An image worth bottling: the branding of King Island Cloud Juice

The Cloud Juice brand of bottled water parlays the conventional image of a small island – in this case, King Island – into a popularly agreeable narrative of prestige, purity and ecological responsibility. Whilst this is not the first or only brand of bottled water to exploit the exotic appeal of islandness, Cloud Juice has a particular advantage: much like King Island, its appeal rests less on some hackneyed cliche than a shrewd manipulation of small-scale production and big-picture politics. There is a very close fit between the marketing of Cloud Juice as 'gourmet and green' and the growing recognition of King Island as a site of environmental innovation. This article shows that such symmetry bodes well for both branding in general and the branding of bottled water in particular.