Product Assessment

Name Institution Professor Date of submission Declining consumer product: Bottled water As years go by, the market for bottled water in the US is taking a nose dive after growing steadily for years. In other countries worldwide, bottled water is on a steady path of growth and popularity but in the US it is not so. According to research by the beverage marketing Corporation, the market for bottled water is expected to increase by only 6.7% this year. This is a miniature increase observed so far this decade. The demand and consumption for bottled water in the US has been high over the years but recently it has been facing some opposition. This has been brought about by the decision by several firms and institutions to go local by preferring tapped water over packaged products. This includes schools, municipalities and restaurants. The reasons considered for this switch ranges from social justice, economic and environmental reasons (Block 2013). The cost of bottled water per cubic meter sold in many industrialized nations is $500 to $1000. This is a lot of money compared to the $0.50 for municipal water in certain states including California. In addition, up to 40% of bottled water comes from the countriy`s water supplies and this implies that bottled water is not necessarily cleaner than tap water as many people tend to believe. The energy required for the processing, packaging and transporting of bottled water is also very high making it expensive. Also the cost of disposing of plastic bottles annually is quite high at about $70 million. This is because most of the waste plastic bottles (approximately 2 million tons) are sent to landfills as compared to the 23% of the bottles that are recycled by cities and municipalities. This is according to the world watch institute report of 2007. Consumer preferences are being turned by such concerned. At the US mayors` conference more than 200 mayors voted to phase out the use of bottled water by the government following in the footsteps of cities like San Francisco (Block 2013). The bottle campaign was launched in the US in 2006 and 6 years down the line, more than 50 cities have stopped spending on bottled water or significantly reduced spending on the same. In addition up to 60 restaurants in the US have devoted to serve tap water and not bottled water. This is the reason as to why the demand for bottled water is declining in the US. Off course bottled water won`t be completely banished but reforms on the production and use of plastic by huge companies like Coca-Cola is what will be observed (Block 2013). The marketers of bottled water first need to try to remove the tainted image associated with the bottled water. This is centered on the fact that bottled water pollutes the environment. The marketers need to convince the consumers that recycling of used bottled is improved and that less bottles are being sent to landfills. In addition the producers of the bottles need to cut on the amount of plastic used on the bottle if necessary. For instance the coca cola company took a bold step to reduce the...