Brita

The primary goal for the Brita products company is to obtain faucet mounted products
retail market share by at least 10 % in 2 years as a niche product targeting younger people aged
between 18 and 44 in western U.S. while maintaining the market share of pitcher products.
Increasing market share is the primary goal over building brand equity or increasing profitability
for several reasons. Firstly, in the consideration of market share, water purification markets
future looks bright as the safety of tap water is growing concern to U.S households. A 1999
survey found that 72% of all respondents seriously concerned about the quality of their
households tap water and the number of people not caring about water quality is decreased from
47% in 1995 to 35% in 1999. Therefore, when it comes to market share of the Brita Company,
there is high possibility of increasing market share for the Brita which has 83% from pitcher
sales and 75% of filter sales in 1998 and about 70% of the market share in industry. Secondly, to
deal with the situation that PUR, the sole competitive number 2 brand, has already launched
faucet mounted product and owned 74% of total faucet mounts sales in market, the Brita has to
innovate the faucet mounts. Without innovation, the Brita Company can lose market share by
PUR so innovation is imperative for the Brita to increase market share. As the Brita company has
established brand name and infrastructure to invest in faucet mounts promotion, combined
pitcher and faucet-mount strategy can be highly successful. So, building brand equity is not a
priority for the Brita which has good brand equity as the leading company which created a new
home water purification industry and it can build stronger brand equity if they increase market
share in the faucet mounts market as well.
When it comes to increasing profitability, it is not a priority. Market simulation study for
the faucet filter shows the faucet filter increased the likelihood of buying a product form the
Brita line. Whether consumer seeks the pitcher products or the faucet product, it does not matter
because once consumers buy the pitcher products there comes continuous demand for a series of
filters and with aggressive promotion and advertising, consumer tends to buy the faucet product
increasing the profitability. There was a debate whether to launch the faucet-mount. In order to
achieve the goal, the company should launch the faucet-mount as another niche product and
consider it as a different niche of water purification market from pitchers. There are several
reasons. First, as the company has major share of revenue from pitcher filters, if it launches the
faucet-mount as a mainstream product, there can be a cannibalization effect which should be
avoided. Also, market simulation study for the faucet filter shows about half of the Brita pitcher
owners who bought the faucet filter system would continue to use the pitcher in conjunction with
the faucet product. Both products have different characteristics and benefits so they can live side
by side. It is reasonable to convince the existing Brita pitcher owners to buy the faucet product as
well, creating new demand for the faucet filter simultaneously. Although the Brita water filters
do not eliminate as many pollutant as does its competitors, concern about health contaminants in
water is on the decreasing trend. The Brita product focusing on the taste can be more appealing
to consumers than PUR, increasing the possibility of expanding market share in the faucetmounted filter category. Therefore, the strategy to launch and improvise the faucet-mounts with
creating much demand for pitcher products is helpful to increase market share.
The most important impediment is that PUR, spending $40 million to support its highly
technologically advanced faucet-mount and pitcher filters, is growing drastically in the market. It
owns 74% of retail market share from faucet-mount, resulting in losing first movers advantage
for the Brita. It may be a burden for the Brita to try to compete with PUR because PUR gets
major share of income from faucet-mount sales and it invests more promotion costs compared to
the Britas $30 million for advertising. The Brita Company may be unsure of the amount of
newly invested money towards faucet-mounts and it is obscure to get returns on deficit spending.
So, consumers rather try to buy PURs faucet-mounted filters which occupies high portion of
faucet-mounts market. Other impediment is that demand of bottled water is growing drastically.
If most customers find bottled water as a solution for their need-clean water, there is no need to
buy pitchers, filters, or faucet-mounts. Also, possible cannibalization can be one of impediments
however, pitchers and faucet-mounts both can serve as different niche as stated before, and it will
not be serious.

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The primary goal for the Brita products company is to obtain faucet mounted products

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