IndiCoco
by IndiBlue, LLC
Review: IndiCoco Coconut Water
Covers Products: Thai Coconut Water, Thai Coconut Water - Lemongrass and Mint, Thai Coconut Water - Wild Blueberry and Peach
IndiCoco is a three SKU line of shelf stable coconut water beverages that are produced in Thailand. The line includes an unflavored product made with a single ingredient in addition to two flavored offerings.
The unflavored offering contains only a single ingredient: coconut water. Because it’s a shelf stable product that’s packaged in PET, it’s interesting that it does not contain any acidifiers or preservatives (the bottle does not disclose how the product is processed). It has a very fresh taste, much like what you’d find in some high pressure processed or similar offerings.
The flavored varieties include Lemongrass and Mint and Wild Blueberry and Peach. While both flavors appear to contain the same base of Thai coconut water (complete with the fresh taste we cited in the original), they’ve taken a different approach for flavoring each of these products. In the Lemongrass and Mint variety, they’ve used flavoring, whereas with the Wild Blueberry and Peach they’ve used juice concentrates.
While these flavored offerings taste good, they lack the purity of the original; a result of using the juice concentrates and flavorings is that they don’t feel up to the same level in terms of overall quality.
On the outside, the product is packaged in a 9 ounce plastic bottle featuring a twist shape that’s reminiscent of Harmless Harvest. From there, the product’s label, a shrink sleeve that covers most of the bottle, has what we’d describe as a jungle theme. The background is made up of large leaf shapes that utilize various shades of green. The center of the bottle, which is left in white, has the IndiCoco logo and “Thai Coconut Water” as well as the flavor name for the flavor variety.
Unfortunately, we think that this design needs some work. It feels busy and heavy thanks to their choice of colors, the IndiCoco logo is too narrow and hard to read, and the flavor name callouts are easy to miss. We question whether these things could be fixed in the current design or if a larger overhaul is needed.
Beyond that, we wonder about the prospects for a new coconut water brand launching in 2019. The market is mature and the category isn’t exactly one that’s viewed as exciting or innovative, which is especially a challenge since flavored offerings have proven to not be what the consumer is after (sales volume for the category is still very skewed towards pure coconut water). That being said, we think that IndiCoco might need to adjust the strategy to their product lineup.
Overall, IndiCoco has a very nice tasting shelf stable flagship offering, but we think that there’s work to be done on the overall strategy and execution of the brand.