Doonsbury Takes on Bottled Water
The December 2, 2007 issue of Doonesbury in the Sunday comics (http://www.doonesbury.com/) included an excellent indictment of the bottled water industry. As “entrepreneur Chad Severnson” explained in the strip, “bottled water is a triumph of perceived need over reason – the greatest marketing coup in history.”
In Own It, I describe the market influence of bottled water:
Public concerns about the quality of tap water (possibly fueled by bottled water advertising and marketing) suggest that fresh water is scarce. As the scarcity increases (at least in consumers’ minds) the bottled water becomes more relevant. Brand names provide an exclusive difference between the competing bottlers, so that the most well respected name in water will become the most successful.
Bottled water serves as a prime example of the interaction between [scarcity and relevance] because water is essentially a commodity throughout the United States, not significantly superior in quality or taste to most of the free tap water available. Nonetheless, the market continues to grow as the public becomes increasingly willing to buy the product.
As bottled water becomes more and more relevant in the minds of the consumers, some retailers have stopped providing free paper cups of water. Bars, movie theaters and concession stands have increasingly stopped providing free water because the public is no longer offended at being forced to purchase something that should be free.
Relevancy can transform market practices and public perception. Just as the producers of bottled water have changed the social relevance of an unnecessary commodity into a prized symbol of status, other commercial vendors, politicians, and community activists seek to shape public norms and create relevance in their message or merchandise.
We regularly play out the bottled water debate in my home because the notion of paying for plain, bottled water offends me. But it does highlight how important it is to develop the perception of relevance for a product or service. While I hate promoting bottled water, anyone who agrees that bottled water is a wasteful practice must also recognize implications of its marketing success.
