November 19, 2024 –Looking at consumer attitudes and behaviors, monitoring social media, and tracking bottled water launches can provide insights into flavored and plain water trends in the US.
Innova Top 10 Trends and Bottled Water
Two Innova Market Insights Top 10 Trends 2024 are particularly applicable to the bottled water market in the US. One top 10 trend is Trend #9: Quenching the Future. This trend highlights health and other benefits being added to bottled water and hydration products. US consumers are pursuing healthy lifestyles and seek waters with added nutrients and enhanced ingredients. This helps drive bottled water market growth in the US. Features that appeal to US consumers include clean label and free-from claims like sugar-free. Some companies also use unconventional and edgy marketing.
The Innova Market Insights Top 10 Trend #2, Nurturing Nature, emphasizes how businesses need to protect nature beyond sustainability. One company, Fiji Water, shows its commitment to sustainability on its packaging and amplifies its messaging by serving as the official water partner for both Grammy & Emmy awards in the US.
US Consumers are Drinking More Bottled Water
Many US consumers participating in consumer trends research report drinking more bottled water. The main reason they give is that bottled water is healthy. Consumers in the US are mentioning bottled water in social media, which has a broad reach and the potential for a lot of views and engagement. The youngest consumers, namely Gen Z and younger Millennials, and also slightly more males than females are the ones who are leading conversations about bottled water trends. Pinterest is a popular social media platform for sharing recipes and ideas.
Bottled Water Brands Communicate Priorities
Bottled water markets have several features that are marketing priorities – flavor, health, and sustainability. They strive to attain leadership in the market by innovating through flavors, health and wellness, and sustainability. They communicate through packaging and other features.
Clean features, taste and flavor, and cost are important purchasing influences in bottled water trends in the US. A solid majority of bottled water markets in the US are flavored. To align with clean features and the clean claims desired by US consumers, many US bottled water trends have real, natural ingredients and no artificial flavors or colors. Functional health claims on bottled water launches in the US also are increasing.
Flavored Bottled Water Trends
Several flavors drive innovation in US bottled waters. Lemon and lime are the top flavors while punch and passion fruit are growing rapidly. On social media, bottled water trends with refreshing flavors such as lemon and lime have high reach and engagement in the bottled water mentions trending on social media. Instagram is a popular social media platform for flavor-infused waters in the US. Flavor-infused waters have natural or exotic blends of fruits and are highly refreshing.
What’s Next in US Bottled Water Flavors?
Since US consumers seek bottled water without artificial flavors or coloring, manufacturers can emphasize clean label flavors and natural infusions of fruits and vegetables. This communicates healthy flavor without the need for sugar or sweeteners.
What’s Next in US Bottled Water Functional Health?
Functional and added health benefits are important in the US bottled water market. US bottled water companies can emphasize added health benefits while also tailoring functional benefits to specific demographics of US consumers. These benefits could include antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, immune health, brain health, digestive health, botanicals, functional botanical extracts, mushrooms, and goji berries.
What’s Next in US Bottled Water Market Sustainability?
US bottled water brands need to balance their sustainability efforts with other important features such as cost, convenience, product safety, and sustainability. Sustainable packaging is important. This includes preventing microplastics from leaching from packaging into the water, producing plant-based packaging, or using recyclable glass or aluminum can-based alternative packaging.
This article is based on Innova’s Trending in Bottled Water in the US report. This report is available to purchase or with an Innova Reports subscription. Reach out to find out more
