Soft drink health claims on the rise

Soft drink launch activity is on the rise again, with the last two years showing strong acceleration after three years of more restrained rises. At over 43% of all new product launches, fruit juices and drinks have dominated launch activity, reflecting the trend towards healthy and natural products.

Carbonated drinks took second place to fruit drinks, making up 14% of all new product activity, followed by iced tea and coffee drinks, sports and energy drinks, and plain and flavoured water.

While shares of carbonates, fruit juice drinks, concentrates and mixes, and iced tea and coffee have risen over the past five years, shares of bottled water - both flavoured and unflavoured - and sports and energy drinks have fallen. But, according to Innova Market Insights Research Manager Lu Ann Williams, declining launch activity does not spell poor market performance overall.

“Sports and energy drinks remain one of the fastest-growing sectors of the market over that period, despite their share of global soft drinks launch activity falling from a peak of 13% in 2005 to just under 7% today,” Williams said.

“Consolidation of the increasingly mature market, particularly the greater dominance of multinational brands and the disappearance of many smaller brands, is probably the main reason for slowing activity rates, although actual launch numbers did still rise over the five-year period.”

Launches of soft drinks with a health positioning are gaining momentum, with over 58% of launches recorded by Innova in the 12 months to the end of June 2012 having a health claim. Of these, more than half use passive health claims and 18% use active health claims, which may indicate that a number of products use both types of claim together.

Active health positioning includes vitamin- and mineral-fortified, added-calcium and functional product claims, as well as claims relating to specific health benefits like immune health, heart health and oral health. Passive health positioning includes sugar-free, low-calorie and natural claims.

Health claims relating to naturalness and the absence of artificial additives and preservatives were the most popular, and encompassed a broad range of products. Water and juices were the most common beverages with these kinds of health claims as they tend to be seen as inherently fairly natural or can be easily reformulated to use this type of claim. More than 23% of launches were marketed as additive- and preservative-free, while nearly 13% sported claims of naturalness. Over 30% of all soft drink launches use either one or both of these claims. Adding organic claims to these figures brings the total to 35% using one or more of the three claims.

Low-calorie and diet drinks have maintained their popularity, with reduced-sugar lines coming in just ahead of low-calorie products in terms of health claims. Approval for stevia-based sweeteners in the US, Australasia and Europe has boosted these products considerably. As demand for ‘clean label’ products rises, these products have filled the gap in the market. In the first half of 2012, the number of product launches of stevia-sweetened beverages had already overtaken the 2011 total, with Innova recording particularly high activity in the USA.