The Truth About Bottled Water

In Marketing 101, we learn the importance of positioning and differentiating your product. I still remember the example that my professor used in class: bottled water. Water is water, right? It’s a clear and tasteless liquid. It seems pretty hard to say that your water is better than my water. Although, hard doesn’t mean impossible, and so we have a multitude of companies offering a myriad of choices with different price points. And all of these choices are really just water.

In all fairness, some bottled water seems to be purer than others. While some brands actually have their water coming from a glacier or artesian aquifer, ConsumerReports.org released the following in an article: “Forty-seven percent of the bottled water sold in the U.S. is tap water that's been purified, according to data from the Beverage Marketing Association, a trade group.” Therefore, if you live in the US, the likelihood is that you pay for filtered tap water.

Of course, the filtered tap water comes in a nice bottle, with an eco friendly cap, a slick logo and an exotic name. Brand managers do their job to get around what might be an ugly truth. Adweek released an article stating where your bottled water actually comes from. The truth is quite interesting. Check it out:

“Poland Spring: The jingle in TV spots for this brand used to boast that the water was “coming to you straight from Maine.” And it is. Just not all of it from Poland Spring. A 2002 class-action suit alleged that the brand’s namesake spring had run dry as far back as 1967. Owner Nestle settled. These days, Poland Spring water actually comes from several springs—but they’re all, apparently, still in Maine.

Dasani: This is among the best-selling water brands in the U.S., but despite the crystal-blue bottle and the exotic name, Dasani (which is owned by Coca-Cola) is actually made “with the local water supply,” to quote the website, and then filtered through reverse osmosis (which means it’s basically run through a membrane that gets the nasty stuff out).

Fiji: The surprise here is that Fiji water actually comes from Fiji, specifically the Yaqara Valley of the island of Viti Levu. This exotic water’s smooth taste doesn’t come from a filter, but rather the trace amounts of Silica and bicarbonate that come from the island’s volcanic rock. Whether or not that justifies the price is up to you.

Évian: The rather simple bottle with the blue cap belies the comparatively exotic source of this best-selling water, which is drawn from the Cachat Spring in the French village of Évian-les-Bains. That this mass-market water that sells by the case at Walmart is actually melted alpine snow is, you gotta admit, pretty cool.

Aquafina: Owner PepsiCo made headlines in 2007 when it admitted that this rather refined-sounding brand is actually just ordinary tap water. Of course, it’s treated through a variety of means, including ultraviolet disinfection and something called ozonation. But yeah, it’s tap water—specifically from municipal water sources in Denver, Sacramento and Las Vegas (source of all things pure, of course.)”

For some reason, Adweek left Voss out of their article. After doing some academic research, I will quote Wikipedia’s page on Voss:

“Voss is a Norwegian brand of bottled water from the town Vatnestrøm in Birkeland. Contrary to popular belief, the water is not bottled in Voss, which is more than 400 km away from the actual bottling site.

In 2007, Women's Health magazine rated Voss first among several bottled water. However, in tests sponsored by Finland's national broadcasting company, YLE, three blindfolded wine experts rated Voss water lowest of the six waters tested, which included Helsinki public tap water.

In October 2010, Norway's TV 2 reported that Voss has the same source as tap water from the municipal water supply in Iveland and, contrary to Voss marketing, that this is not artesian. TV 2 continued to maintain these claims despite Voss objections.”

I don't know about you, but at least at home I'm just going to continue to use my water filter and avoid the hassle & cost of bottled water.

Thanks for reading!

Best,
Pedro

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voss_water
http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/whats-expensive-bottled-water-anyway-159278
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2012/07/do-you-know-where-your-bottled-water-comes-from/index.htm
http://www.naturalnews.com/021962_bottled_water_Aquafina.html#