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Fizzy drink success worthy of a toast

Posted in Marketing, Branwell Johnson, Latest reporters' blogs July 25th, 2008 by Branwell Johnson

While brands are tying themselves in knots about helping to combat obesity, it is reassuring to see Britvic is benefitting from the public’s desire for a good, old-fashioned, tongue-tickling, lip-smackin’ fizzy drink.

Britvic’s profits are up and it could be due to two opposing trends. First off, I suspect people are becoming a little tired of the nannying messages that are being pumped out by the Government and companies in regard to diet and health.

I can imagine there’s a grass roots return to the “a little bit of what you fancy does you good” attitude in some quarters – and that could include a can of Pepsi, Fanta, Coca-Cola or even Irn Bru.

But a PC message that fizzy drinks could be benefitting is the one that says bottled water is not environmentally friendly. Those people who embraced bottled water brands as a badge of good taste and a healthy option are now getting the message about the damage that “food miles” and plastic packaging can cause. For a while it was seen as a cool thing to have an Evian, Vittel, Perrier or similar poking out of your bag or pocket of your combat trousers, maybe not any more.

Britvic must have some confidence in the way the tide is turning as it is looking to put some marketing behind Tango, a fizzy drink brand that once rode high then saw volume sales drop dramatically at the start of the decade.

It will be hard to return to the iconic advertising of Tango’s glory days – not the least because that “You’ve been Tango’d” marketing style of shock and surreality is a no longer fresh – but who knows? Maybe it’s time for a marketing counter-message to prevailing trends that says “stuff the censoriousness, there’s fun in fizzy”.

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