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.