Bottled Water

BOTTLED WATER

Introduction

In the United States, total annual sales of bottled water in 2008 were over 30 billion liters, having more than doubled in only a decade. Averaged out, each man, woman, and child in the United States consumes approximately 100 liters of bottled water, costing more per unit volume than gasoline. Worldwide growth has been even more explosive, posting yearly growth of more than 7 percent per year, and more than a dozen countries, including Mexico, France, and Italy, consume even more per capita. This makes bottled water the fastest-growing bottled beverage in the world and a very hot marketing category.

Thesis Statement

Sales for bottled water in the United States are estimated to be between 50 and 100 billion dollars (US) annually and increasing approximately 7 to 10 percent annually.

Discussion

Given this, it is not surprising that large corporations such as Nestlé, PepsiCo, Danone, and the Coca-Cola Company have entered the bottled water industry, acquiring various bottled water brands or launching their own with exotic sounding names like Aquafina (PepsiCo) and Dasani (Coca-Cola), as well as those listed, alongside their market share. In addition to basic bottled water products, many companies are seeking to add value to water in the following ways:

Through the introduction of additives intended to make water more nutritional. So- called vitamin waters and flavored waters have become the latest variant of bottled water products, primarily being developed by Coca-Cola and Nestlé. Aimed at the style- and health-conscious 18- to 35-year-old demographic, these “functional waters” claim to promote health and sports performance.

Through increasingly complex (and expensive) packaging. The epitome of this is Bling water, which is contained in a rhinestone-encrusted bottle designed by Swarovski and retails for $40/liter.

By the creation of a distinction between basic and premium water. In March 2007, the first industry conference, “Towards the Creation of a Premium Water Society,” was held in Barcelona, Spain, with the specific objective of developing strategies for enlarging the gulf between tap water and bottled water.

The bottled water industry has also developed a market for so-called premium waters. Such brands include Berg from Canadian glaciers, sold for 33 dollars per bottle in hotels; Peteroa 9500 from Chile, which is marketed on the basis that it has been “filtered through glaciers” over 9,500 years; and Fiji, which touts its sources as among the most pristine in the world. Yet, such waters are shipped thousands of miles around the world, incurring huge carbon footprints. These waters are now increasingly evaluated in much the same way as fine wines would be described at a wine tasting, leading to the publication of the first connoisseurs' guide to “fine waters” in 2006.

However, blind taste tests with consumers have failed to produce any discernible differences between bottled and tap water. Notwithstanding this fact, it is a standard part of many restaurants' business model to push higher-margin bottled waters on customers, raking in between $200 and $350 million per annum from bottled water sales alone, but also triggering an “Ask for Tap” backlash in the United ...