Functional beverage maker hellowater is looking to fuel its next growth phase starting with a refreshed visual identity intended to grow its consumer audience.
The Chicago, Illinois-based company, founded in 2016, announced a brand refresh across its three product lines (Defense, Prebiotic and Alkaline) late last month, with the goal of creating a packaging design that brings a cohesive look and feel to the portfolio that promotes health and wellness with the promise of making consumers into “a better you.”
While the previous branding used clear bottles, the new design features a clean, modern aesthetic that highlights single flavor colors against a blue backsplash, with the hellowater name made larger. Additionally, an improved brand hierarchy focuses on education and functionality with callouts such as “immunity aid” and “eliminates toxins” for its Defense products and “go with your gut” for its Prebiotic line.
“Now that we’ve got a great fan base and a loyal fan base […] a better you is really what we want our customers to know, to know that we’re creating these products to fit their need states,” said co-founder and chief strategy officer Rusty Jones.
He continued, “We take our avatars (theoretical consumer archetypes), whether its Family Francine or Healthy Hank, and [figure out] how our products fit into their lives. For example, the on-the-go prebiotic water helps curb your appetite before lunch and then you’ve got the immunity product for maybe Friday, Saturday nights to help with the headaches, hangovers and dehydration.”
When hellowater launched with its fiber-infused water line in 2016, the brand featured emotion-forward packaging in an effort to build a lifestyle brand around promoting positivity. Each flavor of the prebiotic water– Mixed Berry, Lemon Lime, Pineapple Coconut, Cucumber Lime, Orange Mango and Wild Grape – featured its own positive affirmation, such as “Sing,” “Smile,” and “Laugh,” which have since been nixed.
In 2021, agricultural technology company Brandt invested in hellowater, giving the water brand the exclusive rights to bring its CYTO+ ingredient into the beverage space with hellowater’s Defense line. The proprietary ingredient, created by Brandt’s chief science officer Dr. Arthur Nonomura, is aimed at supporting Cytochrome P450, a set of enzymes in the human body that are essential for metabolism and bioactivation of drugs and toxicants.
That same year, hellowater also released a non-fiber-infused alkaline water (pH +9.5).
“As we started adding more portfolio products to it, the symmetry across the line kind of got lost from a messaging standpoint. We’re promoting positivity over here with prebiotic water and we’ve got a patented technology and our immunity product [over there]…they just weren’t connecting,” Jones said.
Hellowater’s refresh comes as the enhanced bottled water category sees consistent growth. According to data released by Statista, sales of enhanced bottled water in the U.S. amounted to approximately $4.1 billion in 2018 and was projected to reach $5.3 billion by 2022.
In 2022, as inflationary headwinds plagued the food and beverage industry, hellowater found itself navigating through the challenges and building up the brand by focusing on consumers yielding the highest return from a gross margin standpoint. Additionally, the brand leaned on its ecommerce pillars to innovate and “have a better conversation with our customer,” said Jones.
In conjunction with the brand refresh, hellowater expanded its Defense line, featuring the proprietary CYTO+ ingredient, with the addition of a drink mix powder. The brand was inspired to make its first foray into the drink mix category after observing consumers migrating over from the prebiotic water to the defense water as well as capitalizing on the trends of on-the-go and sustainability.
“[The Defense line] is more of a proactive approach as opposed to reactive,” said Jones. “The science behind CYTO+ shows that it builds up a shield and quickly eliminates these toxins faster than any other thing you can consume, from an immunity standpoint.”
Available in three flavors at launch – Blood Orange, Fruit Punch and Lemonade – the drink mix is currently sold via ecommerce for $39.99 per 15-pack.
Currently, the brand’s products, excluding the new drink mix, can be found in approximately 1,000 doors nationwide, with a heavy presence in the Northeast. According to Jones, the region has proved itself as the brand’s highest all commodity volume (ACV).
Looking ahead, hellowater plans to focus on execution in 2023 and seeks to expand its retail footprint in the conventional channel with retailers who are “going to help the emerging brands grow.” Additionally, the brand has renewed its partnership with Dale Jr. Motorsports and driver Justin Allgaier, which will further boost brand awareness and marketing presence for hellowater.