Inside Beverage Innovation

If you’ve even passively been paying attention to the activity in beverage manufacturing in recent years you’ll know that frenzied doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. New brands continually appear on the market, and those that stand the test of time often find themselves accompanied by line extensions before long.

Beverages have the wildly attractive benefit of easily gaining consumer acceptance. That is, we accept a much-wider range of tinkering when it comes to what we drink than what we eat. Whether fortification, flavor or format, if you can imbibe it, people will buy it—at least once.

That repeat sales bit is the key to every product, whether chugged or chewed. And in the beverage world, competition can be fierce. Consumers tend to find what they like—often associating with brands, blending them with their personality—and stick with it. For some demographics, it’s not even necessarily what’s in the beverage that counts, it’s being seen with that can, bottle or shot. It’s an accessory. Other demographics scrutinize labels and ingredient lists to make sure the product meshes with their sensibilities—from organic to natural, energy to healthfulness. We each have a laundry list of needs when it comes to the beverages we buy, and formulators and marketers strive to tick off as many as possible on those lists across as many demographics as possible—no mean feat in such a complex product category.

Consequently, it always helps to hear various perspectives on the current state of the beverage industry—particularly when formulating products that go well beyond basic refreshment and into areas of health, wellness, fortification, etc. Anyone working in this area will benefit from an upcoming SupplySide East panel discussion on “Innovation, Trends and Issues in Functional and Enhanced Beverages,” taking place in the early afternoon of April 28. The folks over at BevNET.com have put together a great panel featuring Bob Occhifinto, founder of NVE Pharmaceuticals, a leading beverage and shot contract-manufacturing business, and Kim Ourada of Mellow Beverage Co., who is in the process of building his brand in the hot relaxation-beverage sector. This session is open to all SupplySide East attendees.

In beverages, if you aren’t hip to what’s coming next, you’re already one step behind.