It's True, The Emperor Really Is Naked
For a long time at brandmanagement we have carried the message to clients that in the absence of significantly unique and differentiated products in any industry – brand, brand affection and brand clarity are paramount.
The rationale is straight forward – in the financial services industry it’s often very difficult for consumers to distinguish the difference between and the value of the various products and services on offer.
To outline this difficulty let’s use the example of the bottled water industry.
The selling of water isn’t new – there are jars designed for selling water that are 5,000 years old and in 1863 Napoleon III of France started bottling water at Les Bouillens, which later became the source of one of the world’s most famous bottled waters, Perrier.
There is also ample evidence that consuming water is good for you, well certainly better than soft drinks or caffeine drinks, but is it better than drinking water from the tap in most developed nations?
Apparently customers don’t care as long as it’s branded and bottled.
The biggest selling bottled water in America – where apparently the average per head consumption has hit 107 litres per person per year – is a brand called AquaFina and owned by Pepsi Co.
It’s source, however, to date has been a mystery.
For other branded waters the source of their H20 forms part of their branding.
Perrier, as mentioned, emanates from springs located in the city of Vergèze located in the south of France, between Nîmes and Montpellier and where even Hannibal stopped to water his elephants, San Pelegrino in Italy bubbles up from volcanic springs in Tuscany, while it’s widely known the USA’s number two product on the market – Poland Springs – starts life in an underground aquifer in the aptly named Saratoga Springs.
Yet for AquaFina – its source is somewhat mysteriously referred to as P.W.S.
The problem now is that Pepsi Co. has been forced to be clearer about what PWS is – so now the bottles are going to carry the words ‘Public Water Source’.
Yep… that’s right the public has been paying $1.00 a bottle for filtered tap water.
Now it seems Coca Cola – which sells the Dasani brand (a word which Coca Cola freely admits they made up thinking that customers would find its sound crisp and fresh) are going to be encouraged to follow suit, but are resisting – saying that no one is confused about what Dasani is as it clearly says filtered water on the bottle.
That’s a bit like saying that the Emperor isn’t naked, merely clothing challenged.
Andrew says:
Hi Terry – glad you asked – we’ve actually done some of that research for our own interest just to see what the consumners were thinking – if you want a summary of the research just send me an email to andrew@brandmanagement.com.au.