Bling H2O marketing Practices essay

Introduction:
Bling H2O reflects trendy and stylish pattern bottled water. It was designed by the famous personality, Mr. Boyd. The production plant is situated in Tennessee, USA. The business opted for international marketing strategy and expanded in potential markets. It was excellently promoted in the Emmys and MTV video and music award show. 
Bling H2O Marketing Practices and Implications:

Segmenting Consumer Markets:
·         Geographic Segmentation:
The business has focused on key cities of Australia like Albury, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. It has target urban population dwelling in Northern and North East climate of the country.
·         Demographic Segmentation:
The age group lies between 20-35 years while focusing both male and female. The family life cycle highlighted young single, young married and young married and have no children. The average income of the potential market is $60,000 and more and comprises of famous personalities, executives, professional athletes, film stars, brides and bridals and students. These people prefer having insight to higher education. It has specifically focused on both domestic dwellers and foreign individuals who come up to Australia for spending vacations and tourism and for higher studies.
·         Psychographic Segmentation:
The social class consists of LSM 11+. These individuals are extroverts, innovative and creative. There are achievers and own ambitious personality.
·         Behavioural Segmentation:
The brand highlighted the importance of special occasions which provides premium quality to its customers. The prominent behavior entails that it has regular users with medium rates who are absolutely loyal to the brand and reflect craving readiness level. The attitude entails that individuals consider it a unique and highly differentiated brand and it is prominently due to its packaging and outlook which is fully decorated with Swarovski Crystals.
Bottled Water market in Australia:
Gentile (2008) acknowledged that recently bottled water market in Australia faced serious threats from media due to poor dental health effects and increasing wastage. Instead of using groundwater from Aquifers majority of the business rely on underground springs. It has been found that around 43% of the children in Australia drink bottled water. The beverage sector owns 18% market share in the economy and reflects outclass 8% growth rate. Overall beverage sector reflects positive in comparison to food industry. It seemed tremendous growth due to the establishment of more than 450 bottling plants in Australia. Today it comprises of different products namely mixers, juices, energy and sports drink, flavoured milk, hot and cold drinks and mineral water.
Figure 1: Market share of different products in beverage sector

          The bottled water market comprises of vitaminised and flavoured water, rain water, filtered water and mineral water. The mineral water product is basically carbonated in Australia and recent increase in sales has been found due to HOD (home and office direct delivery). It uses 250 million litres of water with a very low level of penetration and caters for the mere portion of 1.5% homes and 15% offices in the country. Recently indirect competition has intensified between food and beverages sector resulting in price war. The industry spends $385 million on bottled water and just recycles 35% of the water bottles while other resulting into enormous waste hazards (Business Insight, 2009).
Major Ethical Concerns:
Koutsoukis (2007) instigated that Australian Bottled water manufacturers cost the entire planet in the form of loss of 314,465 barrels of oil. It reveals that the industry is not performing for good corporate citizenship and sustainable development. There exist prominent issues of global warming and Australian water bottles are continuously contributing to the adverse situation.  A new concept of ethical consumerism strictly concerns with the negative impact of water bottle waste which results into emission of green house gases.
Business insight (2010) reveals that functional health benefits are another important aspect of bottled water. Consumers spend premium in luxurious products but demand naturalness and purity. Introduction of flavoured bottled water is accepted by customers but it should not impair the natural benefits of the product.
More importantly massive campaign was launched in order to ban bottled water in Australia. Majority claims that businesses extract water from local aquifers. In contrary to this people prefer fountain water and filtered water for their daily drinking usage.
Marketing Strategy:
According to Roumeliotis (2010) Bling H2O comes under luxury products. Recently it has changed consumer perceptions and has convinced individuals that bottled water can be devoted as a drink. It targeted itself among one of the most expensive brands while outshining consumer expectations. It is super luxury brand which focuses on status and style consciousness. The promotional campaigns reflect celebrities, parties and shows where Bling H2O is considered as a unique symbol. The marketing strategy must highlight several important facts as follows:
The shape, labelling, packaging, colour combination, functionality aspect and written codes matters the most in case of premium brands.
The brand must reflect uniqueness and must emphasize on health qualities of well being and fitness.
In order to gain competitive advantage, the brand must go for healthy substitutes of soda like lime, orange or lemon.
There must be product bundling, limited editions and price offers
In order to gain distinctive marketing practices it requires focusing on sponsorships and strong distribution channels across niche markets.
It must promote customize sizes for bottles
Conclusion:
It can be concluded that the business has opted for holistic approach with effective advertising practices while relying on both ATL (above the line) and BTL (below the line) activities. The demeanour remains with opportunity identification and point of differentiation. It targeted niche market of rich class and offered customize service in accordance with potential market requirements. The business made extensive efforts in building creative outlook which stands differently among the millions.

References:
Gentile, T. (2008). Bottled Water- An Industry Perspective. Food Australia, 60(5), pp.195-196. Retrieved August 22, 2010, from http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:7ydUxaXljkcJ:www.drinksmediawire.com/upload/pdfs/cdp/FoodAustralia_may08_Gentile.pdf+Bottled+water+market+in+Australia&hl=en&gl=pk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiTg3yCQ_A1AMqox2s_aN5wHq9u0i5sujtcwz3UJq-j2LwxVPvLpuWeiAYK2xUkMps3d0NEIyJRPmrwT2b4a2FfvmioZiTAKOtQ646t4U9YecTk167z1BF7SvBwln6UrvyLS1mY&sig=AHIEtbRY4h-YiFyo0zrjdvQ3-s47g68ykw
Koutsoukis, J. (2007). [Australia] For every five litres of bottled water you drink, you consume one litre of crude oil. Still thirsty?. Retrieved August 22, 2010, from http://www.polarisinstitute.org/australia_for_every_five_litres_of_bottled_water_you_drink_you_consume_one_litre_of_crude_oil_still_thirsty
Business Insight. (2009). Future Opportunities in Bottled Water: Leveraging purity, ethical and health credentials. Retrieved August 22, 2010, from http://www.reportlinker.com/p0132894/Future-Opportunities-in-Bottled-Water-Leveraging-purity-ethical-and-health-credentials.html
Johnson, T. (2010). Ethical Issues. Retrieved August 22, 2010, from http://www.ethical.org.au/news/
Daveibsen. (2006). Bling H2O More than a pretty taste. Retrieved August 22, 2010, from http://daveibsen.typepad.com/5_blogs_before_lunch/2006/10/bling_h20_more_.html
Roumeliotis, J. D. (2010). Special Report: Exploding The Myths & Marketing Strategies Of Branded Bottled Water. Retrieved August 22, 2010, from http://www.whitefieldconsulting.com/wordpress/?p=3249