1.

Executive Summary
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. The main impediment for
this is that PUR, number 2 brand, already has owned 74% of total faucet mounts sales in market. The
solution for this can be divided into 2. One is to launch innovated faucet-mounted products to earn the
market, highly preoccupied with PUR and the other one is to redirect the market towards younger
people for Brita pitchers.
2. Problem analysis
The most important goal is to obtain faucet mounted filter products market share by about 5% in
the first year and increase market share by at least 10% in the second year by launching the faucetmounts as a niche product targeting younger people(18-44), maintaining water purification market
share from pitchers. 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 faucet-mounted filter category. Therefore, the strategy to launch and innovate 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 faucetmounts 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, it will not be serious.
3. Solution Analysis
Our solution for the main impediment is to launch faucet-mount filters for lower price with maintaining
pitcher filters sales as a combined pitcher and faucet-mount strategy. Now PUR owns most market
share from the faucet mount market, it is not that severe problem with appropriate marketing
solutions. Types of consumer needs can be defined as functional/instrumental type. Consumers want
purified water so they consider degree of purification function and taste when choosing the products.
They can be divided by different criteria. In this case, the Brita company should target younger people
aging between 18 and 44 because one survey shows 82% are health conscious and as people gets
older, the degree of concern about water is declined. Also, it should target western U.S geographically
which showed stronger interest in system on faucet than other regions of country. Also, according to
the text, there are still a lot of people not using any filtering device (about 35% of respondents in a
1999 survey) so finding new target market for faucet mounts is highly possible. In the case of
pitchers, there can be high demand of pitchers such as college or university classes so we suggest
targeting young people attending to college our university by convincing them to buy pitchers through
distribution channel of mass merchandisers such as Target and Walmart. Mass merchandisers as the
Britas distribution comprises of 34% which is the biggest channel. The Brita company already utilizes
this channel to sell standard pitcher. Also, in the case of faucet- mounts, we suggest to redirect target
market as whole households with aggressive advertising strategy and promotion. As stated in the text,
six out of seven households did not have pitchers and the growth of pitcher penetration was slowing
so finding niche segment to sell innovated faucet-mounted filters such as parents of young children
who do not have a pitcher can be suggested. Some may argue that there can be cannibalization effect.
However, water from a pitcher and water filtered though a faucet-mounted filter are different
functionally. Faucet filters can screen for harmful elements better and faucet-filtered water costs
significantly less per glass than pitcher water. As for younger people water quality is seriously
considered factor to choose filtering system, faucet-filters can appeal better to them without much
cannibalization effect. When targeting these segments, we have to think about positioning strategy. To
successfully launch the Britas filtering products, they have to focus on their products benefit as taste.
Although PUR has more advanced filtering ability of harmful contaminants such as cryptosporidium and
giardia, focusing on the taste benefit is helpful for the Brita. Market simulation study for the faucet
filter shows only Britas faucet filter was perceived to improve the waters taste so giving some
opportunity to experience good taste of Britas products as a promotion strategy can be effective to
deal with the competitors including PUR. Launching faucet mounts can be very advantageous for the
Brita because it has already good brand name and large amount of people are using Britas pitcher
and there are new consumer groups like families so we suggest selling faucet mounts at lower price.
To overcome the situation that PUR already owns large portion of faucet mounted filter market sales,
lower price with high level of advertising and promotion can be a very effective combination to create a
room for the Brita. As we learned, there are three factors required for brand positioning. CFR, POPs
and PODs are those things. Focusing on taste can be successful CFR as it is more effective for making
consumers buy pitchers or faucet-mounts rather than focusing on the number which shows how they
effectively filter harmful contaminants. Consumers do concern their health but they do not have to
know what kinds of harmful elements can be dissolved in tap water. Also it is advantageous for
attracting bottled water consumers. By launching advanced faucet-mounts, the Brita has Points-ofparity and by giving diverse selection of pitchers and faucet-mounts in different size such as Ultra and
in different distribution channel such as grocery store, it can have points-of-difference. Advertising
through media focusing on taste to attract households to buy faucet-mounted filters of the Brita and
also promotion like giving a free chance to use pitchers for 1~2 months for college or university
students to create new demand to buy pitchers can be a possible strategy to maintain or expand
combined pitcher and faucet-mount market. This combined marketing strategy will lead to obtaining the
market share goal.