Deep River Rock Case Study Analysis: Marketing and Recommendations

This case study analyzes Deep River Rock, a bottled water company originating in Ireland, focusing on its market position and marketing strategies. The report examines the company's growth, particularly after its merger with Coca-Cola in 1994, highlighting innovative advertising campaigns that...Read More

Running head: ANALYSIS OF DEEP RIVER ROCK CASE STUDY
ANALYSIS OF DEEP RIVER ROCK CASE STUDY
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ANALYSIS OF DEEP RIVER ROCK CASE STUDY1
Executive Summary
This report is based on the analysis of Deep River Rock bottled water organization which has
its origin in Ireland. The company is mainly known for the health benefits that are provided
by the products and the unique position of the company in the market. Deep River Rock is
marketed in Ireland by the Coca Cola company which already has a huge global brand name.
DRR has static growth even after the merger with Coca Cola in the 1994. The company then
brought in innovative advertisement campaigns for the increase in the sales of the products
and the revenue of the company. The company has been growing for the last 10 years and
recommendations have been provided in the report related to the ways of increasing market
share in the next three years.

ANALYSIS OF DEEP RIVER ROCK CASE STUDY2
Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................3
Analysis of the product and the sector...........................................................................4
Ireland water market analysis.....................................................................................4
Merger of Coca Cola and Deep River Rock Ireland..................................................4
Recommendations..........................................................................................................6
References......................................................................................................................8

ANALYSIS OF DEEP RIVER ROCK CASE STUDY3
Introduction
Deep River Rock entered the Irish market in the year 1994 and has further
experienced huge growth in the next few years. Deep River Rock is considered as a high
quality water bottle company of the Irish origin where the water is sourced from the glacial
hills of the Co Antrim. The water is also considered to be rich in magnesium, calcium,
sodium and potassium. The company has expanded its pack size and has further offered a
convenient size to the purpose of hydration (Wright and Kadir 2015). The organization has
launched the 1 litre pack in the year 2015 in response to the greater needs of the consumers.
Deep River Rock is mainly passionate about encouraging the hydration related purposes of
the consumers by providing a wide range of products and further helping in the enhancement
of physical and mental performance. Deep River Rock has launched its new recipes in the
year 2016 to fulfil the needs of the consumers (Chan et al. 2014).
Deep River Rock was converted into a global brand by the Coca-Cola Bottlers
Ireland. Coca-Cola is a global brand which has its presence in many countries in the world
and the headquarters of the company is located in Atlanta. Georgia. Coca Cola is an
organization of American origin. The sales and revenue of the company has been increasing
in the recent years and the gallon sales of Coca Cola was distributed as, 43% in US, 37% in
Mexico, Pakistan, India, Japan, Brazil and China. Deep River Rock was marketed by Coca
Cola with the help of the distribution and sales related knowledge of the company. The
company was developed into a brand with the qualities of strategic thinking and inherent
marketing. Deep River Rock had become a static brand in the year 1999 with a share of 5.2%
and the improvement was required in the company if it was to survive in the market (Ie.coca-
colahellenic.com. 2018).

ANALYSIS OF DEEP RIVER ROCK CASE STUDY4
Analysis of the product and the sector
Ireland water market analysis
The bottled water market in Ireland has been growing in a fast pace since the last few
years. The people of Ireland seem to have no problems in paying for the bottled waters and
they tend to spend more than millions on the bottled water every year. The citizens have the
tendency to spend much more on the daily usage of bottled water as compared to the water
charges that were taken by the government previously. The water bottles always have a huge
market share in the industry of Ireland. Bottled water has been one of the highest in demand
soft drink in the market of Ireland (Erevelles, Fukawa and Swayne 2016). The players in the
water bottle market of Ireland are all global brands and they fare quite well in the market as
well. The sales of the bottled waters have been growing in the recent years in both value and
volumes. The resurgent economy of the country is mainly responsible for the growth of the
sales of bottled water. The three leading players in the market of bottled waters in Ireland are,
Danone Waters, Britvic Ireland and the Coca Cola HBC Ireland. The three companies
together hols around 43% of the total market share in the country (Fresneda and Gefen 2017).
Merger of Coca Cola and Deep River Rock Ireland
The total value of the Ireland water market is around 129 million Euros and the
growing rate of the market is 11% per year. Coca Cola had undertaken the Deep River Rock
company in the year 1995 and the company still showed static growth in the year 1999. The
Coca Cola company then undertook some marketing related activities which were related to
the development of the Deep River Rock brand. The bottled water market was already filled
with many international and successful players and it was difficult for Deep
River Rock to create a position in this industry. The main consumers of the bottled waters in
Ireland were the younger population of the country (Karimi and Naghibi 2015).

ANALYSIS OF DEEP RIVER ROCK CASE STUDY5
The younger group of consumers had thereby become a lucrative market for the
company as they purchased the smaller bottles much more and in high frequencies. The main
fear of the organization was that the bottled water companies in Ireland can get commoditised
quite soon. The company had then proposed innovative advertisements for their products so
that they attract the target audience. The tagline of the first advertisement of the company was
“Water you wear”. Although the tagline had seemed to be meaningless for many people, it
became the living and brand for the company. The packaging of the bottles was also changed
and the identity of Deep River Rock in the market was completely new (Lendel and Varmus
2015).
The personality of the brand was created in a unique manner with the help of various
advertising channels including, web ambient, delivery vans, above-the-line advertising, in-
store POS and many more. The communication with the customers was performed by the
company with the help of television in the early stages as the budget was limited. Radio was
also used as a medium of advertising for the company. A new budget was injected in the
company in the year 2003 and the next stage of promotions were introduced by the company
(Žák 2015). The relationship with the consumers were improved and the company introduced
two new advertising campaigns with the names, “Convenience Store” and “Changing room”.
The advertisements were then placed on the busy stations like Dublin so that the reach of the
company can be increased further (Matei, Antonovici and Savulescu 2015).
The second phase of the marketing functions started from the year 2005 and is being
continued till the present time. The next advertising campaign had the tagline of “Purer than
you”. This was followed by the changes in packaging of the products and this helped the
organization in creating a brand in Ireland. The “Purer than you” named campaign of Deep
River rick was launched in the year 2005 and many new television advertisements were also
introduced in the market. These advertisements gave Deep River Rock the topmost position

ANALYSIS OF DEEP RIVER ROCK CASE STUDY6
in the market of Ireland. In the last 10 years the company has been growing continuously and
the credit of this has been given to the changes in the advertising related campaigns of the
company. Deep River Rock has been growing in the Ireland market from the year 1999 and
the company has achieved record sales in the 2016. The major reason behind the continuous
success of the company is the innovative advertising policy that has been designed over the
years (Rozdolskaya et al. 2014).
The range of products that are offered by the company is also increasing and it is now
able to attract more and more customers towards the brand. The various products of the
company have been moved to no calories sugar free products. The pack sizes of the products
are also increasing and is providing health related benefits to the consumers. The company
has recently introduced the “Think Straight HYDRATE’ campaign and has launched
products like, “Deep River Rock Revive Magnesium” which provides encouragement to the
consumers to “start with hydration – and stay ahead” (Whalen et al. 2016). The other product
that was launched under this campaign was named as “Deep River Rock Revive Zinc” which
urges the consumers to “start with hydration – and stay ahead”. Two other innovative
products of the company were launched with the names, “Deep River Rock Relax Mint” and
“Deep River Rock Relax Lavender”. The health benefits provided by the products of the
company are main factors that attracts the consumers of all age groups (Wright et al. 2015).
Recommendations
Innovation has been the main feature of the Deep River Rock brand and this can
further help the company to increase its sales in the market and retain the position that it has
created in the industry. The long-term advertising of Deep River Rock has been recognised
by the IAPI ADFX Awards. The company was able to build its brand in the last 10 years with
the help of the advertising policies. DRR can maintain its position by adding more products

ANALYSIS OF DEEP RIVER ROCK CASE STUDY7
to its range so that they can reach more customers. The company can also aim for global
expansion as Coca Cola is a known global brand in many countries in Europe and Asia. The
brand value of Coca Cola can be of immense help for the increasing of market share of Deep
River Rock. Deep River Rock can aim towards increasing its customer reach with the help of
social media which can help them in increasing the customer base and reach. Deep River
Rock already has a page in Twitter and Facebook and the advertising of the products in these
pages can prove to be effective for the company. Expansion of the company in other
countries and supplying their products to the global customers will help them in further
increasing their market share and maintaining their top position as well. The unique health
benefits that are provided by the products can act the selling feature for the organization in
the market. This will enable Deep River Rock to reach new heights in the market.

ANALYSIS OF DEEP RIVER ROCK CASE STUDY8
References
Chan, F.T., Nayak, A., Raj, R., Chong, A.Y.L. and Manoj, T., 2014. An innovative supply
chain performance measurement system incorporating research and development (R&D) and
marketing policy. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 69, pp.64-70.
Erevelles, S., Fukawa, N. and Swayne, L., 2016. Big Data consumer analytics and the
transformation of marketing. Journal of Business Research, 69(2), pp.897-904.
Fresneda, J. and Gefen, D., 2017. Applying Text Analysis to Determine Factors That Increase
the Assessed Usefulness of Online Product Reviews: An Abstract. In Creating Marketing
Magic and Innovative Future Marketing Trends (pp. 1405-1406). Springer, Cham.
Ie.coca-colahellenic.com. (2018). Deep RiverRock. [online] Available at: https://ie.coca-
colahellenic.com/en/brands-and-campaigns/explore-our-brands-and-products/deep-riverrock/
[Accessed 5 Mar. 2018].
Karimi, S. and Naghibi, H.S., 2015. Social media marketing (SMM) strategies for small to
medium enterprises (SMEs). International Journal of Information, Business and
Management, 7(4), p.86.
Lendel, V. and Varmus, M., 2015. Proposal of innovative approaches of relationship
marketing in business. Business: theory and practice, 16, p.63.
Matei, A., Antonovici, C.G. and Savulescu, C., 2015. Innovative Public Marketing as
Instrument for Creating the Social Value.
Rozdolskaya, I., Evtushenko, E., Somina, I. and Degaltseva, I., 2014. Problem-oriented way
and multi-aspect character of research of innovative management of competitive enterprises
at the stage of global transformations. Life Science Journal, 11(9), pp.963-970.

ANALYSIS OF DEEP RIVER ROCK CASE STUDY9
Whalen, P., Uslay, C., Pascal, V.J., Omura, G., McAuley, A., Kasouf, C.J., Jones, R.,
Hultman, C.M., Hills, G.E., Hansen, D.J. and Gilmore, A., 2016. Anatomy of competitive
advantage: towards a contingency theory of entrepreneurial marketing. Journal of Strategic
Marketing, 24(1), pp.5-19.
Wright, A.J., Veríssimo, D., Pilfold, K., Parsons, E.C.M., Ventre, K., Cousins, J., Jefferson,
R., Koldewey, H., Llewellyn, F. and McKinley, E., 2015. Competitive outreach in the 21st
century: why we need conservation marketing. Ocean & Coastal Management, 115, pp.41-
48.
Wright, G.H. and Kadir, B., 2015. Understanding Innovative Marketing Practices: An
Exploratory Case Study of Acknowledged Innovative Marketers. In Proceedings of the 1997
World Marketing Congress (pp. 121-124). Springer, Cham.
Žák, Š., 2015. The identification of innovative research methods and techniques utilized in
marketing research in the digital era. Studia commercialia Bratislavensia, 8(29), pp.139-152.