There are so many play on words in that title, I just can’t wait for you to figure them all out!
Let’s get one thing into the open air here. I LOVE GOLF. If I’m not golfing, I’m watching golf. If I’m not watching, I’m thinking about and or dreaming about it. I am truly a golf addict. This past weekend I attended The Masters in Georgia. There is nothing quite like the gathering of twenty-five thousand Gentlemen and Ladies, coming together in glorious respect of one of America’s most sophisticated past times. We’re talking about a place where even power walking will get you in trouble for “running”, where anything above a light golf clap will mark you as the over-excited psycho by everyone around you, and where you don’t need Aretha Franklin talking about how to treat one another. It is quite literally the closest to heaven that I ever plan on being. And while it was chilly in Atlanta hovering around a mere 18 degrees, nothing could have stopped me from throwing on a wind breaker, hoofing it just over 20km, and smiling ear to ear watching my favorite pros duke it out for green-blazer stardom. Well nothing except for… dehydration.
I made sure I had plenty of those plastic water bottles with me for when my thirst needed quenching. [But hold on, quick Sidebar here: Is it just me or are these water bottles going a little too “green” for their own good. I mean, you could breathe wrong and put a hole in one of these things. They should just start calling them water ziplock baggies. Cause that’s what they are starting to feel like. Even a Capri-Sun feels more durable. Anyway, rant over. Back to The Masters] Which got me thinking about multi-pack bottled water as a category and how it performs amidst not only brand competition, but flavored water and the like. I mean it’s water after all, how “out there” could it be? As I found out, more than I would have ever expected.
When we took a look at the numbers revolving around bottled water, we learned that first and foremost, people are cheap. Especially about their bottled water. In fact, out of our 103 surveyed categories, water ranked itself number 102 for shoppers being willing to pay more for the product. But what was even stranger, was that bottled water ranked itself right around the top 30% of categories for shoppers saying that they would often buy extra. What that tells me is, if you can get the price down to competitive levels, then you might just sell more than you expect. But the biggest surprise that I discovered about water is its consistency. I don’t think about my bottled water purchases being something I plan out regularly, but that puts me in the minority. As it turns out, over 70% of water purchases are planned, of those planned purchases, 68% are not triggered by any kind of promotion, and well over half of all planned buys are made based on water being a regularly purchased item. Holy cow. Who knew that water was so regularly on the mind of shoppers!
I’d be remiss if I did not mention the most surprising bit of insight I took away from The Masters was the fact that after Jordan Spieth put two balls into the water on the 12th hole, who knew I could have filled up my own multi-pack of water bottles with all of his tears. Chin up Jordan, there’s always next year.
Oh and before I forget: If you’re thinking about escalating trade spend, defining your category role, or learning about the why behind your target shopper’s purchase process, then you should fillout the form below, you won’t regret it.
