Insights from the protein shake industry

My mom recently sent me a great article on protein drinks from the nytimes (http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/10/18/fashion/
20071018_PHYS_SLIDESHOW_index.html). Bellow is my response e-mail that outlines the key takeaways from the aritcle.


Thanks for sending the NY Times article on protein drinks. Isn't it interesting that these workout drinks have seen steady growth recently? Functional drinks seem to be the hot product right now. It struck me that the article provided some solid learnings on how to approach a fragmented high growth beverage market.


I took away two key points:

1. Established brands stretch into new product lines - 3 of the 5 drinks featured are well known brands in other beverage or workout categories. This transition of a brand to a new product line can work extremely well as long as the core equity isn't stretch too far. Successful Transition: swiffer - its brand has been expanded into air freshners and dusting tools. Unsuccessful Transition: Coke - coke plus, its tough to think that consumers will ever consider a soft drink healthy...learning: invest in new categories (water for example) to capture health segment (maybe refrain from using the coke name all together).

2. Product attributes must build upon eachother - EAS's screw on cap sets it product apart from the competition in a distinct, visual and repeatable way. As the woman said I "absolutely loved the resealable container". The intriguing detail however is that the "Muscle Milk" product also had the screw cap (saw it in the picture), but it wasn't mentioned by the author. This tells me that the cap is not the primary driver of purchase but instead the secondary or tertiary driver. My guess is that the design of the bottle comes first, with contents and taste second, and package function third. The funny thing is, frequently the fundamentals (design in this case) must be met before a consumer will consider additional attributes. This hits on a concept I have been exploring: on the margin businesses. What does it take to get to the margin? What must be delivered upon just to be considered? The thought quickly pushes you to simplicity if you're thinking about starting something new. Its also the key advantage of expanding established brands into new categories, they're frequently already at the margin from day 1.