---
title: "Why Did the 1-Yuan Bottled Water Disappear?"
description: "In the bottled water industry, those who are better at creating concepts and inventing new demands are more likely to stand out. This article explores how brands use marketing tactics to sell water at higher prices, from inventing new categories like 'natural water' to creating niche products like 'baby water' and 'specialty water for tea brewing.'"
author: "IC实验室"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2023-08-03"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/why-did-the-1-yuan-bottled-water-disappear-1731c403/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/why-did-the-1-yuan-bottled-water-disappear-1731c403.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/qYG_Btx0GaTaqGwkATnz-w"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/1%E5%85%83%E7%9F%BF%E6%B3%89%E6%B0%B4-%E4%B8%BA%E4%BB%80%E4%B9%88%E6%B6%88%E5%A4%B1%E4%BA%86-1731c403.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/why-did-the-1-yuan-bottled-water-disappear-1731c403/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# Why Did the 1-Yuan Bottled Water Disappear?

> In the bottled water industry, those who are better at creating concepts and inventing new demands are more likely to stand out. This article explores how brands use marketing tactics to sell water at higher prices, from inventing new categories like 'natural water' to creating niche products like 'baby water' and 'specialty water for tea brewing.'

Whoever is better at creating concepts, whoever is better at inventing new demands, has a better chance of breaking out of the pack. Previously, in the episode about the 'child-raising tax,' I talked about the category of baby water, which is a tactic to sell ordinary water for four or five yuan, or even seven or eight yuan. Not long ago, there was another online trend called 'girl group water,' which was quite magical, claiming to be healthy and low-calorie, and that drinking it would help you lose weight and become as slim as a girl group member. The recipe was also explosive: roughly adding fruits and vegetables like lemon, blueberry, cucumber, carrot, etc., to a one-liter bottle of Nongfu Spring water. With my limited knowledge of nutrition, this thing can indeed make you lose weight; as long as you don't eat and only drink this for a week, you'll weigh less than five jin including the box. Interestingly, in almost all the posts about 'girl group water' that I saw, the recipe used Nongfu Spring natural water, not the usual missile-shaped bottle, but a short, chubby one with a higher aesthetic appeal. Of course, it's also more expensive: **nine yuan per bottle, which is more expensive than the regular five-liter bottle.** Why so expensive? Because the packaging also has a note in parentheses: (suitable for infants and young children). Well, that completes the loop. Regarding whether this 'girl group water' is a marketing ploy by the brand to sell water at a higher price, I haven't investigated, so I won't discuss it for now. What I see is that now, in order to sell water at a higher price, merchants are racking their brains to create various concepts, such as water specifically for tea brewing, water specifically for coffee, etc. **So in this episode, I want to talk about how to cleverly use marketing tactics to sell water at a higher price.**

**First, let's talk about why we need to sell water at a higher price.**

**Bottled drinking water is the most ordinary category in the food and beverage industry, and therefore the hardest to market.** There are two difficulties. First, in consumers' minds, the value of drinking water itself is almost free. If you want to drink water, you can just boil it in a kettle and have plain boiled water. Even in better-off households, with a water purifier, you can get direct drinking water from the tap. **Second, drinking water has almost no differentiation.** If you did a blind taste test, out of 10,000 people, 9,999 probably couldn't tell the difference between water priced at 2 yuan, 5 yuan, and 10 yuan per bottle. It's all H2O; no one is smoother on the palate than another.

**Marketing has two purposes: one is to enhance brand image and increase the intangible value of the product, thereby selling at a higher price.** **The other is to advertise widely and expand market share.** **But with these two problems, marketing becomes very difficult.** Everyone defaults to the idea that drinking water is almost free, so even if it's just one cent more expensive, it's hard for consumers to accept. Therefore, it's an absolutely price-sensitive product. For years, the mainstream price of drinking water has only risen from one yuan to two yuan. In recent years, major players have been trying to push it to three yuan, but the best-selling is still Nongfu Spring at two yuan. If prices can't rise, the first purpose of marketing can't be achieved. Second, since drinking water has no differentiation, when consumers choose a brand, they only have two criteria: drink whatever is available, or drink what they're used to. So expanding market share is also difficult; consumers won't stop buying Nongfu Spring or C'estbon just because you advertise heavily, since there's no difference anyway. Market share is hard to increase, so the second purpose of marketing can't be achieved either. This is also why drinking water has a much slower replacement cycle compared to other beverages. In the past 20 years, whether it's tea drinks or juices, the leaders have changed frequently, each having their moment for a few years. Only drinking water has iterated almost only once, from one-yuan water to two-yuan water, with the representative brands changing from Wahaha to Nongfu and C'estbon. **The strong get stronger, the winners keep winning, with no cycles; that's roughly the situation.** But this industry is too tempting. Think about it: an industry with a market size of over 200 billion yuan, where the top ten brands hold more than 80% of the market share, with high concentration and considerable profits, and it's hard to be dethroned. If you can become a regional leader, you've truly raised a goose that lays golden eggs.

You might ask: you've said so much, just to say that marketing is hard and unfriendly to new players, but what does that have to do with selling water at a higher price? **Here we come to the most important technique in drinking water marketing.**

**This technique is called 'inventing demand.'** We can see that every iteration in China's drinking water industry has been due to new players successfully inventing a new demand, creating a new category, and successfully implanting the awareness of the new category into consumers' minds, thereby getting a piece of the pie in the industry. In 1997, Nongfu Spring entered the bottled water market, which was already divided up by Wahaha, Robust, and Nestlé. At a glance, it was a stable tripod. **But Nongfu Spring found a breakthrough: all three companies' products were purified water.** Relying on its bottled water production base invested in Qiandao Lake, Nongfu Spring produced natural water. Here, I need to explain the classification of bottled water. As usual, I'll use my food classification method. All bottled water belongs to the bottled beverage class, bottled water order, mineral water family, and packaged water family. The packaged water family is further divided into purified water genus, natural water genus, and mineralized water genus. Let me explain these terms one by one. The mineral water family is easy to understand: it's water that naturally emerges from deep underground or is collected via drilling at designated water sources, containing certain minerals, trace elements, or other components. Purified water is also common; its source is the public water supply system, i.e., tap water. It's made through a series of purification processes like distillation and electrodialysis. Natural water is often taken from natural sources like lakes and reservoirs, and the water quality of these sources must meet certain national standards. After simple sterilization and treatment, it can be sold as natural water. Mineralized water refers to water with additives added without changing the physical and chemical properties of the drinking water, meaning the minerals in this water are not naturally occurring but added during production. It can be said that from mineral water to natural water, then to purified water and mineralized water, the water source gradually changes from natural to artificial, and the degree of processing increases.

Back to Nongfu Spring: as water that is closer to nature (but not much) and less processed (though not by much), Nongfu Spring, under the banner of natural water, charged at the three purified water giants. It not only directly stated that 'long-term consumption of purified water is not beneficial to health,' but also said it would stop producing purified water to avoid misleading a generation. It also released a controlled experiment where several white rats were fed different types of water, and after a few days, the group drinking natural water had a higher survival rate. Later, Nongfu Spring also did marketing like watering flowers with different types of water, and the flowers watered with natural water looked the best. **This marketing battle in 2000 was called the 'Century Water War.'** Before this, 90% of the bottled water market was purified water, and whether natural water or purified water was better for human health was basically a metaphysical question. **But Nongfu Spring, by inventing the demand that 'natural water is healthier than purified water,' disrupted the original market structure and officially began the path of natural water replacing purified water.**

In 2006, Master Kong also imitated Nongfu Spring's tactic, launching mineralized water with the slogan 'A little more, healthier,' priced at 1 yuan. Cheap plus a new concept: Master Kong hammered Nongfu with one hand and attacked purified water with the other, once dominating the market. It wasn't until 2008 that Nongfu Spring pointed out that Master Kong's water source was tap water and explicitly opposed adding minerals. This second Century Water War, triggered by the 'water source gate,' ended with Master Kong's sales declining and mineralized water gradually being marginalized. But whether it's mineralized water or natural water, to replace purified water, they had to invent a new demand, telling you that our water is healthier and more nutritious. **Whoever is better at creating concepts, whoever is better at inventing new demands, has a better chance of breaking out of the pack.**

**And now, new concepts have emerged in the drinking water industry.**

**The first concept is 'liang bai kai,' or 'cooked water.'** After Jinmailang introduced this concept to the market, major giants have launched similar products, such as 'drink boiled water,' 'plain boiled water,' 'cool boiled water,' etc., claiming to be more suitable for Chinese people's constitutions. I don't think 'liang bai kai' is a 'wisdom tax,' after all, it's two yuan a bottle, the same price as C'estbon, not much more expensive, but this claim is more of a 'pseudo-concept.' But it must be admitted that many people buy into this pseudo-concept of 'liang bai kai,' and it has almost created a whole new category. This way of creating a concept is a bit like the 'shou wu' (Polygonum multiflorum) I talked about when discussing shampoo a long time ago. By playing the card of black hair, it managed to break out of concepts like anti-dandruff and smoothing, and even led to the magical advertisement that adding black sesame ingredients could make hair blacker.

**Another concept is mineral water.**

**Mineral water is not new, but in the drinking water market, it's a confusing category.** First, the general public doesn't have much concept of 'mineral water' and 'natural water.' When your friend says, 'Go to the convenience store and buy a bottle of mineral water,' most of the time they come back with Nongfu Spring natural water. So, people don't have much awareness of this category. **What people really perceive is the price.** Although everyone is a 'porter of nature,' compared to natural water, mineral water places more emphasis on 'origin' and 'lineage.' Famous mountains produce famous water, and water sources have a certain scarcity. Moreover, exploring and mining for mineral water is difficult, takes a long time, and has high policy barriers. Therefore, mineral water is more expensive than natural water; most 500ml bottles start at 3 yuan. **In addition, what people perceive is marketing.** Baisuishan has been telling the story of 'the aristocrat in water' for over a decade, finally pushing itself into the top three brands in the drinking water industry. This shows that in marketing, the 'repeater strategy' works. In recent years, brands have tended to tell stories about water sources. If you say you're from Changbai Mountain spring water, then I'm from Kunlun Mountain spring water. If you take water from Tanggula Mountain, I'll mine in Dali Cangshan. Along with the water source, they shoot a TVC, telling the story of an explorer going deep into the primeval forest, visiting famous mountains and great rivers, hiking hundreds of kilometers, and finally finding a high-quality water source at an altitude of over a thousand meters and temperatures below minus ten degrees. So, in recent years, many mineral water brands have stopped considering the mass market route. Since they claim to be high-end, they follow through. A bottle of water can't just sell for 3 yuan; what's the difference from Nongfu and C'estbon at 2 yuan? They directly raise the price to 5 yuan and above, and distribute more in boutique supermarkets, five-star hotels, and high-end restaurants, selling to middle-class families. That's what it means to be the 'aristocrat in water,' and that's how you differentiate from natural water.

**The third concept is 'specialty water.'** The baby water I mentioned earlier is the best example, and another typical one is 'tea brewing water.' Nongfu Spring has a drinking mountain spring water with a note in parentheses (for tea brewing), and the packaging prominently features the word 'tea brewing.' Because the water source is in Wuyi Mountain, Nongfu Spring also created the concept of 'same origin for tea and water.' I checked: this water is sold in 4-liter bottles, 4 bottles per pack, for 55 yuan on the flagship store, which is over 13 yuan per 4-liter bottle. That's 4 yuan more expensive than the 5-liter natural water. I think this price is acceptable; the sickle isn't too sharp. But Baisuishan is more impressive: it has a specialty mineral water that claims to be suitable for tea brewing and milk mixing. What's the price? 4 liters * 2 buckets, selling for over 56 yuan, which is about 28 yuan per bucket. Well, truly the 'aristocrat in water.' I don't even know if my cheap tea leaves are worthy of being brewed with it. There's also rice cooking water, which seems like the kind of water used by Japanese 'rice masters' for cooking rice; it sounds like something I can't afford. Not only traditional brands, but recently, the new consumer representative brand Satuday (三顿半) coffee also launched a natural mineral water, claiming it's specially for coffee. However, Satuday was polite enough not to sell it separately but as a free gift. In addition, electrolyte water, coconut water, sparkling water, etc., are also creating new concepts in different ways, hoping to get a share of the huge drinking water market.

**Because water is a necessity, anxiety about water is also a common phenomenon. For example, a widely circulated saying: you need to drink 8 glasses of water a day to be healthy.** Actually, if you think about it, this saying doesn't hold up. What size is a glass? What happens if you don't drink 8 glasses? **In fact, this standard comes from reverse inference.** In 2010, some institutions surveyed the water intake of Chinese adults and found that the median water intake was 1488 ml, with men at 1679 ml and women at 1370 ml. Based on this survey, the institutions recommended that men drink 1.7 liters of water per day and women 1.5 liters, and this was eventually written into the 'Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents.' And based on 200 ml per glass, that's exactly about 8 glasses, so this saying became the golden rule for health. Not only that, but around these 8 glasses, a series of 'drinking methods' have been derived, including but not limited to the temperature and timing of drinking water. In fact, to this day, there is no clear scientific basis for how much water a person should drink each day. After all, depending on the body's condition, eating habits, and even the season, water intake can vary greatly. With the recent weather, if you walk around outside for a while without drinking a sip of water, I'd respect you as a tough person. From this reverse-inferred standard, it's clear that as long as there's enough water, normal people won't get sick from drinking too little; your body will tell you when to drink. Some people are born water buffalos, able to chug a bottle at any time; others, like me, are camel-like and won't be greatly affected. How much to drink, how to drink, and when to drink are generally for special groups and special situations, such as athletes, patients, etc. Ordinary people don't need to strictly follow these standards. And the so-called 'girl group water' is even more laughable, claiming to 'scrape oil' and help you lose weight. Let's not even mention that 'scraping oil' is a pseudo-concept, completely unrelated to weight loss. How adding some vegetables can have a 'scraping oil' effect is truly puzzling. Actually, adding fruits and vegetables to water is not a big deal; adding lemon at least provides some vitamin C. And humans are naturally drawn to flavor, so after drinking too much plain water, you inevitably want to drink something with taste. **But today I must say: as long as it's clean, it doesn't matter what water you drink.** No water will make you healthier or thinner. Water is water; its main function is to quench thirst. At the same volume, the biggest difference between 2-yuan water and 10-yuan water is only the packaging and whether it's sold at a scenic spot. **Personally, if I had to teach a marketing lesson, I would definitely choose the water category because it best demonstrates marketing ability. Water, like air, is a basic condition for life. If it's hard to imagine air being sold at different prices in the future, the current division of water into different grades is equally magical.**

References: 'Nongfu Spring Boss Made 99 Billion Selling Medicine' - Shijie; '3-Yuan Mineral Water Creates Another Billionaire' - Shijie; 'Billion-Bottle Water' series - Zebra Consumption; 'National Standard of the People's Republic of China GB8537-2018'; 'National Standard of the People's Republic of China GB19298-2014'; 'China's Bottled Water Source Map' - Food Industry Headlines; 'Liquid Money Printer: New and Old Kings of Bottled Water' - Yuanyan Research Institute; 'Tempting but Difficult Business: Chatting with Quan Si about Bottled Water and Beverage Industry' - High Energy


---

## Copyright and AI use

This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL.

Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671