Know-How Exchange : Strategy

You may be packaging this product (water), and you may be marketing it but I seriously doubt you'll be "manufacturing" it.

By the sound of your question, and although you may have done extensive work on the product, to my ear, it sounds as if you've done less work on both the business planning and the marketing planning side of things.

The other thing to bear in mind is your market.

The competition in the bottled water niche is huge and really, there is little to differentiate one product in the bottled water niche from another.

So, the bigger question here is possibly what makes THIS water different? What makes it better? Healthier? More ecologically sound? Safer? And so on.

Where will the water be sourced, and how? What does this water have that other water lacks?

I'm not trying to be contrary here, I'm trying to get to the meat of things.

Unless your factory sits on top of a hidden aquifer that's been guarded by a secret society for a thousand years and one where the water is naturally filtered by the rarest of rocks and sands before being infused with essential, health inducing minerals that occur nowhere else on the planet, you are talking, in essence of packaging, carbonating, and flavoring what may, to all intents and purposes, be little less than tap water. And that's OK. Coca Cola have been doing this for years!

This question is important because really, all any bottled water company is doing is recycling a naturally occurring substance. Think about it: of all the fresh water on planet Earth, we're still drinking the same water the dinosaurs drank.

What makes yours different? This is a major question and it's one that will carry a lot of weight when it comes to dealing with resellers and distributors.

In the United States, and under FDA rules, bottled water is classed as a food, so there are all kinds of regulations to meet and to adhere to.

The scope of your question is essentially a multi-million dollar marketing plan, which, although asked for with the best will in the world I'm sure, is something you are probably NOT going to get on this forum for free. Really, I think you're possibly asking too much. You're asking, in effect, for the keys to the kingdom.

However, before you get to wholesalers and the like you'll need to comply with local, state, or government mandated laws and permitting on sourcing, filtration, additives, bottling, labeling, storing, packaging, and transportation of your product.

You need to be able to test for contaminants and microbiological content and you need to be able to assure consumers that your product is safe to drink.

Because (in the USA at least) bottled water is assessed by the FA and not the EPA (as is the case for tap water) the standards for production of bottled water are actually lower than they are for tap water, in essence making bottled water less safe than tap water.

Just so you're clear on this.

You'll find the FDA guides here: https://www.fda.gov/food/foodsafety/product-specificinformation/bottledwate...

If you've already got all this covered, then fine.

But if not, or if you're not based in the USA, find out what your local or government regulations on bottled water safety are and then EXCEED them ... and tell people this in your marketing.

Where you're located, geographically, may have a significant impact on how you move forward before you get to distribution.

Even so, you're almost (but not quite) asking for a whole marketing plan for free. I may be wrong here but that's my gut feeling ... that's how I read your question. Might that, as an expectation, be a tad high?

In response to the post by Thorsten Strauss point no.1:
1) Wholesalers ad distributors are box movers. They are motivated by profit per cubic foot or meter. With a lot of products in their portfolio little time remains to sell in new products. Especially if they require some explanation. You product needs to sell itself. Is it far better, much cheaper than others? Do people get it by looking at it? Do people fall in love with it after the first sip? No, then you will have tough times and have to invest a lot (persuasion, marketing, maybe direct fees) for it to be taking into listings.

My bottled water product line features a design direction inspired by the American product Metromint which I based my product design rationale from by studying the Metromint casestudy. The metromint packaging was hailed as innovative, eye-catching and commanding shelf space even though it received many negative reviews for its mint essence water product. Metromint has been quite successful in the US and other US companies packaging plain filtered water have followed their packaging direction trend and done well. I am aware that success of a product in one market may not translate into direct success in another since such markets are influenced by various factors but I have reason to believe such a direction may work.

Currently in my region, the bottled water brands both national and multi-national, well known and less known brands feature the same status quo packaging being a tiny label and patterned grooves. My point being such a design direction really differentiates my proposed product from the rest of the players. To add to this, I've conducted basic product acceptance tests at a university in my region asking for feedback by showing them early renderings by my graphic designer.

To summarise answering the question in point no.1 I am sure that the product will or has enough potential to sell itself and based on the limited acceptance test performed many people were inclined to buy it, the product has a greater quality feel to it than other market participants. But it obviously needs some marketing attached to it. I did not have the funds to employ a professional marketing study over many samples.

So, say my product does infact meet all your questions raised in point no.1 and I now decide to head out to wholesalers and distributors, the question then arises how does one effectively pitch the product to wholesalers and distributors to carry the product in their portfolio which then effectively gets the product to the market as you've pointed out.

In response to the post by Gary Bloomer. The bottled water industry in my market is currently unregulated and association with the Body governing Bottled water is voluntary. I have filed applications for association with this Voluntary Body and other bureaus for qualtiy standards in my market. The water has been tested by an independent lab and the results are well within and exceed the standard that the governing body has set. Thus, this should not hinder the product to getting into the market.

Your advice and responses are mostly gratuitously appreciated.

Read more: https://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/qst_question.asp?qstID=39713#ixzz20uVtRWr...

Unregulated? Really?

OK ...

Which country are you in?

What other brands are you competing against?

Will you be marketing regionally or nationally?

Do you plan to expand overseas?

How much business planning have you done?

How much of your marketing plan have your created?

I think I've posted the importance on research so many times that I'm just about to stop doing it altogether lol. Any situation such as breathing through the clutter will come more naturally if you've researched every in and out of your business.

The questions listed above must be answered before you can make any real progress. Many business models have been done before, and the only way to stand out is to know exactly who will be purchasing your product or service and better connecting with them.

Coming from my perspective of having been a merchandise buyer for Target Corp, I would consider the following:

I agree with much of what is said above. It sounds like you need to start with a business plan and brand + marketing strategy. A retail buyer will not even consider your product unless you have these elements figured out and can "sell" them on your business viability and health.

Once you've built your business plan and brand strategy, then you can start building out your retail distribution plan based on the guardrails your business plan and brand strategy set forth. This includes revenue and volume shipment projections as well as the types of retail channels and stores within each channel that support your brand and goals - plus much more that cannot be captured in a brief response.

From there, you need to understand WHY a retailer might care about your brand/product. HOW will your brand/product drive sales for that retailer? How does it make financial sense for the retailer? Like someone said above, it's all about how many units you can move and how much profit margin you give the retailer.

Here is a blog that talks about what retailers and retail buyers care about when deciding which items to buy: www.RetailTable.com