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Distributors and retailers are starting to have legitimate concerns about the long-term momentum of the bottled water category. Media and environmental forces are fast turning against bottled water for environmental reasons. With that backlash spreading, but consumer habits with regard to water now strongly established, Lewis sees his company as allowing bottled water consumers to self-levy a sin tax.
“I’m not going to sit here and tell you that bottled water is a rational product,” he says. “At home, I don’t drink it. But there are 20 million Americans that drink bottled water every year. Give isn’t trying to reverse a consumer trend. There’s nothing I can do about that. But if Give can just leverage the power of this industry and use it as a vehicle to do some good – and I think we’re doing that – if we can, that’s the success.”
We’re not pointing Lewis out as the next big thing – although there’s obviously plenty of potential here for Give to resonate with the folks who were early adopters of bottled water in the first place – but we’re pointing out his product as the kind of clever and classy marketing innovation that can help keep the category growing.
But with any number of new causes available as SKUs, with a brand conceit that could be extended to several different kinds of products, we think Lewis has figured out something important.
He’s figured out that in cynical times, a little earnestness can be very refreshing.