Fiji Water is one of the biggest bottled water companies in the United States, selling at a cost three times of common bottled water. And the entire empire is based upon its brand – its cool, its green, its from Fiji. Not to self: one of the pitfalls of revolving your marketing strategy around supposedly magical properties of water from a far-off politically unstable country is that when the country has a military coup, you better get in bed with the new regime quickly or you will find yourself without a brand.
Fiji went into martial law in 2009. Since then Fiji Water has been involved with the military in a variety of legitimate and illegitimate ways, as Mother Jones reported in 2009. The drama finally boiled over in November 2010, when the acting Prime Minister and former Chief of Army of Fiji, Ratu Epeli Ganilau resigned over Fiji Water. That’s right, Ganilau was one of the five most powerful people in Fijian Military Junta and he resigned over water! Not even sugared water like Coke, just plain water. Commodore Frank Bainimarama, the head of the junta, wanted to deport a Fiji Water employee on account of his “interference in the local politics” and Ganilau resigned rather than sign the deportation order. His resignation marked the first sign of split in an otherwise united military regime. 2011 may bring meltdown of the Fijian military regime, all part of branding exercise of a company.
Although it has to be admitted that at least Fiji has a government unlike Nepal…
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