Geschatte leestijd: 3 minuten
As more and more people drink less alcohol, marketing machines are working overtime to make water trendy. Nonsense or necessary?
Alcohol is Out
According to an article by CNN Business, alcohol producers in the U.S., including Heineken, are facing declining numbers [1]. The cause: all those hip people suddenly finding alcohol not so hip anymore. After all, if Silicon Valley says something is out, then it’s out.
If alcohol is no longer trendy, then according to various sources in the article, this leads to many socio-economic problems. I quote some of my favorite examples from the article:
“self care after dark.” It wants to create a new market of products that don’t contain alcohol but also aren’t laden with sugar.
A lot of people feel their choices are to either go out and drink alcohol, or stay home alone. “If those are the two choices, then something is broken,” she said. “You can do the ‘feel good’ thing and still be out at a bar, still take a client out.”
The Rise of Soberness
The above quotes are from the marketing strategy of companies looking to capitalize on the rising popularity of sobriety.
Admittedly, I’m not much of a party-goer, nor a drinker. If I believe the beautiful marketing stories, then you’re kind of a pariah if you don’t drink alcohol at social gatherings. As if people walk wide around you when you’re the designated driver, afraid of being contaminated.
Not a pleasant thought. Yet, more and more people want to drink less alcohol. Mostly due to the well-known desire for a healthier lifestyle. But also, more and more companies in the U.S. are reportedly opting for a Friday afternoon drink without the “Bo.” Or at least less Bo. Empty beer cups and used condoms in the stairwell are reasons for a startup in HR services to ban alcohol within the company.
In my opinion, there’s already a very good alternative if you want a drink without alcohol, sugars, used condoms, and legal prosecution by former employees.
Water??!!
Yes, water. But as this Amsterdammer clearly puts it, the transition from wine to water is a marathon for some. Maybe you need to entice those people first with exotic, mysterious, and exciting drinks.
Vinegar water, soda water, sugar, and fruit. For example, with carrot and ginger. It’s an example of a ‘shrub,’ a drink sold by a bar in Brooklyn. To the full satisfaction of the customer who is amazed that he only paid $15 for two drinks and a basket of bread.
Apparently, it’s mainly important that it’s ‘exciting.’ That you look [insert contemporary slang for cool] when you have it in your hands and even [insert contemporary slang for cool]er when you drink it.
Then give me seaweed beer with broccoli and hot sauce.
Water for the Over 18s
To market something as crazy as water on a mass scale, you need a strategy. You have to make water exciting. But how do you make something exciting that flows from the tap at home?
Bottled waters are marketed with the promise of cleaner water. Sparkling springs, Swiss Alps, and people with perfect skin. But those ads are losing their luster a bit. Partly due to growing concerns about the plastic in your bottle, both in terms of personal health and the environment. But also because a silly bottle of mineral water in your hands doesn’t always fit the setting. Like during a club party of No Surrender, for example.
No, then a cool can of “Liquid Death” is much more appropriate. It’s just a pity that the text “murder your thirst” isn’t printed in larger letters than “mountain water.”
“This water may give nightmares to persons under 18 years of age.”
With texts
like these, this new startup applies marketing strategies for energy drinks to water.
Making Water ‘Hot’
Marketing and sales are a matter of recognizing needs and acting on them. If that need doesn’t exist, then you create it.
You may find that very annoying. That we need to be convinced with marketing tricks to drink something that’s the second most essential human need. Selling water under the name Liquid Death is just as crazy as selling oxygen under the name “Toxic Gas.” When I hear Liquid Death, I think of tsunamis, waterboarding, and Aquaman.
On the other hand, if you hide a pill for your dog in a biscuit, you’re not concerned about its IQ either. Maybe we should just accept that we’re not that bright ourselves.
If we know that soft drinks, energy drinks, and the sugars they contain are a major cause of obesity among young people. If we know that (alcohol) drinking is often social behavior. Why wouldn’t we use the marketing machine that sells such products for healthier products? If it works, it works.
If you’ve already ordered a tray of liquid death, know that you don’t have to add it as a food item in the Fitsociety app. Murder and nightmares don’t count as macros, so you can simply enter water for that.
References
- amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/06/08/tech/alcohol-alternative-sober-curious/index.html
