TriVo

James Pope, Xinyue Gu , Harita Oza , Steven Jacques, Leandre Meldener

Product Development -- ENT6606.901S15

Professor: Dr. Fountain

University of South Florida

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PRODUCT

AND

TEAM INTRODUCTION

Project Team Background

There are five people in our design team. Xinyue (Amber) Gu has a finance major and
currently works at Jabil as a financial analyst. She is from China and is pursuing her
graduate study. Leandre Meldener has a marketing major and has had multiple
internships in the marketing field. Leandre is here from France to pursue his graduate
degree in Business. One of Leandres hobbies is to work out at the gym and as such is
serving as our subject matter expert. Harita Oza is from India. She also has a finance
background and has experience in crisis management and external/internal auditing.
She is currently pursuing her second graduate degree. Steven Jacques has a mass
communications major as well as finance and accounting experience. James Pope has
a mechanical engineering degree. He has experience in engineering and manufacturing
and is currently a new product project manager. Steven and James are both from the
United States.

Product Introduction
One of the team members, Leandre, had a unique water bottle made by Umoro.
Although he is pleased with the water bottle, he also routinely experiences frustration
with a few of the bottles features. The team discussed the frustration points of the
Umoro bottle with Leandre and decided to develop a new one to help customers who
experience the same frustrations. The team developed the concept of a 3 compartment
bottle that could carry sufficient electrolyte concentrate additives to get the user
throughout the day or recreational routine.
We listened to the pain points about using that bottle and brainstormed improvement
ideas. The original bottle only offers one storage compartment for nutrition powder. We
saw this as a potential area for improvement as most people like more options. We
decided to center our concept on a bottle system with three compartments instead of
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one. The three compartments would be flexible, allowing the user to use them for
different times of the day or just for longer rigorous routines. We also decided that
requiring the end user to scoop and measure powder was a pain point. We improved
upon the Umoro by pairing our system with a compressed powder capsule. The
capsules would be convenient, premeasured and easy to handle. Another issue with
the Umoro is how to keep the supplement dry until deployment. In the case of the
Umoro, if the protein becomes wet, it will not properly release from the lid and will cake
in the chamber. We identified the need to keep the contents dry until release as being
an important user need. Our design uses a combination of the compressed capsule
form and a sealed chamber to overcome the challenges that the Umoro is prone to.
The Umoro bottle also has a design flaw in that it lacks a raised feature around the
mouth opening. This was identified as an extreme frustration for users. We improved
the design by adding a protruded feature on our bottle.
Future Line Extensions
We are also planning on offering other features either at launch or post launch as well.
Being from India, Harita suggested that we have a premium bottle offering. In Indian
culture, metals are used for water storage in order to prevent disease. We plan on
offering a copper lined bottle to offer those precious minerals naturally. We also plan on
offering a glass bottle option as well for those who would like to use it for hot beverages.
More evaluation will be needed to determine the market for these features. We are also
considering a line of user convenience accessories for the bottle. Products such as an
insulation sleeve, a gel sleeve and various grips and lanyards will be offered to add
convenience to the user.

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
Thumbnail Analysis
The sports industry is a very saturated market with many players competing for a piece
of the market share. The main competitors that we have identified not only encompass

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the sports industry but also the casual beverage industry. The following are some of
those competitors:

Sports Industry

Casual Industry

Gatorade

Energy Drinks (Monster, Red Bull)

Powerade

Mio Water Enhancer

Muscle Milk

Crystal Light On the Go

Coconut Water

Other natural alternatives (Mint)

Pre Workouts (C4)

Other Supplement industry

Sports Drinks
The most dominant market of the bunch is the sports drink segment. Gatorade is ranked
as the 5th most valuable sports brand company in the world at $2.5 billion, and controls
71% of the $6.7 billion sports drink market in the United States. Gatorade has actually
seen their market share reduce from 80% just five years ago due to the increase
popularity of their closest competitor PowerAde. Gatorade and PowerAde spend large
amounts of their budget each year on marketing through television advertising,
endorsement sales promotions and events. Figure 1 below shows the changing trend in
what Americans drink over the period from 2001 to 2011. Although the trend did not
shift greatly, there was growth in the water industry. We would like to target the bottled
water market and try to convert some of that customer base to our product.

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FIGURE 1 BEVERAGE CONSUMPTION BY YEAR

FIGURE 2 RETAIL SALES OF SPORTS DRINKS BY YEAR

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As you can see form the graph in figure 2 most recent sales in millions, the sports
industry market has slowly been increasing over the past few years, and the potential
for that market in the future is even greater. The target market for these types of drinks
consists of young active adults aged 18-25 that are either students, just starting in their
career, or well established in their careers. This market grew up idolizing many of the
different sports figures that Gatorade used in their commercials such as Michael Jordan
and continue using the product as they grew up. Currently the market has exceeded the
$7 billion market, and there is no sign of it slowing down anytime soon.
Many of these sports drinks such as Gatorade are distributed on direct store delivery
through both company owned and independent bottlers in North America. In the past,
and still some current companies prefer using a warehouse delivery go-to-market
system. These products are then sold in many locations such as supermarkets,
convenience stores, gas stations, vending machines, sporting events, and sports stores.

Casual Drink Industry

The casual drink industry is another segment of the market that would be in direct
competition with our product offering. This market consists of all energy drinks such as
Red Bull, Monster, and Rockstar as well as water enhancer products such as Mio, and
Chrystal Light packets.

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The use of energy drinks is evenly spread over both gender groups, however male and
female users pay intention to various different aspects of the brand. As you can see
from the graph above female party users emphasize on price and effectiveness of the
product, while male party users emphasize on taste and packaging.
Due to the rather high price of energy drinks, their primary market are countries with
high GDP such as North America, most of Europe, and some Asian countries like Japan

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and China. However the higher the market, the more competition you experience from
other companies.
Many of the energy drink companies highly emphasize on popularity of their products
through advertising, sponsoring event such as the X-Games, and endorsement of
famous athlete such as Tony Hawk. These types of drinks and water enhancers are also
present in many of the similar locations as sports drinks such as supermarkets,
convenience stores, gas stations, vending machines, sporting events, and sports stores.
Red Bull however does have a different approach with their marketing campaigns, by
having representative (Red Bull Girls) go around college campuses and various events
giving out free Red Bull to people. This is a great way to enhance the image of the
company, and to increase brand awareness with the younger population.

Competitor Analysis
Below is a chart of the competition and their projected sales and volumes

Competitors

Average ASP

Units Sold

Revenue

Sales
Increase
%

%Market share attain

by existing competing
product

Gatorade
Perform

1.49

1,379,563,087

$2,055,549,000

7%

50

Gatorade

1.99

$437,169,800

10.70%

16.2

Gatorade G2

1.99

$423,402,000

12.10%

10.6

Powerade ion 4

1.49

$666,547,100

2.30%

16.4

Powerade Zero

1.49

$185,375,900

-1.50%

4.5

Gatorade Cool
Blue

1.99

$59,631,200

35.50%

1.4

Gatorade Frost

1.99

$57,704,270

12.90%

1.4

G2

1.59

$50,169,240

-13.90%

1.2

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219,683,3
16
212,764,8
24
447,347,0
47
124,413,3
55
29,965,42
8
28,997,12
0
31,552,98
1

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Powrade

1.49

powrade zero
ion4

1.49

27,468,96
0
21,200,64
4

$40,928,750

8.40%

$31,588,960

0.80%

0.8

Most Direct Competitor

The most direct and threatening competitor that we will face when entering the market is
the Umoro One bottle. The Umoro one is a unique water bottle that allows you to pre
load inside a compartment your favorite supplement such as protein or Gatorade and
release that power through a mechanism when you are ready.
The Umoro One sells for $28.99 worldwide and is available in
five different colors. The bottle comes with a one year hasslefree warranty in case of damage and features a BPA free plastic
bottle along with a hard silicon top where the power is located. It
holds 100cc or 50g (one heaping scoop) of power in the storage
area. The bottle is currently only available online on the Umoro
website, Bloomingdales and amazon with no special
promotions.
Their current distributors are location in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait,
Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Norway, Indonesia, Serbia and are still
looking to add more distributors.
The reception of the product by the public has been mostly
positive, especially in the bodybuilding industry and fitness celebrities. The product has
been featured on many fitness websites, and the founder of the company attends many
fitness expose in order to increase the brand awareness of his company.
The product was originally launched on kickstarter on February 19th 2013, and through
crowd funding was able to launch just a year later rising over $68,000 from 1,852
backers.

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SWOT Analysis
The Competing products have a high presence in marketing from television
advertisements to endorsements of famous athletes such as PowerAde and Gatorade.
Our direct competitor Umoro One relies on YouTube celebrities in order to market their
product. This is a low cost and highly effective way to promote the product to the public.
Our competitors are present all over the world, but the US market is by far the toughest
competing market, mostly controlled by Gatorade and PowerAde. Our direct competitor,
the Umoro One does sell worldwide, and provides free shipping for the US and Canada,
as well as a lifetime warranty on their product. Other less direct competitors are the
energy drink market. These companies are not directly competing with our product but
athletes do consume their products outside of the gym. Energy drink companies like
Red Bull heavily market their product from television advertising to endorsements of
famous athletes.

The Umoro One is not available in store, and therefore can only be bought directly from
their website. This allows Umoro to better control their product, and not have to pay
distribution costs to retailers. Other competitors such as PowerAde and Gatorade are
distributed in all major supermarket, convenience stores, and vending machines around
the world. PowerAde and Gatorade are lower prices products that rely on repeat buys in

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order to make money. Other competitors such as Red Bull are also easily found in
many resellers such as convenience stores and supermarket.

Voice of Customer & Specifications

We designed our bottle system and supplement capsules to be cheap. Currently the
Umoro bottle is not as cost competitive as other competitive devices on the market. We
are designing our system so that the capsules are competitive with single serve powder
additives, such as G2 and others. We are designing our bottle to stay under the $20
threshold.
We started the design process by brainstorming the user needs for our system and
discussing what we should prototype. The user needs were ranked and the must
haves were identified. We decided that the bottle must be able to accommodate at
least 20 ounces of water and have a storage and deployment system for 3 supplement
capsules. Based on our research and concentration calculations, 20 ounces of water
would require approximately 26 cc of powered concentrate. We designed our product
accordingly. We decided to incorporate the chambers in the lid for easy filling.
Incorporation into the lid also mitigated the risk of a water leak, saturating the
concentrate capsule during storage. We decided that the bottle should be easy to grab
with one hand and that it must fit in a standard cup holder. We identified clear and/or
tinted polycarbonate as the material for the reservoir. A mixing ball may be included
with the system, based on initial test results, to agitate the liquid aiding in dissolving the
supplement into solution.
The second part of our system consists of powdered concentrate supplement. We
decided to compress the mixture into a capsule form to aid in handling. The rehydration
bottle works in conjunction with the compressed capsules. We decided that our initial
offering of supplements would consist of the following: pre-workout, workout, and post
workout. In addition to supplements, we would offer a line of basic water flavoring

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additives including strawberry, lemonade, cucumber, orange and berry. We also are
discussing offering a fiber offering that can be deployed and dissolved in the system.

Marketing Plan
Our product was produced to satisfy a need in the market that no other blender bottle
has done so far. We feel that because of the simplicity and easy access to our product
would eventually take over the market and gain a substantial share of the current
market of the sport bottle industry. If we license out the product to an existing
supplement concentrate manufacturer, we believe that our product could eventually
cannibalize their existing product line. Here are some reasons why our improvements
focus on multiple functionalities by giving the customer the capability to add 3 essential
supplements that cover for an average day of physical conditioning. The convenience
of having an all in one bottle that can successfully store and keep dry your supplements
is key for the average customer. The cheaper product on the market, the Blender Bottle
Brand, only offers a sole function and can only hold one supplement at a time. As with
all new product customers would be hesitant of accepting a new bottle. On the other
hand when the customer see the price point of this bottle and all the new function for a
reasonable price it would soon take large margin from our direct and indirect
competitors.
This product is providing a unique combination that can aide in two separate industries
for a new product line in a company. If we solely focus on the supplements, we could
sell our bottle concept to Blender Bottle or Umoro. We then could focus on the
packaging of the supplements. We could also focus on manufacturing of our bottle and
sell or license the rights to the compressed capsules to Gatorade or other
Vitamin/Supplement Shops. Both strategies have great viability. We could also decide
to keep our product in house and offer both the bottle and the supplements.
Our product will be aimed at the active population who are looking for a bottle than will
be able to last them the entire day, with their favorite beverages already pre-loaded.
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Everyone needs to drink more water, but no one enjoys drinking unflavored water. This
is where our product will fill a gap, where people will be able to purchase different
capsules of various tastes and content, in order to have satisfied the customer without
having to constantly go out and buy another bottle of their favorite beverage.
Product Positioning / Price
Our most direct competitor Umoro One sells for $30 a bottle. To compete with it, our
bottles price will be $19.95. Whats more, we will also offer nutrition capsules. Each
capsule will only charge for $0.35 average. The bottles price will be in the middle to
upper market price range. The capsules price will be in the middle market for
concentrate powder in individual servings.

Launch Plan
We plan on using extensive use of both social media and online presence to launch and
advertise our product. We also plan on partnering with competitive events, such as
CrossFit and Tough Mudder, to provide our product as part of either a prize package or
part of the participant package. Physical distribution will be diverse, utilizing department
stores, sports and supplement stores. Our primary online presence will be through
Amazon.

RESEARCH

AND

DEVELOPMENT

Prototype Process
Once we had the user needs defined, we translated those into product sketches. The
team sketched up a number of concepts, migrating toward the proposed design we
have today of a basic container with a simple lid consisting of 3 compartments. Further
visualization was completed by modeling the product in AutoCad. Our next steps will be
to rapidly prototype the product and gather expanded VOC feedback outside our initial
team.

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Bottle Product Specifications

Following the concept phase, we developed the following product specifications:

20 ounce fluid capacity

3 individual supplement chambers
Chamber diamensions diameter
Chamber volume 26cc
Material: Polycarbonate or similar
Dishwasher Safe
Impact resistance (dropped from 6 feet)
Must fit into cupholder
Must be able to be held by one hand
Must be resealable
Must keep supplement dry

Supplement Product Specifications

Compressed form
Diameter
Volume 26cc
Pre-workout: 25g Carbohydrates/Vitamin B6
Workout: 160mg Sodium/ 45mg Potassium/ 7g Carbohydrates
Recovery: 16g Protein/ 41g Carbohydrates
Protein whey (future)
Fiber (future)
Lime Flavoring
Cucumber Flavoring
Berry Flavoring
Individually packaged / sealed
3 year shelflife
Offered in mixed mulit-packs as well as individual flavors

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MANUFACTURING
Manufacturing Strategy
After we did some research about the materials, we decided to use commodity
materials, and stay away from proprietary engineered materials. The bottle will be
made of polycarbonate with the lid being made of either opaque polycarbonate or a
polycarbonate / abs blend. These materials have FDA clearance for food contact
already and are readily available at economic prices. We also anticipate using a
contract manufacturer initially so using readily available materials will make the contract
manufacturing process smoother. The material cost will be a small fraction of the
product cost. Most of the cost will be associated with the custom molding of our
hydration bottle. There are 6 unique parts, and we anticipate small volumes initially,
thus a large percentage of our COGS will consist of molding setup times and minimum
lot charges. The COGS will improve as we increase in volume and/or insource the
molding process. We are currently investigating long term partners for molding,

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however we will utilize ProtoLabs initially for prototype parts as well as production parts
off bridge tooling.
Assembly will be done internally. We anticipate small volumes initially, so a small
operation can be established with minimal overhead. The size of the organization will
grow organically as volumes increase. Injection molding will be outsourced to a
strategic partner, initially ProtoLabs then to a local injection molding firm.
The supplement will be completely outsourced. The materials are cheap, however,
procurement and handling is better served at a custom compounder. We are
researching options, but our partner will need to have the ability to procure materials,
custom blend a recipe and compress the mixture into capsule form. The compounder
partner must have the ability to package the capsules as well, ideally in a form-fill-seal
process using a foil pouch. The packaged capsules would be provided to our
organization in bulk form for custom kit packaging in varipacks as well as single type
multipacks.
We are going to position our product to the athletic community, especially the gym /
cardio sector and a product of convenience that can offer electrolyte replacement and
hydration in a convenient system without having to carry multiple bottles of pre-mixed
product. Our bottle can provide 60 ounces of supplemented hydration drink in a single
convenient package. We are also going to position our product as cost competitive.
We anticipate our bottle will retail for approximately 20 dollars and the capsules will be
approximately 0.30 0.50 per serving. The capsules are competitive with single service
packaged supplement powder today. We may target a 20% premium over competitive
product based on the convenience our product offers, however, we will need to do
further market research first to see what the consumer can bare.

REGULATORY
We anticipate some regulatory approval, especially regarding the supplements. We
plan on using FDA approved materials for the water bottle so we anticipate little

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challenge with the bottle. Procurement of food grade materials for the supplement and
establishing a compliant manufacturing process will be a challenge for our company, so
we anticipate on partnering with outside council to advise us through the regulatory
review process, particularly the FDA.

IP / LEGAL RISK
The current product, Umoro, has a patent pending in the United States. Although not
awarded yet, we fully anticipate Umoro will be awarded their patent protection as they
have a unique concept that they are filing to protect. We considered their IP and
redesigned our product so that we would not be infringing if they were awarded their IP
protection. Although we feel that we are not infringing, we do anticipate possible legal
challenges we will need to overcome.

References
10 Step Marketing Plan (Gatorade). (n.d.). Retrieved April 19, 2015, from
http://www.slideshare.net/beltamayo/10-step-marketing-plan-gatorade-11810792
Warmoth, B. (2013, October 10).Sports drinks: A $6.9B market-and it's only getting bigger. Retrieved
April 19, 2015, from http://www.fooddive.com/news/sports-drinks-a-69b-marketand-its-only-gettingbigger/180655/
THOMPSON, D. (2013, January 15). How America Drinks: Water and Wine Surge, Cheap Beer and
Soda Crash. Retrieved April 19, 2015, from How America Drinks: Water and Wine Surge, Cheap
Beer and Soda Crash

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