Vitamin Water

Seventy percent of the human body is comprised of water. This makes drinking water quality vital. The EPA estimates the average adult consumes 1.2 liters daily or 115 gallons of community (tap) water daily while the average consumption of bottled water per capita in the U.S. is in excess of 30.8 gallons per year and is expected to continue to increase according to the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) and the Beverage Marketing Association’s 2013 report. Bottled water costs anywhere from 240 to 10,000 times more per gallon than the average cost of tap, but people’s perception that bottled water is purer, safer or healthier is driven, in part, by strong bottled water marketing campaigns that focus on news reports about crises that involve municipal water supplies. (NRDC, “Bottled Water Pure Drink or Pure Hype”) The sources for both tap and bottled waters as well as additives to either enrich or neutralize contents of water determine the mineral and chemical composition of drinking water. Is bottled water really any purer or healthier than local tap water?

Water is essential to life, scientific fact, not debatable (Tracy). More than half of all Americans drink bottled water; about a third of the public consumes it regularly (Olsen). Many drink or buy bottled water simply because they believe it is of better quality, cleaner, and better tasting. On the contrary, several individuals do not know the cons of drinking bottled water. Today, there are many misconceptions and myths about bottled water. Many people are uneducated about what goes into our bottles and how it not only affects us but also our environment. In the article “The New Oil” by Jeneen Interlandi and Ryan Tracy they discuss the issues that have to do with water and the privatization of it. They believe there is a crisis and something has to be done. Due to the cost, pollution, shortage, and health issues, bottled water should be outlawed. Water should not be controlled by water bottle companies and should not be allowed to be sold in plastic bottles.

Gleick supports this argument and cites specific grounds that disprove bottled water companies’ false claims. For example oxygenated water is said to “strengthen your immune system…and even brain function” despite scientific testing done proving that a single breath of air contains more oxygen than the product itself (Gleick 118). Next, the author recalls someone who drank nothing but super-hydrating Penta Water, which cost over sixty dollars a case. This costly expense was proven to be futile, because scientific evidence proved that Penta did not have any health benefits superior to those of ordinary water (Gleick 129). Barnett incorporates a qualifier which states that it is difficult to conclude whether bottled or tap water is healthier. However, this does not take away from the fact that the EPA, which regulates municipal water, is more strict than the FDA is with regulation over bottled water. Bottled water companies claim they intensely purify their products despite this evidence. These seemingly astonishing claims mislead consumers who do not possess the knowledge nor the equipment necessary to test the water themselves. Consumers spend money to purchase products that turn out to have no outstanding health benefits. They may additionally put their health at risk by consuming bottled water which may contain pollutants detrimental to the human body.

It’s the year 1893, Caleb Bradham a pharmacist by trade, was busy in his drugstore working on the perfect soft drink (Harding). His vision was to make a drink that would quench a person’s thirst on hot summer afternoons and desolate winter mornings. A drink that would bring people to congregate at his drugstore and increase business sales. So with excited enthusiasm he tinkered for weeks even though it seemed like years, with every two failures he would make one success. Finally, he tasted what then was known as “Brad’s Drink” and let out an exclamation that he had made it, a soft drink that made the taste buds ring with excitement (Prince). The history of “Pepsi” and its myriad use of advertisements to influence the new and young individual to purchase their product is over a century old, their battle with Coke for Cola supremacy was the primary reason for innovative advertising.

Cynthia Morrison, the CFO of Sunshine Juice Company, is scavenging for a perfect pricing strategy for its orange juice; however, this is not the company’s only problem. It is vital for Sunshine to define its target market before developing its marketing strategy, including the pricing strategy of the product.

First, water is an important resource for consumers and the environment. The body needs water to maintain health and the body’s mechanism to work properly. “People cannot survive without water resources in their everyday lives, which cost, taste, or health factors the cause for choice and how water consumption affects people and the environment” (Mythri, Chandu, Prashant, Subba, 2010, p. 515). The challenge is understanding the risk of drinking water, from either bottled water or tap water, and the adverse effects on the body system. Therefore, the better the quality of water, the less risk of drinking water from a bottle. “The most uncommon knowledge of the consumers is almost half of all bottled water comes from the same place as tap water, yet marketing tools to persuade the consumer will never unveil important information regarding this”(Liberatore, 2011, p. 69). Bottled water and tap water treatment process levels are different in a treatment process. In particular, tap water treated as high priority because of where the water comes from. The difference between the two water sources is tap water is from run offs and recycled water filtered to remove waste, chemicals, and pollutants, then processed again for all living organisms to use again. By the same token, bottled water comes from the mountain chambers and natural springs, afterward processed to maintain natural nutrients, for consumption leaving nothing to recycle.

8. Comments on the decisions of both Pepsi & Coke to enter the bottle water market instead of continuing to focus on the core products- carbonated beverages and cola- based drink in particular.

“One of the biggest challenges facing the bottled water industry is how to respond to the environmental claims levelled against it” (Grocer). Every time someone throws a bottle away, they have taken up more space in a landfill for the next four hundred fifty to one thousand years. Besides the long decomposition rate, water bottles are the cause of several more environmental issues. Overfilling landfills, health hazards caused by refilling, and the economic stresses due to the constant and inconvenient repurchasing are just a few of the negatives water bottles have on us. These plastic pollutants are doing more harm to both the environment and their users than good.

Bottled water is simply water from some sources that a company has placed in a bottle for resale. It can have minimal processing – as in natural spring or mineral water, or it can be completely filtered and dematerialized which is to remove minerals in the water to nearly pure, and then added minerals back into the water to make it taste better. In these days, “we drink 15 times more bottled water today than we did in 1976. According to the NRDC (National Resources Defense Council), “more than half of all Americans drink bottled water, and there are more than one-third of the population drinks it regularly”. And we pay big bucks for it, too – over $15 billion a year” (Buddha, pg1-2). The

Gatorade has emerged as the global leader in sports nutrition beverages by continually managing their brand to signify high energy, athletic excellence combine with one of the most efficient new product development and introduced processes in the beverage industry. As a result of being able to consistently synchronize these many components of their business so well, Gatorade today holds a 75% market share in the sports nutrition market globally today. Gatorade is owned by PepsiCo, which has made it possible for the company to sell in 80 countries today. Gatorade relies heavily on the PepsiCo distribution and retail network globally. Gatorades' revolutionary approach to managing branding for beverages has served to increase the total market size for this product category globally (Huang, Sarigöllü, 2012). Despite the continued widespread adoption of Gatorade as a healthy energy drink, the company has encountered resistance to its brand and the ingredients used for creating the many variations of Gatorade energy drinks (Tallon, 2009). Despite these setbacks the Gatorade brand continues to experience exceptional growth and stability over time.

Have you ever had any concerns about bottled water? Do you think that bottled water consumption should be banned? Bottled water is water packed in plastic containers and sold for human consumption (Health Canada, 2013). Currently, the amount of bottled water consumed has increased considerably since many people feel it is safer drinking bottled water than tap water (Parent and Wrong, 2014). According to The Statistics Portal, the global sale of bottled water took a leap from 161, 589 to 181, 608 liters from 2009 to 2011. Only in the United States, each American citizen consumed around 32 gallons of bottled water in 2013, thus meaning an equivalent growth of 15, 94% over 2009 (The Statistics Portal, 2014). In fact, due to good portability, bottled water has been helpful in both simple and complex situations such as daily exercises and natural disasters. Even though having those few considerable advantages, bottled water still have been less beneficial; especially due to the negative impacts in the socio-economic, health and environmental fields.

Energy drinks have outperformed the growth in carbonates in the last few years, and present a substantial opportunity for beverage manufacturers to extract further growth from their sales. There are many driving forces of change and critical success factors in the energy drink industry. Companies such as Coke Cola and Pepsi contend with criticism from health officials due to the excessive caffeine in most high-energy drinks. However, before the 2000’s consumers were accustomed to carbonated soft drinks as the traditional beverage. The shift to an energy drink, sports drink, and vitamin enhanced waters increased sales while becoming an alternative beverage choice for a fast-paced mobile society. Therefore, this industry endures many

There are basically three ways that water is privatized; bottled water, municipal services and bulk water sales. As a consumer of bottled water I wanted to research further and find out the truth about it. What I discovered was that we as consumers have been fooled by these water corporations. To begin with the cost of bottled water is two thousand times more than tap water. I found it absolutely ludicrous that we are willing to pay such a high price for bottled water considering it costs close to nothing to drink water from the tap. In reality, as I found out, most bottled water which we believe comes from some exotic spring is actually filtered tap water from a U.S. city. According to Food & Water Watch one third of all bottled water comes from a public water source. #4

According to PepsiCo SWOT, “it is better equipped to satisfy the needs of customers with a wide variety of successful products” (2008). PepsiCo managed to present almost every type of drink and food brands. The merchandise that is earned is the majority of their revenue. This makes them extremely at risk to change any of their marketing products. However

The focused Corporation of the subject strategic proposal is PepsiCo Beverages North America. This company was originally founded in 1898 by a North Carolina druggist. PepsiCo Beverages North America (herein referred to as the ‘Company’) sells several brands of consumer beverages in the United States and Canada. The various beverage products span through carbonated soft drinks, juices, readymade teas, isotonic sports drinks, bottled water, and enhanced waters. Several established brands include Diet Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Gatorade, Tropicana products, Aquafina Water, Sierra Mist, Mug, Propel, Sobe, and Dole. Refer to the Competitor Analysis section for in depth product information and listings.