Sometimes tap water is bad. I lived in a house with extremely hard water, and it was basically undrinkable. Of course, I was generally buying water in gallon or 2.2 gallon containers at the time.
When I buy bottled water today, I want an unflavored drink that is healthy. In my view, what I am actually paying for is not water. I am paying for a disposable bottle, convenience, and usually cold. That's why I pay extra for the sport bottles with the better top. There was probably latent demand for this, but people didn't know they actually wanted it. In general, at least in the US, because of the abundance created over the last 30 years through the production of cheap manufactured goods and innumerable process improvements, people are more willing to pay for things they never would have before.
And also, I am glad they succeeded in selling deodorant. It is definitely a quality of life improvement, as I notice when I visit places where deodorant usage is not prevalent. I generally don't view marketing as adversarial like many people though. If something exists that will improve my life, I want to know about it.
It's only convenient because you aren't prepared. Sometimes there are good reasons to not be prepared, but if you're bringing a car or a backpack along, you have a place to store water. Also it's a bit odd how much Americans obsess over water being ice cold.
Yeah, not so much. There's a huge difference between water from a brita pitcher and reverse osmosis-purified water from the water dispenser at the grocery store. The latter is basically indistinguishable from expensive Fiji water, and the former is basically indistinguishable from tap water (in my experience at least, and using LA tap water).
When I buy bottled water today, I want an unflavored drink that is healthy. In my view, what I am actually paying for is not water. I am paying for a disposable bottle, convenience, and usually cold. That's why I pay extra for the sport bottles with the better top. There was probably latent demand for this, but people didn't know they actually wanted it. In general, at least in the US, because of the abundance created over the last 30 years through the production of cheap manufactured goods and innumerable process improvements, people are more willing to pay for things they never would have before.
And also, I am glad they succeeded in selling deodorant. It is definitely a quality of life improvement, as I notice when I visit places where deodorant usage is not prevalent. I generally don't view marketing as adversarial like many people though. If something exists that will improve my life, I want to know about it.