Market Research of Bottled Drinking Water

Drinking water holds a valuable place in human ration. When choosing a water brand, the consumer is guided by a number of factors. Customers place various demands on a product. Thus, during the market launch the manufacturer needs to know the consumer's attitude to a given product. The determinant factors for product purchase include consumer's knowledge of product trade names, information awareness, recognition of the product among other manufacturers, and advertising response. The marketing research was conducted in the city of Biysk (Altai Krai, Russia) and pursued the following goals: to determine public attitudes to bottled drinking water; to assess the factors that influence buying decisions; to evaluate the perspective presence of Altai Krai's manufacturers at the bottled water market. The research was done through questionnaire survey and provided fairly complete information on consumers' opinions, choices, and behavior. This survey covered different consumer categories, a total of 300 respondents of different age groups, income level, and social class. The survey results demonstrated that 56.6% of the respondents still use tap water. However, only 15.8% actually give their precedence to tap water value account; the remaining 84.2% can therefore be viewed as potential customers. The survey revealed that the major consumer's criterion for water is the product price (42.8%). The second criterion in order of importance is the water quality, which constituted 16.7% of the total number of respondents. The paper contains data on consumers' preferences by water manufacturers. The consumers were found to use water of manufacturers from other regions (51.6%). Only 42.4% gave their preference to local manufacturers, though Altai Krai is famous for its environmentally-clean drinking water sources. Price choices for drinking water were ascertained, and 53.6% of the respondents were found to be ready to pay 40 to 60 rubles per liter, which corresponds with the local manufacturers' pricing policy. When asked if the quality of local water brands is trustworthy, the great majority of the consumers (86.4%) gave credit to the local manufacturers' water quality. Based on the data on favourite brands, the most popular brands turned out to be the most promoted ones. The local manufacturers' efforts in this direction require available persuasion means, such as ad placement in mass media and promotional events at sales places.