Health-conscious drinkers lap up Mizone's light taste

Frucor's lightly flavoured sports water is being guzzled here and overseas.

The problem: When Frucor introduced Mizone sports water into New Zealand in late 2000, it knew the drink would be competing with a flood of other bottled water and soft drink products jostling for space in service station refrigerators.

The following year the company made another bold move: launching into the Australian market, where Mizone's 800ml sipper bottle packaging had not been seen before.

The points of difference: Frucor managing director Mark Cowsill says health-conscious consumers are attracted to Mizone's added vitamin content and its "light" taste - fruit juice-based sweetening gives it a sugar content of about one-fifth of regular soft drinks.

The bigger 800ml sipper pack also appeals to those who know they should be drinking more water during the day.

The packaging was a harder sell in Australia, where consumers were used to smaller bottles, but since its launch, drinkers have taken to the larger bottle, which allows them to drink over a longer period.

The execution: Cowsill, who was last month named marketer of the year at the annual Marketing Magazine awards, says Mizone benefited from having "first-mover advantage" in the New Zealand vitamin-enriched flavoured water market.

Although Mizone sponsored the Endurazone multisport Bluff to Cape Reinga endurance race in 2001 to raise brand awareness, most brand-building has been done through advertising.

The result: Rather than cannibalising the water market, sports waters have brought in new, health-conscious consumers, Cowsill says.

Mizone now has a 15 per cent market share through convenience outlets in Australia and a third of the same market in New Zealand. Parent company Danone launched the drink in China this year.

The lessons: Cowsill says Frucor has learned the importance of managing production capacity. The company was caught out when peak summer demand outstripped production capacity at its South Auckland factory.

Although that is one of the better headaches for a company to have, he says, it is just as important for a business to be prepared to pull out of a market when a product underperforms.

Frucor