Brita

During the 1990s, Brita has built its marketing position in water purification systems and competitors were unable to effectively rival Brita in pitcher sales. The small company, PUR, emerged with the launch of its faucet filter system that mounts directly to consumer kitchen sink. The new product offers health and convenience benefits that the Brita pitcher cannot. In order to compete against this new threat, I believe Brita should offer a faucet mounted filtration system to the public and capture the emerging segment of consumers focused on health and purification.

Brita is currently the market leader in the pitcher and filter categories and they also have a loyal customer base because of the repeat purchase of filters. They managed to build a strong brand image based on the taste of the water (visual association with waterfalls in advertising) although they can’t keep up with competitors in terms of health. Now customers are paying more attention to health concerns and so the pitcher market growth is slowing down (70% of households have concerns about water quality, yet 35% have done nothing about it). The faucet filter segment could definitely be an opportunity for Brita, since faucet filters are perceived more convenient and more efficient than pitchers. However faucet sales may cannibalize pitchers and with new competitors on the rise, pitcher prices may drop. Lastly PUR, one of the big players in the market, together with P&G could soon lead the segment.

Brita should launch a new faucet filter system, appealing to a broader customer base that is more health-conscious. Brita’s faucet should not cut off its pitcher market, and the company must continue to sell pitchers with a focus on the mass-market channel. As conclude in the marketing study, most of pitcher owners would use the faucet system in conjunction. The market is becoming more saturated in the pitcher category, so a more aggressive pricing strategy would be more appropriate. As the case...