Highland Spring are hoping to step up to Evian
Highland Spring is preparing to stir things up in the bottled water market as they plot to take on the UK’s best selling in the sector, Evian with a hard-line strategy.
Currently, Highland Spring holds a brand volume share of 8.6% in the bottled water market, compared to Danone Waters’ Evian, with 9.7%, according to Zenith International data.
Highland Spring are keen to steal the top spot, and marketing director Sally Stanley said they plan to do this with a campaign that will work to build the brand by focusing on pushing its “stature”.
She refused to reveal further details on the creative but said the campaign would “move on and be a bit more disruptive than what the category has shown to date”. Part of the image overhaul will include press ads and the re-launch of Highland Spring’s website, which will be more interactive.
But chairman of branding agency Brandhouse Mark Wickens, said that if Highland Spring did manage to topple Evian, it would be more as a consequence of Evian’s “dropping sales”.
Consultant and former Britvic marketing director Andrew Marsden says that Highland Spring is making a “challenging claim”, given that Evian is “unquestionably a much stronger global brand”.
“One of the issues here is the strength of a traditionally on-premise based product such as Highland Spring versus a big consumer brand, Evian,” Marsden says.
He adds it will also come down to the clarity of the brand positioning. “Highland Spring is predominantly a natural, Scottish- based representation and I’m not quite sure that consumers see it as being competitive to Evian.”
The new commercials have been created by advertising agency Merle, and the new website by GRP. The campaign will closely follow the launch earlier this month of new-look packaging for its bottles.
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