February 6th, 2007

Filed under:
PR and Marketing
12 Comments »

Bottled Tap Water

I recently read David Suzuki’s comments about how foolish we are for drinking bottled water:

“It’s nuts to be shipping water all the way across the planet, and us — because we’re so bloody wealthy — we’re willing to pay for that water because it comes from France,” he said in an interview.

“I don’t believe for a minute that French water is better than Canadian water. I think that we’ve got to drink the water that comes out of our taps, and if we don’t trust it, we ought to be raising hell about that.”

Then I was listening to a Marketing Profs seminar by Seth Godin (sorry, subscription only), and he also spoke about bottled water, and how it was something we wanted, as opposed to something we needed. He also encouraged his listeners to ‘think small’, which is the subject of his new book.

I feel silly buying bottled water. The fact is, I barely care about the brand, and I’m not buying it because I worry about impurities in the tap water (at least not in the developed world). I’m buying it (and I probably buy two bottles a month) because it’s a portable vessel filled with drinkable water.

Why not just put municipal tap water in a bottle, and sell it as a product called Tap Water with a plain grey label?

You could sell it for slightly less than bottled water, and I’d hope the margins would be better. It wouldn’t be a product for everyone, but there’s probably enough people out there like me who would buy it instead of Evian or whatever Coke’s brand of water is. Heck, it’s even questionable whether bottled water is better for you.

I believe an American city did this a couple of years ago, but a quick Google search couldn’t turn up anything. Like so many things, the Japanese are way ahead of us on this.

Comments: 12 Responses so far

joshnunn
February 7th, 2007
4:01 am

I dunno if bottled tap water would be as big a hit as the fancy stuff. I think you make a good point about people wanting water in a handy container, but I think tap water would make me think about the whole scenario too much. If I go out and need to buy water, I hate spending heaps on bottled water, but I do it out of necessity some times. If someone tried to sell me tap water, I’d be even MORE aware of how annoying it is (to be paying for WATER) and try even harder next time to leave the house with a bottle, or just not buy it out of principal. It would be convenient I suppose, but would just rub people’s faces in the fact that they are paying for something they could get for free in any home or office. At least bottled water feels ‘value-added’, as it’s all ‘clean and pure’ and such. Yes I realise it’s all in my head, but people think these things.

[Reply]

Dave
February 7th, 2007
6:10 am

I’m a huge fan of bottled water. I drink it all day… every day, and it goes with me wherever I go. So far, my habit has cost me next to nothing.
I’ll fill you in on my secret:
1. Go to MEC
2. Buy a Nalgene bottle (I have a 1L and a couple of 500ml for camping that I use)
3. Fill with tap water or Brita filtered water from your fridge.
4. Get hydrated with the smug self-confidence that comes from saving money AND the environment.
If you rinse the bottle from time to time with boiling water, you’ll have bottled water for life!

[Reply]

Lauren Wood
February 7th, 2007
9:04 am

The other problem with those water bottles is that people reuse them; apparently the ones made of PET (number 1 for recycling) tend to leach chemicals into the water eventually and the bacteria tend to grow in them as well.

[Reply]

wyn
February 7th, 2007
9:08 am

I see what Darren means. I would have a bottle or mug at work and drink free filtered water all day. But sometimes I’m walking downtown with a small purse or I’ve been out long and the hydration options are sugary drinks or some truly refreshing water.

We’re brainwashed now to think that $2 is worth it for 500mL of Dasani (but not $3.50 or upwards, as you will see at, say, a Canucks game).

I’d love to see the marketing survey for how “snobby” this city is, to see what kind of price this bottle tap water would be going for, and see how many people would go for it.

[Reply]

Chris
February 7th, 2007
10:20 am

joshnunn - maybe people need it to be “rubbed in their faces”, since, as wyn correctly points out, many people think that $2 is an acceptable price for something that is free.

Perhaps a little known fact, but almost any restaurant / fast food outlet will just give you tapwater, free of charge (or perhaps 10 cents for a cup). I know I’ve never been turned down.

I personally use Dave’s method - a nalgene bottle by my desk. I fill it with filtered water, but that’s only because that’s the closest water source - at home I drink tap water.

[Reply]

Celia
February 7th, 2007
9:37 pm

Most of bottled waters are just repackaged tap water. There was a 2001 Health Canada report that concluded that”distilled” and “demineralized” water means it’s de-chlorinated or demineralized municipal tap water.

Canadian Springs and Aquafina water are just repackaged local waters from municipalities like Penticton and Jasper. Dasani Canada’s water supply is a municipal water supply from a suburb near Toronto.

[Reply]

Adriana
February 8th, 2007
12:55 am

I did some research into water standards some years back and discovered that regulations differe significantly between bottled water and tap water. Bottled water falls into the food product category which basically gets s blanket regulation of “must be safe to consume”. Tap water OTOH has defined standards for a chemical concentrations, particulates, etc.

So long as municipal tap water supplies are well managed, then they are actually better regulated the bottled water.

Anyone concerned with quality is better off sticking with tap water and to installing a home filter system.

[Reply]

martin g
February 8th, 2007
11:27 am

Why not buy bottled water and drink tap water at the same time ? . . .

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1159948,00.html

[Reply]

Jane Hyde
February 9th, 2007
7:58 am

I live in Asheville, NC, where the municipal water IS indeed bottled in gallon jugs and sold in the grocery stores. Go figure. My favorite water is “refrigerator water.” I keep a large pitcher of tap water in the fridge and drink it. It tastes good. The cats love it. It’s cheap.

[Reply]

Inkbase » Bottled tap water? » Design, Art, Culture & Technology » Published by Jason Landry in Vancouver, Canada
February 9th, 2007
11:25 am

[...] Darren posted recently about bottling tap water and selling it alongside regular bottled water. It sounds odd, but I think it’s actually a very interesting idea. [...]

TallNeil
February 12th, 2007
1:40 pm

I think Suzuki’s is right. The waste of energy and materials in bottled water and is ridiculous let alone the marketing scam of it and how it lets our government off the hook. When you were a kid did you ever think you would pay for water? It is the greatest marketing scam ever. If we don’t think our tap water is clean enough then just like he said “we ought to be raising hell about that.” If we complained that our cities are dumping untreated sewage into our waterways and that we were worried it was effecting our water or that we wanted better filtering systems… then government would have to fix it. They don’t care because a private corporation has solved the problem for them by cleaning and selling the population its own water…do you see the corporate angle here? Coca-cola is selling you filter tap water and making a killing doing it. Talk about market control. That way when you want juice you get minute maid, when you want water you get Dasani and when you want a sugar pop you get coke…oh hold on they are all owned by Coke.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3809539.stm

[Reply]

Noah
March 23rd, 2007
6:59 pm

There is a project call Neau in the netherlands that does that. Basically its selling an empty bottle that allows you to fill it with tap water from your house as your ‘bottled water’.

[Reply]

Add a comment