The Timeless Style of the Perrier Bottle

Our French icon this time is the simple green bottle with an English connection, whose history of carbonated water and creativity is a model of branding.

Every year, two quintessentially French social events signal the start of summer: Cannes film festival and Roland Garros, the French Open tennis tournament. Appearing as an habitual sponsor at the latter, the famed green and white logo of Perrier bottled water signals ‘refreshment time’ for millions of TV viewers. As a brand, it is as firmly embedded in the French national psyche as Renault and Lacoste, an instantly recognisable symbol of fine-bubbled elegance. Perrier water has serious history. It was drawn from a spring at Les Bouillens in Vergèze, Gard, as far back as 218BC when the Carthaginian general Hannibal stopped off for a cool-down on his march to Rome (his enemies, the Romans, later built the first spa baths there to relax in the bubbling waters). Fast-forward to 1863 during the reign of Emperor Napoleon III, and a decree authorised the exploitation of the spring. In 1868 Alphonse Granier, the owner of the site, built a spa resort offering various bathing options and water sampling.

Granier dubbed the water ‘the princess of table waters’ in an advertisement. By 1894 and under new ownership, the spa was in need of a pep-up, a job bestowed upon Louis Eugène Perrier, a physician and director of a spa at Euzet-les-Bains, about an hour north of Vergèze. He set about creating the optimum blend of water and gas and designed the very first bottle. But he needed investment and it is here that the birth of the iconic green bottle took place.

St John Harmsworth, brother of wealthy British press magnates (Daily Mail and Daily Mirror), bought shares in the company, and decided to keep the name Perrier. In 1905 a Royal Warrant was awarded and exports to the British Isles and its colonies, in particular India, began. Here is a true fact nugget for trivia fans: the unusual shape of the bottle by now grandiosely named the ‘champagne of table waters’ was designed by Harmsworth himself and was inspired by an Indian club, which he used as part of his fitness regime. Top engineers were brought over to the Gard to set up sophisticated machinery, perfecting an industrial bottling process and in 1907, an astonishing 7.5m bottles were produced of which 7m were exported mainly to London, with a small number going to New York. This would rise to 18m bottles worldwide by 1933.

As well as the instantly recognisable green bottle, nifty marketing was key in France. In 1936, The Perrier Girl was born-Jean-Gabriel Domergue depicted a tennis player relaxing post-match or quaffing a drink at a bar, with advertisements appearing in magazines. Meanwhile a promotional campaign used top writing talents of the time: Colette wrote of the water being “… nice and cold and bright with bubbles so full of natural gas that it moistens the nostrils and eyelashes as you drink it…”.

Factory expansion and a bottle manufacturing plant drove growth and by 1988, Perrier was sold in 119 countries with more than 1bn bottles produced annually, while creativity drove brand promotion. Memorable zeitgeist-capturing moments include the 1949 slogan ‘Perrier, l’eau qui fait pschitt’, (Perrier, the water that goes pschitt), referring to the sound made when the bottle is opened; and Salvador Dalf’s 1969 poster ‘Pour la source Perrier’, which was offered to all readers of France-Soir and Le Figaro. The artistic collaborations continue to this day for a brand perpetually moving forward yet still holding tradition dear-notably, Philippe Starck recently reimagined the green bottle to mark 160 years of Perrier. The little green ‘club’ bottle remains as legendary and attractive as ever.

From France Today Magazine