Meet Hydra Vodka Water.
Hydra Vodka Water was a product created by Vincor, a company that owns many well-respected wines in Canada. It was created as an entry into the alcoholic cooler market, that is extremely fickle, is made up of fad drinks, and has several heavy hitters in the industry.
Vincor had five choices for their new cooler:
1. Fresh Fruit Juice
2. Gin-based
3. Spring Water-based
4. Tequila-based
5. Energy Drink-based
To make a long story short, Vincor decided to go with the Spring Water-based alcoholic cooler, due to the rising popularity of Spring Water, apparently very much so in the target market. The cooler was priced at a premium, priced similarly to Smirnoff Ice.
Apparently, the cooler did fantastically well in its first year, and then promptly fell off. Which leads me to this question:
Who in their right mind thought that diluting vodka with “spring water” and selling it $9.45 for a 4-pack was a good idea? Why wouldn’t you try drinking vodka and water before you sell it? It tastes like water that’s been tainted.
Hydra Vodka Water serves as a good example of coming up with an idea, going through all the market research motions and thinking it will be popular, and selling it without stopping to think:
Why would anyone pay a premium for diluted vodka?
Posted on February 12th, 2009 by Jon Lim
Filed under: Marketing
I couldn’t help but read this and had to reply. You make it sound like just plain old vodka and water. But there are four flavours. Strawberry, Lime, Black Cherry & Blackberry. I personnaly like the Lime and Strawberry. Honestly the others remind me of cough syrup mmm. The other reason I really like these coolers are because all the other coolers are way too sweet and was very disapointed to hear that they have been discontinued. If that’s true I really hope that something similar will come out again.
I live in Burlington Ont. We tried your coolers at the Olympic Curling trials in Edmonton Altb. We would love to purchase these at home but we canot find them in the liquior stores in our area. I noticed on the bottle that they are made in Niagara Falls Ont. Why can”t we get them in Ont.