--- title: "Is COFCO's Kamchatka a Good Card in COFCO Coca-Cola's Hand?" description: "On August 15, COFCO Coca-Cola Beverages Co., Ltd. announced the launch of its new premium bottled water 'COFCO Kamchatka' on JD.com, following its offline rollout a month earlier. The product, sourced from Russia's Kamchatka Island, targets the high-end water market, but faces challenges in brand recognition and market competition." author: "陈兴华 一鸣" publisher: "New Distribution" email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com" telephone: "+8615854817671" published: "2018-08-20" language: "en" canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/is-cofco-s-kamchatka-a-good-card-in-cofco-coca-cola-s-hand-cdd3849b/" markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/is-cofco-s-kamchatka-a-good-card-in-cofco-coca-cola-s-hand-cdd3849b.md" original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/NU1vCNAKToo9mev2bps1Jg" translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E4%B8%AD%E5%8F%AF-%E5%8B%98%E5%AF%9F%E5%8A%A0%E4%BC%9A%E6%98%AF%E4%B8%AD%E7%B2%AE%E5%8F%AF%E5%8F%A3%E6%89%8B%E4%B8%AD%E7%9A%84%E4%B8%80%E5%89%AF%E5%A5%BD%E7%89%8C%E5%90%97-cdd3849b.md" attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/is-cofco-s-kamchatka-a-good-card-in-cofco-coca-cola-s-hand-cdd3849b/" usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt" --- # Is COFCO's Kamchatka a Good Card in COFCO Coca-Cola's Hand? > On August 15, COFCO Coca-Cola Beverages Co., Ltd. announced the launch of its new premium bottled water 'COFCO Kamchatka' on JD.com, following its offline rollout a month earlier. The product, sourced from Russia's Kamchatka Island, targets the high-end water market, but faces challenges in brand recognition and market competition. Click to read the original article for details. On August 15, COFCO Coca-Cola Beverages Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as 'COFCO Beverages') announced in Beijing that its latest premium bottled water 'COFCO Kamchatka' was officially launched on JD.com. This marks the first online channel deployment after the product began offline promotion a month earlier. According to COFCO Beverages, this bottled water, sourced from Russia's Kamchatka Island, has a sodium content of 3.6mg/L and a hardness of only 51mg/L (the industry-known hardness range is 50-150), making it a natural weak alkaline soft water with low sodium and low mineralization, which can effectively alleviate physiological metabolic stress. Zhang Yang, General Manager of the Water Category at COFCO Beverages, stated that over the past month, this new product has been distributed to more than 2,000 retail points in Beijing. Sales outlets primarily include convenience stores like Lawson and 7-Eleven, as well as high-end supermarkets, and it will also be available in high-end shopping malls with high foot traffic. He revealed that in the first week of its launch on July 13, the product sold over 700 bottles from 7 vending machines at Chaoyang Joy City, exceeding sales expectations. However, since distribution has been less than a month, more sales data is not yet available. **Chinese Enterprises Enter the Premium Drinking Water Market** According to industry consensus, natural drinking water sourced from glacial meltwater, pristine water sources, and world-renowned longevity regions is generally classified as premium water. COFCO Beverages' launch of this new product clearly signals its intention to target the high-end market. According to Nielsen data, the growth rate of premium drinking water in the Chinese market in 2017 was as high as 46%-50%. The 2018 'Water Category Consumption Trend White Paper' states that China's bottled water industry annual output has ranked first in the world, with at least three times more room for growth in per capita consumption. It also indicates a trend toward premiumization in water consumption, with online sales of domestic premium water growing by 27%, far exceeding the 5% growth of mid-to-low-end water. JD.com data also shows that in the first half of 2018, online sales of water beverages accounted for 46.9% of total online water beverage sales across the entire network. Its big data reveals that consumers are increasingly favoring premium water beverages, with compound annual sales growth maintaining double-digit levels. Products such as premium mineral water, premium glacier water, and baby water are highly sought after. With further consumption upgrades, the future of the premium water market is expected to become even broader. In fact, COFCO Beverages is not alone among large companies eyeing the premium water market. Over the past three years, Nongfu Spring, the parent company of Red Bull, Hua Bin Group, and Danone have all launched their own premium water products. Among them, Danone, which owns the leading premium water brand 'Evian' in China, also introduced AORAKI, a New Zealand water brand, in 2017. Zhang Yang admitted that launching COFCO Kamchatka is intended to benchmark against competitors like Evian and VOSS, but the new product currently faces the challenge of low brand recognition. 'After all, Evian spent over a decade cultivating Chinese consumers,' he said. However, he also noted that COFCO has advantages that competitors lack, such as millions of sales outlets nationwide. The company plans to select high-quality outlets in provincial capitals and above for distribution. Partnering with JD.com is also aimed at capturing some of the target consumers of premium drinking water online. **Challenges in the Premium Drinking Water Market** However, compared to the vast market scale in China, the performance of many past premium water products and their brands has often fallen short of expectations. The reasons vary, but generally stem from insufficient market promotion, limited brand marketing capabilities, and the need to cultivate consumer groups. The sales channels for existing domestic premium water products often do not differ from those of mid-to-low-end products, and are not closely linked to consumption and drinking scenarios that match the product's characteristics. Brand marketing performance is also typically lackluster, either due to foreign companies' 'acclimatization issues' in reaching Chinese consumers or due to the limited marketing efforts and capabilities of domestic companies. Market research firm Mintel released a report titled 'Bottled Water - China, 2016', which noted that 71% of consumers believe that 'from a high-quality water source' best reflects the premium image of bottled water, including mineral water. Evian's creative campaigns have won a total of 270 awards to date. Its series of 'back to baby' concepts have resonated with many anxious young people today. These have created a strong connection between the Evian brand and consumers' lives. Sun Weiqiang, Evian's Greater China Director, once said, 'Evian is not just a bottle of mineral water, but a concept, a lifestyle.' This is perhaps what traditional Chinese bottled water companies currently lack the most. Furthermore, for water companies, economies of scale and channel diversification are core elements for sustained profitability, while product differentiation and brand building are key to winning in competition. After meeting basic thresholds such as excellent water quality and rare water sources, premium drinking water products urgently need to optimize sales channels, establish differentiated product and brand perceptions, and increase market promotion efforts. These requirements may seem simple, but they extremely test a company's comprehensive capabilities. Experts say that on one hand, China's premium water market is moving from niche to mainstream, with premium drinking water increasingly visible in supermarkets, e-commerce, and boutique stores. On the other hand, the market's brand landscape is characterized by the strong getting stronger, with well-known domestic and foreign brands holding major shares, and no niche brands have yet been able to challenge traditional established manufacturers. Against this industry backdrop, the newcomer COFCO Kamchatka still faces many issues. Source: Observer Network -END- --- ## Copyright and AI use This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL. Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671