BENSUR’S LATEST MARKETING INITIATIVE GOES TO THE DOGS

Wednesday February 27, 2008

Bottled Water for pooches makes it easy to market

Man’s best friend is known for settling for the cool fresh water of a toilet bowl to quench its thirst.

But now the world’s fourth largest soft drink maker is throwing its marketing might behind a new bottled water product just for dogs.

Cott Corp. has introduced FortiFido. With flavors ranging from peanut butter to lemongrass, it’s billed as the first nationally branded line of fortified water developed specifically for canines.

Charles Calise, Cott’s director of innovation for North America, acknowledged that some consumers and even Cott employees responded with “You’re going to do what?” when they first learned about plans for FortiFido. “We’ve gotten a couple of retailers that have said, ‘No, my customer is just not ready for this,’ ” he said.

But Cott is targeting those dog owners who’ll spare no expense for their pets. “People will buy products for their dogs to keep them happy and, in a lot of cases, they’ll treat them better than they do themselves,” Calise said.

The one- and two-liter bottles, with suggested prices of $1.39 and $2.29, come in four natural flavors. Peanut butter FortiFido is fortified with calcium to help maintain Spot’s
bones, while the parsley flavor contains zinc to promote healthy skin. There’s also spearmint to freshen a dog’s breath, and a lemongrass flavor with nutrients to help maintain healthy joints.

FortiFido’s launch follows 18 months and $80,000 of product development and research by food scientists and veterinarians. Humane societies allowed Cott to conduct tastings with more than 100 dogs to make sure flavors were pooch palate-worthy. Treated and filtered municipal water is used for FortiFido, which is safe for human consumption. Cott actually tailored the flavors to pet owners’ olfactory senses and steered away from dog favorites such as beef and liver, which were deemed unpleasant
kitchen smells.

Cott had been eyeing the dog water market for some time, but waited until consumers embraced the functional benefits of fortified water to make its move, said Calise. Value-added water is a very fast-growing segment of the bottled water industry. Sales hit $1.46 billion in 2006 and are expected to exceed $3 billion by 2010, according to Beverage Marketing Corp.

“Two years ago, this would not have been accepted,” Calise said. “But we think the timing is right for providing dogs the same benefits that were given to their human counterparts.”

But Robert Vansickle believes FortiFido’s launch may be inopportune. Vansickle, who owns the Polka Dog Bakery in Boston’s South End, said economic concerns have
prompted dog owners to be more discerning about their purchases for Fido. “Business has changed in the last six months,” Vansickle said. “ They’re buying more food and less of everything else.”

View full article in BostonHerald.com