Marketing Insight

by Josh DeWinter

A fascinating look at one of my favorite areas in life - market research.  Specifically, why we would want to purchase something that's essentially free.

By the way:  If you like this page, consider visiting where it all started for some scientific tips on the marketing world:  My first lens

 

     So why do people buy water?  I'm not talking about water you pick up in a jug for a weekend of camping with the kids.  I mean water that comes in a 1 liter bottle, perhaps right next to the sink in your company's break room.  You might catch yourself, as I do, wondering why people would purchase something so plain and common.  Let's take a look at the fascinating world of consumer tastes and purchasing decisions to find out why people purchase water.

     When we grow up, we look around the world at other people.  So much of our identity is based on observation of the world around us.  Although we are said to have a strong sense of personality already in place by age 5, we still learn about others, all throughout our life.  First, we ask "what people around me are acting like I want to act?"  These people more than not become closer friends than the general population. 

 

     Often times, it isn't until years later that we realize why we were drawn to them - often for reasons we never would have expected.  Sometimes, including in the working world, we look at people who have what we want to have.  We take social cues from them, and emulate them, whether we're conscious of it or not.  Then, as we become like those individuals we admire, we defend the personality items we think we need to have in order to be like them.

 

    All these decisions add up to a very noticeable pattern in our lives.  Although each of us is different and unique, our drives are essentially the same, and we assume patterns of emotional response to the world that are quite similar at times to others.  We could say people's lives assume a "trend line" that takes them down a road to their destiny.

    What can we say about people who drink bottled water?  Let's use the corporate environment as a market segment. 

   When people who want to be at the C-level of an organization (CEO, COO, CFO, etc), they look at the world above them.  The people already there where they want to be have very certain traits about them.  Traits like being what the world sometimes calls "ambitious", meaning they have learned to decide what they want, and take very decisive action to get it.

  A certain trait that sometimes prevails in this culture is that of a type of elitism.  After all, to be that competitive, we must reaffirm and validate our desire to get to that position in life we're after.  To drive themselves, people need to push, and when the going gets rough, they need reasons to keep pushing and to justify to themselves why it is they are outputting so much energy in these pursuits.

 

 

Because we can think of ourselves as "better than" - and that's okay.

 

  This mild form of elitism sometimes spawns in people in certain negative ways, such as "if I don't step on someone else, they'll step on me".  (By they way, whether this is good or bad or spiritually corrupt or vitally necessary is beyond the scope of what we're discussing here).  One of the primary ways we view the world is through our eyes, and the most basic form of labeling we do is to look at another person and see whether their physical attributes match those of what we've been taught by our observations of the world.

   

    Looking again at that job we're shooting for, we typically see people in the corporate world who are what people sometimes refer to as "in shape".  For those who fit the model, fitness is generally regarded as important.  To give even a hint of lack of control of oneself in this position can be perceived by others as "less than".  We subsequently think "I need to stay fit", "I can't get fat"...and what is less fattening to drink than water?

 

 

     Health consciousness has become something of a status trait these days...

 

    On top of that, we reaffirm that we're doing something good for our bodies.  We're drinking water, which we all have been told is something we need to do more of.  Strangely, health consciousness has become something of a status trait these days, as we use it as a symbol of our pride.  On top of that, it helps to tell yourself that so that later, when that chocolate doughnut with sprinkles is staring at you, you can say "well, I'm healthy so often, this will hardly hurt at all".  Danger Doctor Smith...these are the kinds of ideas that can turn into excuses for lack of sticking to goals, and will eventually kill progress.  But I digress...

 

    Now consider another attitude that perhaps we haven't taken note of, but that I can tell you lurks under the surface in many people's character profiles.  We all have an ego, and we fulfill its need for attention in many unique ways.  Even people at the top have a need to fill this desire, and the higher they get, it seems the more elaborate and creative their belief structures become in order to do it.  Think of this subconscious thought that you may not have:  "I have something that people normally wouldn't pay for, but this thing I have did cost money".  Normally this might seem foolish, in that you paid for something that others wouldn't have had to.  After all, there's likely a pipe within several hundred feet of you in any office that will output a very similar variety of the same substance for free.  (We call it a sink or water cooler).

 

    But, couple that with another ego-maintaining functional belief: "Not only am I drinking something that wouldn't normally cost anything," with the powerful "On top of that, I didn't buy it".  Think of the row of bottled water in your meeting room or at a conference.  People will normally pick these bottles up more - when they're surrounded by others - than when they're on their own.  In fact, studies have shown that consumption of bottled water in public is generally much higher than in private.  This hints at the idea that people drink water just as much to be seen drinking it by others than for other reasons you might think of as primary ones, like "it tastes good". 

  

  So, let's summarize the key ego-enhancing personality traits at work here:

1. I'm being like the person  I want to become one day

2. I'm a health-conscious person (potential status, both from own ego and perception from the world)

3. Normally, people wouldn't buy this, but I have it, and it was purchased...

4. ...however, I wasn't the one who bought it.

 

     Again, I'm not saying this fits everyone's belief structure - far from it.  This is only one possibility of many, but it is a common one.   These beliefs, although very subtle, can form a pattern that is never spoken, but very identifiable.  I don't mean to single out corporate America here, I'm only using a select few for an example.

    So, one of a few stories behind why people might purchase bottled water.  Soon, we'll look at another purchase in another lens.

------UPDATE:--------

  It seems the time of consumer voyeuristic style is swaying back to the more sane side of life.  Now, some restaurants are offering their own in-house filtered and carbonated water, as a replacement to those loads of plastic bottles we import from overseas.  This is being touted as an environmentally friendly move, which few deny it is.  It just happens to help the restaurant's bottom lines, too. :)

  Here's an article from somebody else who seems to see through it all:  Marketing Water can be too Absurd For Words.  But I'll Try.

  This page is just one of many that will be created in the weeks ahead.  See the lens where it all started for some marketing tips and tricks you can really use:  Marketing Tricks. 

  This page has loads of tricks and tips for marketing psychology that just might push your project over the edge.