Water is the lifeblood of humans, it sustains everything living. Water is what differentiates planet earth from any other planet in our solar system and without water, human life, or any life for that matter, would cease to exist. Water, a molecule made up of 2 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen atom, covers 75% of the earth’s surface and is required by every human being to survive. Naturally, people would think to sell water as demand is limited only by the number of people on earth. But with this entrepreneurial idea comes competition. So how does a company differentiate its product from its competitors when the product is the same in every case? In class we looked at how packaging is used by water companies to distinguish its product from one another. Sure, packaging is an excellent and fairly simple way to differentiate a product from another when the actual product itself is identical. But I want to draw your attention to something that drew my attention, Ethos Water.
Ethos Water has a bottle much like any other water bottle: it has a clear label, cylindrically shaped, a screw on cap, made of plastic and uses an arial font. The packaging itself is very standard. But how Ethos Water differentiates itself from other water bottle merchants is what is written on the label. It reads “The Ethos Story: We began with a simple idea: “Lets create a bottled water and help children around the world get clean water.” We hope you like Ethos Water and that you’ll join us in our efforts to get clean water to those who need it most. Thanks.”
Ethos has effectively differentiated itself from its competitors by appealing to consumers who want to make a difference in the world. Ethos is offering a new unique benefit to consumers, much more than just the benefit of quenching one’s thirst. This benefit is psychological for the consumer, giving them the feeling as if they are helping impoverished nations get clean drinking water by purchasing Ethos water. Consumers are no longer just paying for the benefit of the water itself, but will now pay to experience this feeling of satisfaction on a moral level.
This brilliant marketing plan by Ethos is both effective and moral. It’s really a win-win situation, whereby Ethos benefits by turning a profit and satisfying its mission statement and consumers benefit from the water and the good feeling they get by knowing that a portion of the money spent on Ethos water is going towards helping those who need clean drinking water.