Good news! there was a reason for the few months of silence we are back with a new venture: Ripple Distribution ltd was recently incorporated to reflect the next strategic phase in The Ripple Hub’s expansion plans.

When I started The Ripple Hub my plans were always to be the agency that’s involved in the tactical “doing” part of Marketing. Of course we love the strategic bit and the experiential bit but to deliver a proper Brand experience our belief is that we need to own the chain all the way to the consumers, hence the need for the tactical side. From one client to another we got involved in having people in the field to put actual products on shelves and / or had to help clients with actually getting sales. This brought us to Ripple Distribution.

Ripple Distribution focuses on the Route to Market. There, we provide clients with the ability to take their products to market. For this purpose Ripple Distribution has developed teams on the ground and 3PL logistic partnerships to manage end to end the following channels : Horeca, Convenience & Leisure, Petroleum, and Grocery. New Zealand’s geography can be somehow challenging but we believe we have structured ourselves in a way that allows us to be efficient. If you have a product that goes in that category then don’t hesitate to contact us. We can help you integrate your whole Brand experience in channels.

As for The Ripple Hub, well we can continue to do what we do best and stay lean and mean. When we need people to execute activities in the field then we can get through to Ripple Distribution and benefit from the infrastructure that has been set-up there.

Water is life.

I thought I should start writing a bit more about what we are doing at the moment in The Ripple Hub and particularly our new project and challenge of re-launching Evian in New Zealand.
evian® is a fantastic brand. They do an amazing marketing job too. I encourage you to check the Evian channel on YouTube for the Evian Roller Babies campaign. Being French myself, I grew up with Evian and several other French water brands. Evian was and is still my favorite. I can taste Evian quite easily and particularly compared to other water brands here.

Evian Mineral Water

To make sure you don’t think I am a victim of some excessive Patriotic feeling, I should mention that I have tasted and consumed regularly New Zealand brands like Waiwera, NZ Natural or Antipodes. To my taste buds they are the better lot. Yet to me they are nowhere close to Evian in taste.

So it’s no surprise that having met the people who import Evian in NZ: Eurodis ltd, I was eager to pitch for their business. And here we are. A month later, The Ripple Hub has been retained to do the marketing for Evian in NZ, but not only Evian, also Badoit – Danone’s famous naturally sparkling mineral water, and Orangina – an orange soda with orange fruit pulp now produced under Schweppes licence in France. These are three iconic French brands, that have since earned a strong commercial success in export markets.

But the Challenge is at the measure of my excitement. The Ripple Hub is now doing two things. The Marketing for one, but we are also looking to expand into Merchandising and Distribution. We are looking to bring our support to Eurodis ltd in Auckland and help them grow their distribution outside of Auckland (except Wellington). We are looking to setup a team to cover Hamilton, Napier, New-Plymouth, Bleinheim-Nelson, Christchurch, and Queenstown. We will support Eurodis reach into FoodStuffs – http://www.foodstuffs.co.nz/ but also reach out directly to CNL (Convenience and Leisure), Horeca (Hotel Restaurant and Catering) as well as Petroleum channels. The coming months will see us float two separate divisions Ripple Distribution (we have already started trading as), and Ripple  Interactive since this side of our business seems to have taken off quite nicely as well.

Evian Roller Baby

The Water market is still an emerging market in New Zealand, but with health consciousness rising it is rapidly booming. I am getting told many people are very happy with their tap water. Really ? for the ones who live in the west coast of the south island, I certainly understand… I mean I travelled to Queenstown and Wanaka and sure thing the water on the tap is amazing. Straight down from the glaciers. No argument there. But here in Auckland ? no way – I don’t buy that. The reality is that people are so used to drinking chemical tasting water or filtered water that their tastebuds are asleep. The variations of taste I get on the tap in Auckland after a rainy day is phenomenal. To the point that some days I make coffee with bottled water. You love your tap water ? that’s great but would you really give that to an infant ? you spend 10 minutes at the supermarket shelf choosing the right brand of baby milk and you will add tap water with chemical concentrations made for adults ? hmmm… think again. Anyway that’s my personal opinion.
Few people know the difference between Mineral, Spring and so called “Pure” water (ie purified). Labelling restrictions don’t help as much, in my opinion they are not strict enough.

Evian is a mineral water. As such it is subject to amazingly strict regulations. Untouched by man until bottled. Its composition is stable. There are no added elements or filtering or transformations that apply. What you get is the real thing.

For additional resources on the topic, I recommend this site http://www.bottledwater.org.au

Worldwide codex definitions are here:

http://www.codexalimentarius.net/download/standards/223/CXS_108e.pdf

http://www.codexalimentarius.net/download/standards/369/CXS_227e.pdf

I feel passionate about this. I am also learning a lot more on the subject as we go. Having worked over 6 years with Heineken in Horeca channels, I have direct relevant experience for this. I am convinced that once the message is explained properly to customers the choice will be obvious to them. It’s obvious to me.

Getting the message across is what we do for a living.

So here we go. Water is life.

Knock knock “hello Mr Customer” – “where shall I put that pallet ?”

Photo Credits: Group Danone

PS. I suppose I should reinforce the usual disclaimers. None of the opinions stated above are the opinions of my clients or statements of companies like Danone or Eurodis… They are just my opinions, my views, my ideas. And the facts I pulled out from my own research on the subject. If anything sounds unclear or incorrect to you – feel free to react.

Adding value is what Marketing is all about, perceived value to be exact.

Rory Sutherland from Ogilvy made this really funny but incredibly refreshing speech on TED about perceived value.

I can’t resist to share it with you. For those of you who don’t believe in Marketing particularly.