As the temperature rises across the country, many places have taken the lead in summer. The busy summer beverage season is also just around the corner, and one of the highlights of this year is still the electrolyte beverage market. Electrolyte beverages have become a high-growth track in China's beverage industry. With the expansion of the market scale, new brands have entered the game, and traditional powerhouses have accelerated the pace of product upgrades, and there are more and more electrolyte products to choose from in the market. In this context, consumers have also put forward higher requirements for electrolyte drinks, and the electrolyte track has ushered in a new test.
Keeping up with consumer demand, Pulse recently announced a comprehensive upgrade of its sports drink "Pulse + Electrolyte", opening a "daily exercise" subdivision track, and providing consumers with a scientific hydration plan to help them exercise for 1 hour of happiness. In the increasingly competitive electrolyte beverage market, what new opportunities does Pulse see?
Energizing, hydrating, and recharging
Electrolyte drinks are still hot in 2024
With the increasing atmosphere of summer, the enthusiasm of Chinese people for fitness has gradually increased, and night running, cycling, and fitness ...... All kinds of fancy fitness sports frequently appear in people's daily life, especially at the beginning of the year, the movie "Hot and Hot" also set off a fitness fever, making fitness sports a trendy lifestyle in the era of health first. In addition, the Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2022) also have some recommendations for daily exercise: children and adolescents aged 6-17 should do at least 1 hour of moderate-to-high-intensity physical activity every day, and encourage outdoor activities, while adults should exercise daily and do moderate-intensity physical activity at least 5 days a week, with a cumulative duration of 150~300 minutes. If you exercise for 1 hour at a time, it is equivalent to 3-5 times a week.
Under the huge demand for sports and fitness, electrolyte drinks have also become the focus of the market. Compared with purified water, electrolyte drinks can replenish carbohydrates, vitamins, electrolytes and other basic nutrients for the human body in time after exercise, achieve rapid recharging, and maintain body fluid balance, so it has become the first choice for people to hydrate after happy exercise.
In particular, as the main consumer force, Generation Z has a very obvious preference for electrolyte drinks, and a set of data from the Prospective Research Institute shows that Generation Z's preference for electrolyte drinks is higher than that of other functional drinks, accounting for 15.8% of consumption. In addition, in addition to drinking electrolyte drinks in addition to sports scenes, consumers are also expanding to outdoor play, study and work, e-sports games and other daily scenarios, further driving the market development.
However, as the market grows, new pain points inevitably arise in the electrolyte beverage category. Through in-depth interviews with nearly 200 consumers in the three cities, Pulse found that although electrolytes have become an independent track in the minds of consumers, the taste is bland and unpalatable (salty and greasy) is the core problem that consumers are looking forward to solving. Consumers are looking forward to a healthy, scientifically hydrating and delicious product.
How to solve pain points and meet consumer needs has become the key for brands to find breakthroughs in the electrolyte beverage category. Therefore, based on the in-depth insight into the category, Pulse has comprehensively upgraded the Pulsation + electrolyte products, bringing consumers an optimal ratio of hydration solutions with an electrolyte content of at least 455mg per bottle to meet their electrolyte needs for one hour of happy exercise.
Pulsation + electrolyte renewal
Bring consumers a new experience of happy sports
The beverage market war in 2024 is about to break out, who will be the strongest dark horse in the electrolyte track? We may find the answer in the upgraded pulsation + electrolyte.
No matter the cost
Boost daily exercise with scientific top-notch matching
As mentioned above, Generation Z is the core consumer group of electrolyte beverages, and its requirements for product quality are obvious to all in the beverage industry. NielsenIQ research found that consumers are willing to pay for quality, with a particular focus on the core features of a product. Specific to the electrolyte beverage category, the core functions of the product: hydration, nutrition, and health are the core elements that consumers pay attention to. Under such a crowd insight, the quality of pulsation + electrolyte products can be accurately reached:
One is that each bottle contains no less than 455mg of electrolytes.
It is well known that when people do a lot of exercise, electrolytes are excreted with sweat, leading to decreased exercise capacity/performance and, in severe cases, muscle cramps. Studies have shown that adults lose at least 455 mg of electrolytes after about 1 hour of exercise. With its unique formula design, the upgraded Pulsation + Electrolytes can help consumers quickly replenish water and restore their state, effectively replenishing electrolyte loss during exercise.
The second is to add natural coconut water.
The cost of raw materials for coconut water is relatively high, in order to bring a higher quality product experience, Pulsation + Electrolyte does not hesitate to use high-cost raw materials, with "natural electrolytes" instead of chemically synthesized electrolytes, bringing potassium, calcium, sodium, magnesium, chlorine and other nutrients, which are closer to the composition of human sweat and meet the nutrients required by the human body after exercise.
The third is to choose high-grade glucose.
Sugar plays an important role in electrolyte drinks to help the body absorb electrolytes better. In addition to continuing the characteristics of pulsating and low sugar, Pulsation + electrolyte uses high-grade glucose instead of fructose syrup, which not only promotes the absorption of electrolyte sodium, but also brings a delicious taste and refreshing drinking experience, which is suitable for large gulps of drinking and refreshing replenishment. It is perfect for drinking even in everyday scenes such as work and study. In addition, Pulsation + Electrolytes also add three vitamins: vitamin B6, vitamin C and niacinamide to add points to sports vitality.
Through multi-dimensional and scientific optimal proportioning, pulsation + electrolyte can not only effectively replenish the electrolyte components lost by the human body after 1 hour of exercise, but also solve the "salty" and "greasy" consumption pain points of consumers with natural coconut water and glucose, making pulsation + electrolyte a preferred choice for consumers.
An excellent electrolyte drink must not only have electrolytes and the right amount of energy to meet the needs of consumers, but also be able to absorb quickly. Pulsation + Electrolyte adopts a formula that is more friendly to the human body and helps electrolytes better absorb through the scientific ratio of coconut water, electrolytes, sugar and other nutrients, so that consumers can achieve rapid hydration and restore exercise endurance, becoming an excellent choice for sports enthusiasts, fitness experts and even the general public to quickly hydrate during or after exercise.
Closer to young people
Gives the product youthful and energetic properties
Product packaging is the number one marketing language to communicate with young people. In order to better integrate into the young circle, the packaging design of pulsation + electrolyte is also refreshing, and there is a significant leap from the previous brand image.
The Pulsation + Electrolyte bottle uses the lightning logo representing the "electrolyte" category as the most eye-catching and eye-catching design symbol, which strengthens its mental connection with the electrolyte category, and at the same time, the color matching adopts a bold contrasting style, superimposing a refreshing blue and white background color with orange-red representing dynamic, energetic and trendy, giving the product a sense of youthfulness full of dynamism, trend, refreshment and vitality. In a simulated shelf test with the participation of thousands of consumers, the new packaging has been loved by more young people aged 18-25.
In Nashi's view, this pulsation + electrolyte upgrade is of great significance to both consumers and brands, which is more conducive to strengthening the layout of electrolyte products and breaking the market competition while meeting consumers' higher-level hydration needs.
Start the battle for position in the market
The new explosive products in 2024 have been locked in advance
At present, the electrolyte beverage market is showing a situation of "hundreds of schools of thought contending", and there are not only multi-brand melee in the track, but also cross-border players in other tracks. Entering 2024, the fierce and brutal market competition continues.
On the other hand, Pulsation + Electrolyte has achieved excellent results in the market since the trial of the water electrolyte beverage category in 2023, and according to Danone's latest financial report, Pulse started strongly with double-digit high growth in the first quarter of 2024, with an increase of 27%. In the view of Nashi, its proud market performance comes from the accumulation of its own product strength, which has also been confirmed in the exchanges between Nashi and many distributors:
"Electrolyte drinks have a very clear category cognition in the minds of consumers, and the product Pulse + Electrolyte has a refreshing taste and is very popular with young people. ”
"As the weather warms up, it is clear that there is a growing consumer demand for electrolyte drinks, and the pulsation + electrolyte natural coconut water formula and refreshing taste are very popular in the end market. ”
"Nowadays, the first step for young consumers to buy drinks is to look at the ingredient list first, and the high-quality raw materials of pulsation + electrolyte and the clean ingredient list are more popular among young people. ”
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As a leading brand that specializes in providing consumers with healthy hydration options, Pulse has always occupied a place in the field of sports drinks. Nashi believes that the new upgrade of pulsation + electrolyte is a dimensionality reduction blow to the electrolyte category, and through the upgrading of health, scientific hydration, and taste, it has achieved multiple recognition of the product by consumers.
From this point of view, the pulsation + electrolyte, which has accumulated a certain market potential energy, is expected to become a popular product in the summer beverage market in 2024 after the new upgrade.
brief summary
Although there are many new products in the electrolyte beverage category, there has not yet been an absolutely strong product, and the emergence of a popular product is often inseparable from the insight into consumer demand. The comprehensive upgrade of pulsation + electrolytes solves the pain points of consumers drinking electrolyte drinks and meets the needs of consumers for happy exercise with product benefits such as "electrolyte content ≥455mg", "refreshing product experience" and "trendy packaging design".
With the launch of the upgraded Pulsation + electrolyte, it not only makes a new solution for the electrolyte category, but also makes the product layout of Pulse in sports drinks more complete and more competitive. In today's imminent beverage season market, the performance of pulsation + electrolytes is also more expected.