal combination of features offers “The Ultimate Fluid for Your Most Advanced Machine.” Basically, there’s no better water for your body. In a word, it’s perfect.

With the brand defined, we then designed an identity that presented a “friendly” water molecule emitting energy in a scientific manner. We developed a custom bottle form that's derivative of the shape of an oxygen tank. We differentiated the look and feel of it with a shrink-wrapped sleeve that transitions from metallic silver to clear so that you can actually see the pure water inside. We also created visual iconography to make the scientific process more compelling and easily understood. Then we took the brand and extended it to an engaging and educational website (www.drinkperfectwater.com), brochures, tradeshow booths, shipping containers and POP displays, all of which maintain the visual and verbal consistency of the brand.

Results
According to John Hopkins, President of EAU, "With our Perfect Water, we believe that we have refined and combined the best qualities and ingredients of many single-featured water products on the market today." The first samples of Perfect Water were distributed last November (2004) at the Expo East Natural Products Show in Washington D.C. and the response was overwhelming. It was then showcased in March at Expo West in Anaheim, California, where the company gave away over 10,000 bottles and “could have doubled that number because the demand was so great,” according to Joanne Clinger, President of Aquagen International.

The Perfect Empowered Drinking Water(TM) brand was officially made available to consumers in April. Our branding approach put our client in a strong position to negotiate with several major fitness chains, international MLM organizations, and health and grocery stores that often require additional health benefits on the products they offer. The client has since signed with regional distributors to market Perfect water locally and regionally, and recently made its first placements with grocery chains. For a consumer product, particularly one that requires a solid retail presence, we’re very early in the lifecycle. But the demand is already leap-frogging forecasts, indicating that we may soon have a perfect success story to tell.

[Note: This story first published Spring of 2005. Data and market dynamics may no longer, well, hold water.]