Sleeper proves a summer hit

By IRENE CHAPPLE

A low-key venture is riding the big-spending glamour of the America's Cup.

Eighteen months ago, and for $10,000 each, Vaughan Jones and Mark Scherer started Aquae.

It was a simple concept, but rapidly found favour with giant corporations such as American Express and Fuji Xerox.

Jones, who has a marketing background, and Scherer, a freelancer in event management, had stumbled on a sleeper - arranging brand labelling on bottled water.

Jones had seen such businesses in the United Kingdom.

When he started promoting the branded-water idea to hotels, he was even more surprised to find they frequently stocked French water.

Jones' solution: Providing Waiwera New Zealand water with labelling to promote individual brands.

The branded water can be used in one-off promotions or as an ongoing marketing tool. Price varies depending on the number of bottles labelled.

"[Customers] are associating their brand with something healthy and clean," says Jones. "It is a vitalising product and it is associating the brand with something positive."

Scherer says clients buy for two reasons.

"Some people want the water, the liquid you can drink. Some people want the branding tool. What we are really selling is the ability for people to be holding their brand."

The duo's early days were spent door-knocking, signing up hotels that stocked bottled water in their minibars.

Aquae then expanded, signing up fundraising clients such as the Girl Guides, and, in corporate branding, companies such as Bayleys Real Estate.

"Bayleys used it to promote an apartment complex," says Scherer.

"They had an awesome response - people were ringing up and saying, 'We got your bottled water ... We've been to the website and we want to talk to you about buying an apartment'.

"They said that for the price of the water, they got the response they would have got if they had spent five times that amount on newspaper advertising."

Jones and Scherer then spotted a niche for Aquae in the America's Cup buildup - branded water for the sponsors.

"We have American Express and Fuji Xerox, and we are talking to some others," says Jones.

He believes the potential is huge, because alongside the main sponsors lie multitudes of smaller ones.

Jones says interest is also coming from overseas. Companies keen to stock New Zealand water are contacting Aquae through its website.

The business has paid itself off, with Jones and Scherer now effectively administrators between the label designers, water bottlers and customers.

"Once the system is in place it's really quite easy," says Jones.

His advice to other small business entrepreneurs, however, is cautious. "Make sure you get things right from the start. Take small steps."