Vitamin Water is making a big push online–as noted by their popular facebook success. But they are not doing any sort of optimization or testing. My point is not that they are running multiple campaigns, but that each campaign sells vitamin water differently. It's as if IMVU sold it's self as a chat room, social network, and video game at the same time. It's not like their optimizing or testing for the best strategy…they're just trying to be too many things at once.

@Charlie: Agreed. Vitamin Water owns the “healthy water” market. This is where their equity was and defined their positioning for the past 18 years. But notice the Kobe/LeBron ads…sounds like they are now changing their positioning to compete with Gatorade and move to the “athletic drink” market.

I don't discount the fact that Vitamin Water is an awesome, innovative product. Just like Google, it changed the game for bottled drinks. To your point, they have an awesome brand, which justifies their success in spite of shitty advertising. I suppose I'm focusing on their marketing decision–how they are beginning to shift away from what made them special and unique (healthy flavored water) to a product that its owner Coca-Cola can throw against Pepsi's Gatorade. It won't bring down the brand–but it's an interesting marketing decision nonetheless.

Vitamin Water is making a big push online–as noted by their popular facebook success. But they are not doing any sort of optimization or testing. My point is not that they are running multiple campaigns, but that each campaign sells vitamin water differently. It’s as if IMVU sold it’s self as a chat room, social network, and video game at the same time. It’s not like their optimizing or testing for the best strategy…they’re just trying to be too many things at once.

@Charlie: Agreed. Vitamin Water owns the “healthy water” market. This is where their equity was and defined their positioning for the past 18 years. But notice the Kobe/LeBron ads…sounds like they are now changing their positioning to compete with Gatorade and move to the “athletic drink” market.

I don’t discount the fact that Vitamin Water is an awesome, innovative product. Just like Google, it changed the game for bottled drinks. To your point, they have an awesome brand, which justifies their success in spite of shitty advertising. I suppose I’m focusing on their marketing decision–how they are beginning to shift away from what made them special and unique (healthy flavored water) to a product that its owner Coca-Cola can throw against Pepsi’s Gatorade. It won’t bring down the brand–but it’s an interesting marketing decision nonetheless.

The biggest one is their positioning. Their name is extremely strong, memorable, and communicates the benefits of the product instantly. They were also first to get into the mind of the consumer for “healthy water.” They are the leader in a category they created, much like Red Bull did for “energy drink.” When a company is first into a category and first into the mind of a consumer, it can more or less put their sales on auto-pilot.

The second is that, for a certain group of people, it’s a quality product that filled a need that wasn’t being met. Before Vitamin Water, there weren’t any drinks that didn’t taste really sugary. There was almost nothing in between water and Gatorade (or at least nothing that was an obvious, healthy alternative).

Companies can get away with bad advertising if the equity of the brand is really strong. Marketing is important, but I’ll bet on the company with the best brand any day of the week.