Fortified Doggie Drinks - Enriched Water for Dogs

This is a little story my colleague TrendHunter did not want to post as the company involved has a zero level regarding packaging innovation. It has nothing to do with proper food innovation either, but it shows how in shambles the ordinary soft drink business is.
Cott, world’s largest bottler of soft drinks under private label, is desperately trying to find a new market, as the consumer is leaving the soft drink market looking for more organic, healthy and energy drinks with less sugar, calories and other additives. Like all other manufacturers, including Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Cadburry, Colt is struggling with flagging sales of its carbonated beverages, its main core business. But unlike the others Cott does not show any innovative initiative in the creation of new recipes. That’s the problem serving solely private labels which depend totally on the supermarket chains and others.

Nevertheless the directors of Colt think they are clever and presume they found the golden egg. With the more or less 40 billion USD market in the USA alone in mind, Colt happily announced in a presentation to investors in Tampa, Fla., a new line of flavoured vitamin water for dogs called Fortifido. Rick Dobry, the company’s president of North American operations, said “… This is a great example of what Cott can do in [the]’new age.’” while a week thereafter he had to announce a fourth-quarter loss of USD 76.8 million and a net loss in 2007 of USD 73.1 million, remaining the laughing stock in innovation land in a US economy tipping into recession.

But back to the great new, innovative product. The water made its official debut at the Global Pet Expo in San Diego last month and is expected to be priced between USD 1,49 and USD 1,99 for resp. a 1 ltr and 2 ltr bottle. The water fortified with calcium and zinc will be sold in flavours including peanut butter, spearmint, zinc and lemongrass and touted for its bone-strengthening and healthy skin properties.

For the pet owners who still want to enrich their dogs, here are the flavours offered by Colt:
HEALTHY BONES: (Peanut Butter Flavoured) Formulated with Calcium added to help maintain healthy bones in adult dogs.
FRESH BREATH: (Spearmint Flavoured) With Spearmint added for fresh breath for all stages of life.
HEALTHY JOINTS: (Lemongrass Flavoured) Formulated with Nutrients added to help maintain healthy joints in adult dogs.
HEALTHY SKIN: (Parsley Flavoured) Formulated with Zinc added to help maintain healthy skin for all stages of life.

Ask your dog first which taste he/she likes before you frustrate his/her daily tap, natural or mineral water supply. He/she might not be happy with your choice and ridicule.
As said the innovation of the packaging is zero. It is an ordinary PET-bottle*) Colt is manufacturing and filling by the millions. Better have a look at a post of my colleague TrendHunter: “Doggy drinking fountain for on-the-go - first-ever water drinking pouch for dogs” if you are interested in something innovative in “doggy water wonderland”
As said the Cott PET-bottle is of no importance in terms of innovation, therefore I decided not to post an image of something so valueless, and in stead preferred a lovely looking girl with her beloved dog.

I finish this post with a comment of a blogger (Forgive me, I don’t know where I picked it up so I am not able to refer to his website. Sorry):
“Bottled water is ridiculous. It’s the same water as the water coming out of your home’s faucet-except it isn’t tested as frequently. And it’s over 1000 times more expensive. All the plastic bottles are creating mountains of waste that persist for millennia. ........”

*) PET - Polyethylene Terephtalate. Tough, temperature resistant polymer.  Biaxially oriented PET film is used in laminates for packaging, where it provides strength, stiffness and temperature resistance. It is usually combined with other films for heat sealability and improved barrier properties. Widely used for blow-moulding bottles.