Functional Content Drives the Functional Beverage Category

Article excerpt: 

One look at the cold beverage vault in a convenience store or grocer and you don’t need to be a consumer goods expert to notice the influx of beverages calling out their added functionalities, such as electrolytes for hydration, adaptogens for brain health or fermentation for gut health.

Functional drinks are a major trend in beverages, expecting to become a $200 billion market in the next seven years, up from $110 billion three years ago. There is a bevy of brands driving the popularity of the products, and they’re proving the beverages to be a powerhouse trend in the CPG industry.

But to stand out in the growing, crowded product segment, how do brands get noticed by consumers? What is the functional ingredient? How does it compare against competing versions?

The brands that can deliver the right information using digital tactics and content will rise in popularity among consumers and further accelerate the exploding category.

Functional Beverages Make Headlines
To highlight the rise of the category, a few brands have garnered attention over the last few years in the functional beverage market, especially in the hydration segment. Gatorade introduced Gatorlyte two years ago, and Liquid I.V. powder packets gained notoriety over the last few years through celebrity endorsements. Nuun, a popular plant-based hydration tablet brand among athletes, was recently acquired by Nestle.

As more companies join the category, information that explains how the products should be used and what they do for the body is incredibly important. This includes how consumers use the beverages, referring to a controversial WaterTok trend circulating on TikTok.

Brands need to produce content that better educates consumers about functional beverages. Now is the perfect time.

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Read the full article from Path to Purchase Institute, here.