The bucket water market has become lively again recently. Jingtian has launched 14.8L one-time large-pack drinking water that can be placed directly on a water dispenser. Nongfu Spring is also about to launch 15L one-time bucket water, emphasizing that empty buckets are not recycled.
Nongfu Spring 15L One-Time Bucket Water
Targeting the Bucket Water and Household Water Market
Compared with ordinary bucket water, the 15L bucket emphasizes one-time use, no reuse of the packaging bucket, no secondary pollution, and can be said to be safer. In addition, the product requires no bucket deposit and no need to return the bucket, making it more convenient. Compared with Nongfu Spring's 4L and 5L small-capacity water, the 15L water has a larger capacity and can meet a family's drinking needs for a week. Moreover, the thoughtful design allows the water to be placed directly on a water dispenser: tear off the handle, remove the cap film, and insert into the dispenser.
In recent years, major bottled water companies have regarded conference water as an important channel to control, and it has become a red ocean competition. To further expand in volume, they must seek new growth points. Nongfu Spring took the lead in jumping out of the red ocean, targeting the household water market, and has been making continuous efforts since last year.
When the G20 was held in Hangzhou last year, seven Nongfu Spring products were designated as G20 summit beverages, among which the 4L natural mineral water was designated for kitchen use, taking the opportunity to promote the "cooking water" card.
In May this year, Nongfu Spring launched a new 5L packaged water. To quickly integrate the 5L water into consumers' lives, Nongfu Spring specially paired it with high-end water dispensers for combined sales: homeowners who purchase Nongfu Spring 5L water through a dedicated account can receive a high-end water dispenser as a gift, with the gift value almost equal to the water's value, showing Nongfu Spring's great effort!
Moreover, in marketing, Nongfu Spring always brings a fresh feeling. Whether it was the limited-edition "Music Bottle" launched with NetEase Cloud Music in early August, or the fun advertisements inserted in the recent hit drama "Nothing Gold Can Stay," Nongfu Spring has played it well.
It can be seen that Nongfu Spring's launch of 15L natural bucket water is not only intended to seize the bucket water market but also to take the household water and high-end restaurant kitchen water markets.
One-Time Bucket Water May Usher in Development Opportunities
In addition to Nongfu Spring, Jingtian has also recently launched 14.8L one-time large-pack drinking water that can be placed directly on a water dispenser, currently mainly in the northern market.
A rough count shows that there are currently more than 500 water companies nationwide that can produce one-time bucket water, but the sales volume of each company is not optimistic. Those with high sales can sell several hundred buckets a day, while those with low sales sell only dozens or even fewer. The main reason is that the finished product cost is high. The production cost of a 15L one-time bucket water is generally between 5-6 yuan, plus freight and manufacturer profit, the ex-factory price should be at least 8-10 yuan to be reasonable. According to this price, wholesale to various distributors and water stations, the retail price generally needs to be 15-20 yuan to ensure distributor profit margins. In addition, consumer awareness is not yet sufficient, and one-time buckets have not been widely promoted, so the development of one-time bucket water is relatively slow.
Although the development of one-time bucket water is not smooth at present, considering the packaged drinking water market in developed countries, with the guidance of well-known brands such as Nongfu Spring, Wahaha, and Jingtian, one-time packaged drinking water may usher in development opportunities.
Household Water Ushers in New Opportunities
Plus Version May Become a Development Trend
In the past two years, household water has become a direction that bottled water companies have paid attention to and tried to layout. The concept of household water was proposed by Nongfu Spring last year, and they launched a new 5L package. Subsequently, major bottled water giants began to try to open up the household water market, with fierce competition.
At the beginning of this year, C'estbon launched a short film for 4.5L purified water, quietly entering the market.
In May this year, Wahaha launched a new 4.5L purified water package. It can be drunk directly or used with a water dispenser, turning into a mini bucket water. Based on this, Wahaha created four household water consumption scenarios: cooking, stewing soup, brewing tea, and making milk.
As is well known, in the domestic bottled water market, six major brands—C'estbon, Nongfu Spring, Master Kong, Ganten, Wahaha, and Ice Dew—occupy nearly 80% of the market share, and the competition among these brands has never stopped. According to the latest Nielsen data from March 2017, Nongfu Spring and C'estbon ranked first and second respectively, with a market share difference of only 2 percentage points. Master Kong and Ganten followed closely with 12.2% and 9.2% respectively.
With consumer upgrades, consumers are paying more and more attention to the quality of household water, and household water will usher in new opportunities. The plus version of bucket water, which is more suitable for household use, may become a new development trend and will also become the next key point for giants to compete for market share.
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