Mission statement

Mission Statement
We at Filtra recognize the importance of drinking water, so why should you have to harm the environment or your body to consume this life necessity? Filtra provides an inexpensive alternative of drinking water on the go that does not harm the environment and is not detrimental to your health.

4th Presentation

Getting ready for our final presentation there were a bunch of things that we needed to do that will be shown in our pres today.

1) Economic Logic- Our economic logic was flawed last time. We did not really have good numbers and we also claimed we were going to outsource to China which completely negates the environmentalist factor. We plan on selling our bottle for $20. This includes 1 filter. The filter, which has between 180 and 260 refills will cost about $10-$15. We will make our profit from the filters and sell our bottles at cost.

2) Milestones- We have created a series of milestones that we would like to reach. Our first milestone is reaching the Skidmore Campus. We have a running list of students and faculty that would be willing to buy our product if it were $20 or less. Our second milestone would be then reaching out to the rest of Saratoga Springs and lastly to upstate NY. We think this is feasible because the three of us are around this area for the next seven months and the water here is not very sanitary, so we have a good market potential.

Final Stages

In order to get ready for next week, we have a long way to go.  We need to figure out the financial data and we need to solidify orders for the product.  Our survey shows that 71% of the people at Skidmore would buy this product, the next step is getting those order forms.  Over break I spoke with a a SIGG rep. who gave me more information on the stainless steal shell.  Something else that came to my attention, is Nalgene is making a BPA free plastic water bottle.  They are selling these.  Why would someone who has been drinking BPA contaminated water for so long, trust Nalgene again?  I think it is our job to capitalize on this new market.  There is an opportunity here that we can take advantage of.

Research

I sat down with my mother, a two time entrepreneur, both in design companies, over the weekend to discuss Filtra and she gave me some really good advice.

At first she did not think that there would be a market for these portable filter water bottles because there aren't that many places with bad tasting water. I explained to her, however, that water everywhere is not clean. A lot of it has some problems including sediment from rusty pipes or chlorine from the filtration process. Even living in NYC with very good water, there are still opportunities to get fresher water on the go. She did, however, understand why people would want to substitute water bottles for Filtra. She spends a lot of money on water bottles daily and would like a substitute for that.

She also looked at our design and didn't think there was any difference between that and what else is out there. I did, however, explain to her that it comes to marketing and she completely agreed that that is what is important for an industry like this. She said that differentiation is key when it comes to water bottles and people need to feel cool holding it. She did say though that she was not sure whether our design is feasible to design cheaply if we want rubber handles and a screw top but she encouraged us to keep looking for companies that will make them.

Response to third presentation

The one major concern that was addressed to us about our most recent presentation last Thursday was the idea of outsourcing our products from China. The class made arguments that if we are going for the "environmental" mindset, that doing business in China, a country highly polluted and really far away from the US will completely negate our environmentalist ideals. With that in mind, we will have to not produce in China, however there is still cheap labor close to the United States (Mexico and other latin American countries) that will lower our carbon footprint tremendously.

Water Bottles

The main chemical found in Nalgene bottles is BPA. It is a chemical that is released 55 times more powerfully when hot water is added to nalgene bottles. The chemcial affects reproduction and brain development which has a harmful effect on humans. Nalgene is fighting back and making BPA free bottles. BPA is also found in plastic water bottles. The bottom line is that it is dangerous to reuse plastic water bottles, and if people need to buy new BPA free Nalgene bottles anyway, why not buy Filtra. Another substitute for Filtra are glass water bottles. This is a strong substitute but it is not reliable or sturdy. It is dangerous to be carrying around a glass bottle. Filtra is BPA free and made of a material that will not break.

Economic Logic

Just like the printer industry, we plan on selling our bottles either at cost or just for little profit margins and then selling our filters for a high markup.

Filtra is nothing without a new filter, so if we get a lot of people to buy our bottles for cheap (hopefully $10), then they would have no problems with spending maybe $10-$15 on a filter that doesn't cost nearly that much.

We would like our bottles to be designed with the same material that Sigg is made out of but they are very secretive as to what processes they go through to make their bottles and because of that we cannot price it, but we suspect that if we buy these bottles in bulk we could get great deals on them.

Wall Street Journal

On November 6th, 2008, the Wall Street Journal wrote an article titled "Aiming for clean water on the go" where they analyzed a bunch of different water bottles and the conclusion was that "while we were intrigued by the idea, we found most were hard to use."

This provides yet another opportunity for our idea to work. The image on the left shows a sleek design in what Filtra could look like. With an unscrewable cap, people are able to drink easily but it is not as big as a Nalgene top so that people do not spill on themselves.

This design will be changing over the next few days because we believe that the filter would be better used on the top of the bottle instead of the bottom, but this design still looks much better than any of the other bottles that are out in the market now.

design

Here are the designs we are working with..

Saratoga Springs Tap Water

In 2006, Thomas McTygue then commissioner of public works, signed a document explaining the annual drinking water quality report. In the report it was stated that, after analyzing the water, there was found barium which was admitted into the water probably from discharge of drilling waste and from metal refineries. Also included in the list was copper and lead which lead from the erosion of household plumbing and natural deposits. Nitrate was also found in the water which came from runoff of fertilizer use and leaching of septic tanks. There are also radioactive contaminants including Radium 226 & 228?

Though New York State deemed this not a violation because they were of decent proportions, did you realize that you were drinking lead every time you drank a glass of water? How about putting fertilizer into your system, or even some poo? How could that be safe? or even tasty?

It can't. The document even says that many people may be vulnerable to disease "causing microorganisms or pathogens in drinking water" and that people "should seek advice from their health care provider about their drinking water."

Saratoga Springs residents need something different, and that is where Filtra comes in. We would provide a safe and refreshing way to drink water out of the taps that we have locally Our filters will be able to remove the contaminants that is found in Saratoga tap water and be able to keep our community safe.

How to make a homemade filter

Looking online, it seems very easy to make a simple PVC water filter. This link explains how to do it. http://saltaquarium.about.com/c/ht/02/03/How_Simple_PVC_Tap1015628827.htm

It asks for certain products

1) 2 & 1/2 inch PVC pipes. After looking on Nextag, it is possible to buy an 8 pack of 8foot PVC pipe for $37 which equals out to about 12 cents per 2 & 1/2 pipe

2)PVC end cap. These caps in bronze come to about $5.43 but it is unnecessary to have a brass coated one, so it may come to much cheaper

3) Vinyl hose. A vinyl hose can be bought for $15.64 for a 69 inch hose. Using approximately 2 inches, that comes to about $.45.

4) A drill. A drill does not have to be bought as it is a household item.

5) Activated carbon. Activated carbon comes to about $125 per cubic foot which equals about 25 pounds. Assuming we will not need more than 2 ounces per filter, that is only $.65 per filter.

Though this is a rough estimate of what we might need and our next step would be to go make one, this filter listed above could come to as cheap as $6.65. That is assuming we use a $5+ brass PVC end cap which can definetely be avoided. That is a very feasible price.

I looked around to see how much water filter cartridges cost.  I found the Aquapure CBA5N cartiridge which costs $16.10; another Aquapure filter which is a little better cost $16.47.  The average eco-friendly Sigg water bottle cost 21.99.  If we are looking to see these bottles at the $20 range we are going to have to make our own filters from scratch and find cheaper stainless teal water bottles.  This project is now about developing the filter technology.

Materials

Market Research

On October 22nd, 2008, we sent out a survey to certain members of the Skidmore community. Since that time we have gotten many results and really good information.

Over half of the people we surveyed drank tap water from Saratoga and 65.6% stated they do not like the taste of this water. Approximately 75% say they know the health and environmental impact that tap and bottle water have and 43.8% said they would like an alternative that is good for them.

The best number that we came across, however, was that when asked if they would buy a portable water filtration bottle that gets rid of the taste and the bad chemicals in Saratoga water, 71% said yes and 19.4% said they would need more information before they purchased one.

This is a great result. 71% of the people we surveyed said they would buy our product, that is a HUGE market. We were striving for 30% so this makes it even better. For our last blog post, Professor Wales commented that we need to see if we can make some orders, this survey shows that we have some sales already. Now we just need to make the product...

A new look at the competition

We recognize that there are companies out there that are selling portable filtered water bottles, but after doing some more market research, we believe there is still a pretty large market for our product.

One company that is doing a lot in the portable filtered water bottle industry is Katadyn. Katadyn has been creating filtration systems for awhile now, but the filters they are selling, including the one shown here, is targeted for hikers, bikers, paddlers and travelers that can just put this in a stream and it will filter. The only way to drink it is also through a straw which I consider very unappealing. Bottles like this are sold at stores like EMS and Northface, stores geared towards hikers, not the general population.

Another option could be Innova Water Filters. They sell both screw on filters to any standard water bottle, which in our mind, defeats some of the purpose because the consumer would be getting fresher water but the health risks are still there. Innova also sells water bottles, but after trying to search for one of them, the best place I could find to buy a normal water bottle would be waterfilters.net and I'm pretty sure everday consumers do not check that website.

There are a few other competitors out there that are just like the previous two. Pres2Pure markets towards hikers when they sell their canteen like water filter and Sport Berkely has a straw as well.

Our goal would not be to create a state of the art filtration system, it would be to market this water filter to the appropriate person. The general public does not understand the potential detrimental health effects that both bottled water and tap water have. By marketing to the appropriate people, and selling the bottles in the appropriate stores, Filtra could go above and beyond what the competition has done in the past.

Filtra's design is its competitive edge.

This is our competition? This filtered water bottle is made of PLASTIC and is not at all visually appealing.

Filtra plans on gaining a huge advantage over the competition with our sleek design of stainless steel bottles. Our bottles will become a huge trend, and a necessary daily accessory to tote.

Bottled Water Negatives:

-uses up oil and other fossil fuels in production and shipping

-fills up landfills: "In 2006, the equivalent of 2 billion half-liter bottles of water were shipped to U.S. ports, creating thousands of tons of global warming pollution and other air pollution. In New York City alone, the transportation of bottled water from western Europe released an estimated 3,800 tons of global warming pollution into the atmosphere.

In California, 18 million gallons of bottled water were shipped in from Fiji in 2006, producing about 2,500 tons of global warming pollution.And while the bottles come from far away, most of them end up close to home -- in a landfill. Most bottled water comes in recyclable PET plastic bottles, but only about 13 percent of the bottles we use get recycled. In 2005, 2 million tons of plastic water bottles ended up clogging landfills instead of getting recycled."(NRDC)

-wastes money: If you are appalled at the rising cost of gasoline (that topped $4 a gallon in May), think about the fact hat you are paying $9 a gallon for bottled water.

-does not go through nearly as rigorous filtering and cleansing processes as filtered tap water

-"One analysis several years ago found that about 22 percent of brands that were tested contain, in at least one sample, chemical contaminants at levels above strict state health limits. If consumed over a long period of time, some of these contaminants could cause cancer or other health problems at rates higher than those considered tolerable by the regulatory body setting the standards." (NRDC)

-"Studies have shown that chemicals called phthalates, which are known to disrupt testosterone and other hormones, can leach into bottled water over time."(NRDC)

What a Waste

Industry

There is a very large market that we would be able to target. The natural resources defense council, an environmental action group has just finished a four year analysis of the bottled water industry and they made a lot of conclusions. Firstly, they claim that over half of all Americans drink bottled water and about a third of the public consumes it regularly. Plastic water bottle sales have tripled in the past 10 years, to about $4 billion a year. This is a pretty large market to target.

It is very hard to find numbers on Nalgenes numbers but how many times do you walk down the street, sit in class or on public transportation and see people holding nalgenes or other types of water bottles? It is very frequent.

It terms of competition, there is not too much but they are definitely around. Backtothetap.com is an organization that creates sports bottles that filter themselves. I do not own one nor have I ever seen one being sold but they are not good looking. They look like any old sports water bottle. In order to really sell a filtered water bottle, it needs to be trendy and slim so that consumers can feel comfortable walking around with it.

Filta: Fulfilling Consumer Needs:

Currently, there is not a convenient way to get fresh water on the go. This is a problem that consumers are faced with everyday. We aim to solve this consumer pain with Filtra, our filtrated water bottle. 

 

The need for clean water is currently being met by in-home filtration devices, or bottled water. There are problems however with each of these.  The in-home filtration devices clean your water and make it taste good but can only be used at home. What happens when you are on a bike ride and need to refill your water bottle? You could use your Nalgene, but where will you get the clean water to fill it? Perhaps you have access to a store and can purchase bottled water. However, bottled water is expensive, harmful to your health, and damaging to the environment. 

 

The Filtra water bottle, especially fitted with a filtration device, will enable consumers to enjoy the clean taste of filtered water when they are out of the house, with out the harmful effects on their health or environment. Filtra water bottles will save consumers money. Filtra is free to use after the initial purchase, much better then paying a $1.50 for every single bottled water. Filtra can take any water and make it safe and delicious. If you are hiking you can fill the Filtra bottle with stream water, which it will purify and make drinkable. Filtra can be filled from the bathroom sink or the public water fountain, giving the water the extra filtration it needs to be pure and taste fresh. Filtra will improve the way people consume water, offering convenience and affordability, while being good for consumer health and the environment. 

Buying Local

This weekend I spent 5 hours at the Saratoga Farmers Market. I worked with a friend who is selling a coupon book, at first sales were very slow, but once people realized that they could save money and support the community, they were on board. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising- people trust their friends before they trust some stranger. There is a genuine concern within the community- people feel good supporting a cause. On Sunday I worked at an apple orchard making donuts. It was a similar crowd- people where there enjoying music and eating cider donuts and going apple picking. They were paying $7.50 for 12 donuts- and these donuts were small- but the demand was enormous. The donuts were hot, and very good- but cost the company practically nothing to produce. People kept on coming up to the donuts converyer belt and asking for free samples, and we either shooed them away or snuck them a donut. A way that they could be more efficient would be to add another cash register by the donuts machines. This would not only get people in and out faster, but it would get people in the heart of the store and make them want to purchase more things while they were waiting. So out of this weekend I got- People want to feel a part of something. Saratoga has a natural beauty that you can become drunk with- this inebriation can make you spend a lot of money. There is a large market to buy local- giving people an option online- to buy local- could open it up to more people and potentially create a lot of business.

Online Living Guide

Everyone is looking to buy local and purchase organic foods, but the biggest problem is that organic foods are too expensive.  We would provide a compilation of online coupons that people would pay 10 dollars to access, and then be able to save up to $2000 with all of the coupons.  The companies would pay a small fee- around $100- to put an ad and coupon on the website.  This would be much cheaper than designing a book- because we would not have to make the actual product, people could print them out as they wish.  This product would allow people to buy organic local food at a lower price.

Online network for college athletes

An online networking system for college athletes. It would be similar to Facebook, but geared specifically for collegiate athletes. The site would contain player's stats (individual and team), team schedules, sporting events, etc. Athletes can check out their competition before matches, it would promote sports on college campuses, and build team camaraderie.  

Frustrating Process

It was hard in the beginning to come up with ideas. It was like trying to shoot fish in a lake- with a double barrel shotgun- your odds are extremely low. Professor Wales has redirected our process. Saying that we need to find a need and then respond to that need has been a much more efficient way to approach this class. There are a lot of needs in society, but one that has been a constant is the environment. Everyone wants to take care of the environment and there are so many ways we can think about this. By coming up with a list of problems and a list of solutions, we can try to come to improve current solutions and try to think of new solutions. Last night I saw a taping of The Colbert Report. Stephen Colbert is a genius. He flows effortlessly from one topic to another, educating his audience in ways that are so entertaining that people hardly know they are learning. If we can educate our consumer and entertain them at the same time- we could be bigger than Stephen Colbert (probably not though).

Consumer Pain

As we progress in this time of industrial mayhem, one consumer pain that will become much more prevalent over the next few years is the pain of hurting the environment and ourselves. Even skeptics would say that the environment is changing for the worse and human health is always an issue, especially in the 21st century with the technological advances such as video games and fast food chains. With that in mind, there is a growing national trend that being environmentally friendly is "cool" and "hip." Every little thing that someone can do to save the environment helps. Water is and will always be the most essential ingrediant to healthy bodies. Americans use over 10billion water bottles a year, which is not only bad because making the plastic uses a lot of oil, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere but if it isn't disposed of correctly, it is a waste of plastic. They are also proven to be bad for peoples health being that plastic can leak into the water and damage the precious inner organs of human bodies. The alternative, tap water, is also at times unsanitary, unhealthy, warm or bad tasting. For these reasons, we intend to create a environmentally friendly water bottle with a built in water filter. This fulfills the consumer pain with crisp, fresh, environmentally friendly water wherever there is a tap.

Ideation process

Since I was young, I have always come up with ideas that I thought would solve a consumer pain. I always had these elaborate thoughts on ways to make typing easier, or how to eat food quicker or even ways to organize files better. I shortly realized after starting this class that ideas do not necessarily mean they are good.

Though it is relatively easy to "ideate", it is not as easy to come up with a feasable, working plan. Our group has worked hard trying to find the next google but after thinking long and hard about ways to make everyones life just a little easier, we realized it is much tougher than we thought.

We were very shocked when the ideas that we liked were shot down by Professor Wales as not being thought out enough or not being a big enough audience. Those critiques, however, allowed us to start thinking about other products in our domain (environment) and we finally came up with an idea that just may work...Filtra!

Shower Power

Shower power seems like a decent idea. Not only does it have to be on the shower. How about the sinks in the house? Maybe a meter in the car?

Shower Timer

This small water proof gadget would hang in your shower and tell you how calculate how long your shower is running as well as how many gallons of water you are using.  It would serve as a relatively sobering calculator of how much water you are wasting on a daily basis.  Our target market would be environmentally conscious people who are trying to save water, and this would be one way they could do that.

Facebook for companies

 We would provide a social network where people could log on and be connected to other CEO's and employee's of companies all over the world.  This connection would allow every employee, manager and CEO to learn from one another.

More Filtra

I just spoke to my environmental studies Professor, Kim Marsella, and she LOVED the idea of a filtered water bottle. At home, she filters her water on the tap and every morning comes to Skidmore with a bottle of her filtered water but when she runs out, she doesn't refill it because she doesn't like the water. With Filtra, she would be able to have water anytime she wants, and as she is pregnant, the more water in her system the better.

She also gave me links to the Food and Water watch which advocates for not using bottled water. That link is here. http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/bottled

After doing some other research however, I also found the problems with tap water, which can be found here. http://www.purwater.com/#/contaminants.

Being that there are problems with both bottles and tap, Filtra will be able to target both of those markets and create an environmentally friendly bottle with safe, refreshing water in it.

Getting Kids to eat their Veggies

It is sometimes very difficult to get kids to eat their vegetables and other healthy food. We plan to create a spray bottle that is appealing to kids and promises to make food taste better. It may have their favorite cartoon character on the outside to make it appealing. Inside the bottle is a healthy concoction of olive oil and vinegar. Kids will be under the placebo effect, thinking their broccoli now tastes better and is approved by their favorite cartoon character. Mother's will be pleased that their kids are eating their veggies and getting added omega-3, and essential fatty acid (from the olive oil).

Online PA

Calendars are hard to keep. Using our online personal assistant you can enter all of your dates, obligations and meetings and we will send you messages by text to remind you about your commitments. The thing that would differentiate us from google calendar would be our personal connection with our constomers. We would recomend restaurants in your local area, and send reviews of your favorite movies. This attempt to connect with our costumer base will make us stand out.

The Unforgettable Machine

How often does one walk down the street and remember something that they had to do but don't have a pen to write it down? With our unforgettable machine, we offer a tiny device that could be carried around at all time that both records your voice and typing and with a push of a button will remind you exactly what it was you forgot.

Automatic Front Door Key

An automatic front door key. What if you could open the front door to your house with a click of a button? With the automatic front door key you no longer have to fumble with your keys when you have your arms full of groceries. It saves you time and frees you from hassel. It is also a safety measure. You wont have to rumage in the dark, trying to find the right key, you simply dress the automatic button which corresponds with your front door, and it unlocks. Each key is customized to only unlock your front door, similar to a car key.

More Ideas

4) Actor's Audition Website. A website for out of work performers. They can design their own profile's with resume's, headshots and performance characteristics. They would post their audition tapes and solo performances on this website for agents and directors to find. There would be a search option where you can type in criteria for a performer (ex. 5'8, male, blue eyes, etc.) and find them instantly.

A few ideas and why they would be good...

1) Filtra. There is a growing national trend that being environmentally friendly is "cool" and "hip." With that in mind, Americans still use over 10billion water bottles a year. This is not only bad because making the plastic uses a lot of oil, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere but if it isn't disposed of correctly, it is a waste of plastic. They are also proven to be bad for peoples health. The alternative, the tap, is also at times unsanitary, unhealthy, warm or bad tasting. For these reasons, we intend to create a environmentally friendly water bottle with a built in water filter. This provides the consumer with crisp, fresh water wherever there is a tap.

2) Bowling on UES. The Upper East Side of Manhattan is a major hub for teens and adults as there are many schools, business yet is also a residential neighborhood. Living on the Upper East Side myself, there are times when I felt a tad bored because there wasn't much entertainment. Placing a bowling alley strategically on the Upper East Side can attract people of all ages and would make a lot of money.

3) People advertising. A completely unique way to advertise with athletes. As atheletes participate in their respective sport, there are many times when they are just hanging out with their skin exposed. What if we were able to superimpose an image of a company "tattooed" on the athlete as they are resting in their game. E.g. Michael Phelps, the winner of 8 gold medals at the 2008 summer olympics, spent a lot of time with his shirt off by the pool. As most people in the olympics watch the actual events as opposed to the commercials, what if for five seconds before Phelps jumed into the pool, we superimposed the word "Speedo" on him. That would have direct advertising that everyone would watch.