Entrepreneurs – Want To Successfully Sell Your Bottled Water?

Do you have a supply of fresh water and want to sell bottled water locally and hopefully nationally?  Well there are a few things that you have to think about first of all.

Well the first thing to do is walk through the water aisle of your local supermarket and check how many other bottled waters there are for sale.  How are you going to compete?  Well on three areas: Brand, Price or Quality.

Let’s look at quality first – do you have really great clear water, does it come from a famous spring or a unique area?  Then capitalise on this.

Can you sell your water at a low price – say aim it at the lunch box market or aim it at drivers who want bottles of water in their car cup holders.  Or price it high and match it with the quality of the water – so aim it at restaurant frequenters or produce bottles just for high class hotels.  Try and find a market that you can aim for as opposed to being all things to all people.  Take that walk through the supermarket again and try and find a niche that you can fit your water into.

Having decided on the above two, you are halfway to deciding your branding.  Selling bottled water is very competitive and the only way to break through is with branding.  Having decided upon your price level and the quality level you are aiming for.  Low to high price and exclusive or general as well as the marketing niche you are selling into, you need to look at what persona you want your water to take on.  How your water is perceived by the people you want to sell to is called your brand. 

With bottled water your brand is made up of three areas – bottle shape, label and name.  The name should come first and it is really the hardest to decide upon.  If you want cool and crisp that suggests a few names, if you want established and expensive that is a whole different group of names.  As you search for the name, check that the domain name is free as well – this will help with your marketing and gives an indication as to whether the name has been taken already.  Do a Google search on your final choice to check what comes up.  Is it taken by another product and does it bring up items that would be detrimental to your brand?

Once you have your name, then the shape of the bottle and the label are much easier to decide upon. Obviously the bottle shape must be one that can be manufactured and bottled at a reasonable rate.  It should also look good standing on the supermarket shelves. Similarly the label should be easy to read, have the legally required information on it, and be easy and cost effective to print off.

Alternatively, go down the outsourcing market and sell at a low wholesale price to hotels, restaurants, clubs and sports arenas – each with their own label.

Whichever route to market you choose – good luck.