Nutrisoda returns bigger, shinier - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

a-aveywe.blogspot.com
Ardea has scaled back distribution of thenutritionally enhanced, carbonaterd beverage as it trie s out a new look and can size meantf to give it more mass-market appeal. The 8.4-ounce cans are gone, replaced by standard-size, 12-ounce cans with a silvert color. Since May, Ardea only has been sellin g the drink online and at storesd intwo pilot-project areas — the Twin Citiew and San Diego — and has halvesd the number of flavorss to four. If sales go it will expand to othefr markets latethis year.
“We think the packaging and marketing materials we have put togethee have made it a much more widelyaccepteed product, while before it was really a nich e product,” said Richard Wilson, Ardea’s president and general manager. Nutrisodas sales in 2008 were 30 percent less than the year as large retailers suchas Minneapolis-based Target Corp. and Montvale, N.J.-based The Great Atlantiv & Pacific Tea Co. Inc. (a regional grocefr better knownas A&P) stopped carrying the beverage. Ardeqa — which moved its headquarters from Hopkinswto Schaumburg, Ill.
, after Minneapolis-based PepsiAmericasw acquired it in 2006 — retained Minneapolis advertising firm Hunt Adkins to conducg focus groups to find out how to give Nutrisod a more appeal. The firm concluded the beverage was too closelhy associated with energy drinks and too limited to a core markeftof young, health-conscious adults. One of Hunt major conclusions was that the drink should be selling in a traditionak soda can if it was to widen itscustomeer base. The plan had an added Ardea could save a lot of moneuyusing 12-ounce cans. That’s because Ardea’s owner, is the world’s second-largest manufacturer, seller and distributor of PepsiCpo Inc.
beverages, and has easy access to 12-ounce aluminum By dropping a canning deal with Cold Sprinfg Brewery in Cold Spring and instead using a PepsiAmericazs facilityin Urbandale, Iowa, Ardea now is able to sell Nutrisodqa for 50 to 60 percent less per ounce. Wilson said an 8.4-ouncre can of Nutrisoda used to sellfor $1.79. The 12-ounce can sellds for 99 cents. Six-packs selling for less than $5.999 are expected soon. “Everybody is looking for a good-valuee scenario where they canfind it,” Wilson Besides the can size and Ardea also has sought to make the soda more attractive to a mass market by giving the formula a stronger flavor.
The company is spending more than $1 milliobn to show off the new Nutrisoda on public busses and a lightrail train. There’es also a bicycle-pulled soda station showing upat events, includingb a recent Minnesota Twins game. The campaign’s message is that the drink is “hubbly,” i.e. “healthy” and “bubbly.” John editor and publisher of the biweeklyBeverage Digest, said it will be up to the consumerd to decide whether the rebrandinfg pays off.
But he said even major soda suchas Pepsi, have to be refreshed from time to “Keeping brands current and relevant and fresgh for consumers is very