2.1 INTRODUCTION - Shodhgangashodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/37274/3/chapter1.pdf · positive consumer perception and attitude into the final purchasing of bottled water

2.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents a review of selected literatures related to the

present study. The aim of this study mainly focuses on understanding

consumers perception on Domestic RO Water treatment equipment in Erode

district. A list of some of the studies made previously has been given in the

following pages.

2.2 REVIEW OF PREVIOUS STUDIES

Jeffrey L. Jordan (2002) in his study titled “Who, What, When,

Why: Filters, Boiling and Bottled Water” reports on a recent survey

conducted in Georgia on alternatives to the tap water provided by local

water utilities. In the random telephone study, 40% of the respondents

reported using bottled water (paying an average $4.35 per week), 13% used

water filters and 9% said they routinely boiled water prior to drinking. This

compares to the 1993 AWWARF study on consumer attitudes that found

43% of the nationwide respondents used at least some bottled water and

14% used a home treatment or purification device, other than a water

softener. The paper examines the factors influencing decisions to undertake

averting behavior.

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Steve Turgeon et al., (2004) in their article titled “Perception of

drinking water in the Quebec City region (Canada): the influence of

water quality and consumer location in the distribution system” have

explained the purpose of every water utility is to provide consumers with

drinking water that is aesthetically acceptable and presents no risk to public

health. Several studies have been carried out to analyze people's perception

and attitude about the drinking water coming from their water distribution

systems. The goal of the present study is to investigate the influence of water

quality and the geographic location of consumers within a distribution

system on consumer perception of tap water. The study is based on the data

obtained from two surveys carried out in municipalities of the Quebec City

area (Canada). Three perception variables were used to study consumer

perception: general satisfaction, taste satisfaction and risk perception. Data

analysis based on logistic regression indicates that water quality variations

and geographic location in the distribution system have a significant impact

on the consumer perception. This impact appears to be strongly associated

with residual chlorine levels. The study also confirms the importance of

socio-economic characteristics of consumers on their perception of drinking

water quality.


Andria et al., (2005) in their article titled “Public perception of

drinking water from private water supplies: focus group analyses” have

said that over four million Canadians receive their drinking water from

private water supplies, and numerous studies report that these supplies often

exceed the minimal acceptable standards for contamination. Canadians in

rural areas test their water intermittently, if at all, and treatment of water

from private supplies is not common. Understanding the perceptions of

drinking water among residents served by private systems will enable public

health professionals to better target education and outreach activities, and to

address the needs and concerns of residents in their jurisdictions. The

purpose of this study was to explore the drinking water perceptions and self-

described behaviours and needs of participants served by private water

systems in the City of Hamilton, Ontario (Canada). Participants from all

groups wanted more information on water testing, and various media for

information dissemination were discussed. While most participants were

confident in the safety of their private water supply, the factual basis for

these opinions is uncertain. Improved dissemination of information

pertaining to private water supplies in this population is needed. Observed

differences in the concerns expressed by users of different water systems and

age groups may suggest the need for targeted public education strategies.


These focus groups provided significant insight into the public perception of

private water supplies and the need for public health outreach activities;

however, to obtain a more representative understanding of the perceptions in

this population, it is important that a larger scale investigation be performed.

Diane P Dupont (2005) in his article entitled “Tapping into

Consumers' Perceptions of Drinking Water Quality in Canada:

Capturing Customer Demand to Assist in Better Management of Water

Resources” has discussed that Canadian municipal water utilities have had

to face many difficulties in the past few years. This paper reviews results

from Canadian surveys on perceptions of the quality of municipally supplied

tap water. Next, it examines the approach to water management adopted by

the United Kingdom (UK) over the last 15 years. This examination provides

valuable lessons to Canada's policy makers to encourage them to adopt

integrated water resources management (IWRM). In particular, the paper

argues that water utility performance can be enhanced by applying one of

the most fundamental "economic instruments", namely the use of

information about consumer preferences. In so doing, water utilities promote

IWRM. This should result in more satisfied customers and a more efficient

use of Canada's scarce water resources. The study describes the Contingent

Valuation Method (CVM) and Averting Behavior Approach (ABA) to


analyze drinking water services and quality in district Abbottabad. In an

attempt to measure, how much households are willing to pay for improved

water services, we use CVM and apply multinomial logistic regression. In

ABA, we again have used the same technique to estimate the water

purification behavior of households. Education, awareness, available water

sources, and quality of drinking water determine WTP of HH in the sample

district.

Gurian, Patrick L. et al. (2006) This study titled “Evaluating in-home

water purification methods for communities in Texas on the border

with Mexico” evaluated user preferences among three alternative in-home

water treatment technologies suitable for households relying on trucked

water in El Paso County, Texas, which is on the border with Mexico. The

three technologies were: chlorination of household storage tanks, small-scale

batch chlorination and point-of-use ultraviolet disinfection. Fifteen

households used each of the three technologies in succession for roughly

four weeks each during April through June of 2004. Data were collected on

treated water quality, and a face-valid survey was administered orally to

assess user satisfaction with the technologies on a variety of attributes.

Treatment with a counter-top ultraviolet disinfection system received

statistically significantly higher ratings for taste and odor and likelihood of


future use than the other two approaches. Ultraviolet disinfection and small-

scale batch chlorination both received significantly higher ratings for ease of

use than did storage tank chlorination. Over-chlorination was a common

problem with both batch chlorination and storage tank chlorination. Water

quality in the households using trucked water is now higher than was

reported by a previous study, suggesting that water quality has improved

over time.

Miguel F. Doria (2006) in his article entitled, “Bottled water versus

tap water: understanding consumers’ preferences”, discussed about the

consumption of bottled water which has been increasing consistently over

the last decade, even in countries where tap water quality is considered

excellent. This paper discusses some of the reasons why people decide for an

option that is often more expensive and less comfortable than tap water.

Consumer surveys usually stress two main factors: dissatisfaction with tap

water organoleptics (especially taste) and health/risk concerns. However,

many other factors are involved, including demographic variables and the

perceived quality of the water source. Trust in tap water companies also

seems to influence public behaviour. A clearer picture of bottled water

consumption can be achieved when different aspects are considered.


Zhao, Dun (2006) in their study titled “Consumer attitude and

buying behaviour of university students toward bottled water in the

UK” has examined the buying behaviour towards bottled water. The global

bottled water market has been booming over the past five years as bottled

waters have been preferred by increasingly health-conscious consumers all

over the world. The UK bottled market is no exception. In fact, it has one of

the highest growth rates in the world. As a common approach to establish

understanding of consumer attitude and buying behaviour regarding bottled

water, this research has been conducted. However, the conceptual model has

been identified from extant literature as an effective approach to test

relationships between psychological and demographics factors and buying

behaviour. Three research objectives were developed to answer the research

problem: RO 1: How do psychographic factors affect bottled water buying

behaviour? RO 2: How do demographic factors affect bottled water buying

behaviour? RO 3: Will university students be an effective segment for

bottled water marketers? The results for the first research objective showed

that perception has a very weak negative relationship with bottled water

buying behaviour and attitude has a weak positive relationship with bottled

water buying behaviour. In addition, price and availability were discovered

as the most important marketing factors influence bottled water buying


behaviour. The findings for the second research objective were that there is

no relationship between gender, age, education level, residential status and

bottled water buying behaviour. However, there is a very weak negative

relationship between personal income and bottled water buying behaviour.

The findings also indicate that it is unlikely either male or female university

students will be effective market segments in term of consumer decision

making. Therefore, it is not conclusively proven in this research that

psychological as well as demographic factors are directly related to buying

behaviour of bottled water. The main implication of this research is that

bottled water marketers have successfully created a positive, healthy image

for bottled waters. Marketing focus should be on how to effectively convey

positive consumer perception and attitude into the final purchasing of bottled

water.

Mat Salleh, Roslina (2007) in his study entitled “Water Quality,

Perception and Consumer’s Satisfaction Towards Domestic Water

Filters” has discussed that water is the most crucial source for the continuity

of all creatures on earth. Thus, water safety issue becomes very important.

Consumer’s complaints and reports from related government departments

show that consumers are not satisfied with the quality of water supplied. A

large number of consumers decided to treat the water using domestic water


treatment systems. The objectives of this study are to determine the quality

of water supplied to homes and to study the level of knowledge, perception,

practice and consumer’s satisfaction towards water quality and the filtering

system used in their homes. The results showed that almost all respondents

(98.52%) experienced problems with the water supplied to their homes with

the perception that its quality was not satisfactory and had the impression

that the water could harm their health. The majority of the respondents viz

76.1% had a low level of satisfaction towards the water supplied and 83%

felt that the water filter system provided benefits to them. The results also

showed that unfiltered water quality was generally better than the filtered

water, but the respondent’s satisfaction was higher for filtered water

compared to unfiltered water. In conclusion, the respondents satisfaction

towards water was not influenced by the actual quality of the water. The

result of this study suggests that some action should be taken so that

consumers are aware of the real situation. Researchers can do further studies

to assist government and consumers in drinking water consumption.

Manufacturers and sales persons should be more responsible in marketing

their products since it can affect the health of consumers.

Prakash et al., (2007) in their study titled “Design & Development of

Ultra Low Cost Water Purifier for Indian Rural Market” has explained


about the importance of water purifiers. Water is the vital source of

existence of life on earth. Drinking pure water has changed from luxury to

necessity for the past few years. In general the people living in urban areas

have access to good drinking water by having water purifier and at times can

afford for packaged drinking water. However, if we look at scenario in rural

India, most of the people do not have a source of clean drinking water and

because of illiteracy, they are not aware of the hazards caused by drinking

unclean water. Even if they know it, their poor economic status prevents

them to afford even a water purifier. To solve this problem, keeping

economic considerations and practical functionality in mind, the project was

taken to design a water purifier for rural India. The project was aimed at

designing a low cost water purifier suitable for rural conditions. The design

process began with product context study where a thorough understanding of

the product was made by going through literatures and by undertaking

discussions with the industry experts. Traveling to different villages and

having one on one interview with the people with a list of questionnaires

was the method adopted for data collection. Also interviewing suburban

shops and observations made during the visits gave a clear insight of the

rural lifestyle and their expectations. Data collection was followed by

different design process like Quality Function Deployment, Morphological


Analysis, Mind Mapping, etc he outcome of which was implemented during

generation of concepts. Finally, the purified water from functional product

was subject to stringent lab testing at an equipped testing facility, recognized

by water quality association, U.S.A. The report outcome saw a 99%

reduction of bacteria, virus and protozoa. Smell, taste and the temperature of

water were found to be non objectionable.

Susan Talatala (2008) in his article titled “The Effect of Tap Water

Perception on the Consumption of Bottled Water” have discussed that

over the past 30 years, drinking water has evolved from existing as a

household faucet essential to being pumped, bottled and sold as a

convenience store commodity. Consumers choose to drink bottled water for

a variety of reasons – health, convenience, taste and safety to name a few.

Although its growth and popularity represent success for the bottled water

industry, the life cycle of bottled water forces a serious impact upon the

environment. Despite these issues and despite that tap water is an equal

substitute, consumers continue to increasingly purchase bottled water. The

purpose of this study is to investigate the consumer incentive behind

purchasing bottled water, namely how it is affected by a negative perception

of tap water taste and safety. A survey was designed for and administered to

Safeway customers in Contra Costa Country. Using Spearman’s Rank


Correlation test, results indicated that there was no relationship between

perception of tap water taste and consumption of bottled water. There was a

moderate relationship between perception of tap water safety and

consumption of bottled water and a strong relationship between the amount

of bottled water and tap water one consumes.

Brown J, Proum S, Sobsey MD (2009) in their article entitled

“Sustained use of a household-scale water filtration device in rural

Cambodia” have discussed about the effectiveness of point-of-use water

treatment which may be limited by declining use over time, particularly

when water treatment is introduced via targeted intervention programmes. In

order to evaluate the long-term uptake and use of locally produced ceramic

water filters in rural Cambodia. They visited households that had received

filters as part of NGO-subsidized distribution programmes over a 4 year

period from 2002 to 2006. Of the more than 2,000 filters distributed, they

visited 506 randomly selected households in 13 villages spanning three

provinces to assess filter time in use and to collect data on factors potentially

correlated with long-term use. Results indicate that filter use declined at the

rate of approximately 2% per month after implementation, largely owing to

breakages and that, controlling for time since implementation, continued

filter use over time was most closely positively associated with: related


http://europepmc.org/search/?page=1&query=AUTH:%22Brown+J%22

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water, sanitation and hygiene practices in the home; cash investment in the

technology by the household; and use of surface water as a primary drinking

water source.

Alisa Bektesevic and Grace Oloya (2010) in their study titled “The

challenge of marketing water filters in Uganda” has examined about

water filters in Uganda. According to World Health Organization more than

one billion still do not have access to clean drinking water and 1.8 million

children die each year from diarrhea related to unsafe water. Uganda has

been selected as the only country in Africa to pilot a project that provides

cheap and safe drinking water to rural areas in Uganda. Applied Technology

Uganda (ATU) is carrying out the project promoting the sale of water filter

through the private sector in attempt to disseminate it as a point of use

option. However, despite the filter being promoted and presented on the

market since 2008, the target consumers are still not buying it. The purpose

of this research is to assess why sales of the water filter (CrystalPur) is

stagnant. The authors will investigate the viability of the approach used to

market CrystalPur with help of the marketing mix after which necessary

adjustments best fitted for the Ugandan market will be suggested. The

investigation has shown that the target customers are not buying the filter

because they doubt its functionality of providing safe water which has thus


hindered its acceptance rate. Boiling water is the accepted method which

thus makes filtering disadvantaged. Also the filters performance does not

meet the expectation of the respondents due its fragility and slow flow rate,

the price of the filter was shown to be very expensive and unaffordable by

the target group. The channels used to create awareness are not effective due

to the low literacy rate affecting the level of understanding. Lastly, the

underdeveloped distribution channels have not enabled easy accessibility of

the product.

Dr. S. Subadra et al., (2010) in their study on “Perceptions and

Behaviour: A Study with of Car Owners in Namakkal District”, focus

on shifting for product based marketing to need based marketing. Consumer

is given many options to decide. Passenger car segment is no exception to

this general trend. So it is important to study the consumer perceptions and

behaviour of the car owners which will give feedback on how marketing

strategies can be worked. Namakkal town in Tamil Nadu State which is in

the southern part of India has a progressive and growing market for cars.

This was selected for their study. Pre-testing was done by an Interview

Schedule which was developed and administered to a convenient sample of

twenty five car owners. A total of 350 Interview schedules were prepared

and out of this, only 327 Interview Schedules were filled up and collected.


Data were collected through an Interview Schedule regarding perception of

the respondents on the usage of cars. The following tools were used in

testing the hypotheses and in the analysis of the data. ANOVA, t-Test and F-

Test had been used to test the significant differences between the groups of

respondents in their perception and satisfaction for selected independent

variables like age, sex and income. Chi-Square test had been used to test the

association between the consumer demographic characteristics and preferred

product attributes and satisfaction. Factor analysis was employed to identify

the key factors responsible for the consumers purchase of cars and level of

satisfaction after purchase. Cluster analysis had been used to identify the

consumers with similar tastes and preferences with respect to purchase of

car. The study throws light on various features that the manufacturers should

concentrate on to attract the prospective buyers. This study concludes that

consumer behaviour plays a vital role in marketing cars and there is more

scope for extensive research in this area.

Jenson Chang, et al., (2010) in their study titled “An Investigation

into Sustainable Water Consumption (Bottled Water versus WaterFillz

Units)” this report aims to perform an analysis on the environmental,

economical, and social impacts of selling over-the-counter bottled waters

versus implementing filtered water dispensing units such as WaterFillz. The


WaterFillz unit will be evaluated against the current method of selling

bottled water in order to determine whether WaterFillz can be a suitable

candidate for replacing bottled water in terms of water distribution in the

New SUB. When the energy consumption of delivering 1L of water to

consumer is compared, we have found that the WaterFillz unit consumes

much less energy over time when considering the manufacturing,

distribution, and disposable impacts on the environment. However AMS

loses out on potential revenue if the WaterFillz unit is used to distribute

water the UBC students, faculty and staff. This may be able to be recovered

via renting out ad spaces on the WaterFillz units. From the social

perspective, the WaterFillz unit can make significant social impacts on the

way water is consumed in the New SUB and at UBC. It helps raise

awareness of waste issues regarding disposable plastic and encourage people

to be conscious of other sustainability problems. By surveying a small

sample population within the Faculty of Applied Science, we have also

identified that 80% of our participants are willing to drink tap water,

however only 52% drink tap water at UBC. More participants would drink

tap water at UBC if the water fountains were filtered, maintained and

accessible. By implementing the WaterFillz units, UBC and the New SUB


are taking steps to move toward a more sustainable way of water

consumption.

Teillet, E., et al., (2010) in their article titled “Consumer Perception

And Preference of Bottled and Tap Water” have discussed that in order to

understand consumer behavior toward drinking water, it is first necessary to

determine sensory perception and liking for tap and bottled water.

Nevertheless, sensory analysis of water is a challenge as drinking water is

supposed to have almost no taste. Therefore, a methodology based on a

perceptive sorting task was designed for that purpose. Six bottled mineral

water and six types of tap water were presented to 389 consumers who had

to group these samples according to their sensory similarities, describe their

groups and give their preferences. The resulting sensory map was found to

be mainly driven by the overall level of mineralization. Tap water, after

being passively dechlorinated, did not perform differently from bottled water

in all aspects for most consumers. Basically, three main tastes of water were

highlighted and linked to the amount of minerals. The study demonstrated

that the most likely preferred types of water are those with medium

mineralization (total dissolved solids 300–350 mg/L), which are perceived

as tasteless and cooler.


Ayokunle C Dada (2011) in his article entitled “Packaged water:

optimizing local processes for sustainable water delivery in developing

nations” highlighted that, with so much global attention and commitment

towards making the Water and Sanitation targets of the Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs) a reality, available figures seem to speak on the

contrary as they reveal a large disparity between the expected and what

currently obtains especially in developing countries. As studies have shown

that the standard industrialized world model for delivery of safe drinking

water technology may not be affordable in much of the developing world,

packaged water is suggested as a low cost, readily available alternative water

provision that could help bridge the gap. Despite the established roles that

this drinking water source plays in developing nations, its importance is

however significantly underestimated, and the source considered

unimproved going by 'international standards'. Rather than simply

disqualifying water from this source, focus should be on identifying means

of improvement. The need for intervening global communities and

developmental organizations to learn from and build on the local processes

that already operate in the developing world is also emphasized. Identifying

packaged water case studies of some developing nations, the implication of a

tenacious focus on imported policies, standards and regulatory approaches


on drinking water access for residents of the developing world is also

discussed.

Marc H. Gorelick et al., (2011) in their article entitled “Perceptions

about Water and Increased Use of Bottled Water in Minority Children”

have described bottled water use and beliefs and attitudes about water

among parents of children from different racial/ethnic groups. The

respondents completed a questionnaire in English or Spanish, describing

their use of bottled water and tap water for their children and rating their

agreement with a series of belief statements about bottled water and tap

water. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the association between

bottled water use and beliefs and demographic characteristics with odds

ratios (ORs). A total of 632 surveys were completed (35% white, 33%

African American, and 32% Latino respondents). African American and

Latino parents were more likely to give their children mostly bottled water;

minority children were exclusively given bottled water 3 times more often

than non-Latino white children (24% vs 8%, P < .01). In logistic regression

analysis, the following factors were independently associated with mostly

bottled water use: belief that bottled water is safer (OR, 2.4), cleaner (OR,

2.0), better tasting (OR, 2.8), or more convenient (OR, 1.7). After other

factors were adjusted for, race/ethnicity, household income, and prior


residence outside the United States were not associated with bottled water

use.

Ogbuji, Chinedu N., et al., (2011) in their article titled “An Empirical

Study of the Impact of Branding on Consumer Choice for Regulated

Bottled Water in Southeast, Nigeria” has examined the importance of

marketing strategies used for the purpose of winning or over coming

competition; its efficacy is not in doubt. This research work is therefore an

investigation into the impact of branding on consumer choice for bottled

water, with special focus on the contributory roles of its various elements in

impacting consumer behavior. It was discovered among other things, that of

all the elements of branding, company-of-make and packaging play a greater

role than brand name and brand mark, in terms of influencing consumer

choice for bottled water. It was against this backdrop that this research work

proposed two models namely; Review of Consumer Buying Behavior

Process 1 and 2. It equally recommended among other things that firms

should focus more attention on the company name and packaging but should

also integrate brand name and brand mark as supportive elements in

fashioning an effective branding strategy for beating competition. More

emphasis should equally be laid on institutional rather than brand

advertising.


Zhihua Hu, et al, (2011) discussed in their study “Bottled Water:

United States Consumers and Their Perceptions of Water Quality”, that

consumption of bottled water is increasing worldwide. Prior research shows

many consumers believe bottled water is convenient and has better taste than

tap water, despite reports of a number of water quality incidents with bottled

water. The authors explore the demographic and social factors associated

with bottled water users in the U.S. and the relationship between bottled

water use and perceptions of the quality of local water supply. They find that

U.S. consumers are more likely to report bottled water as their primary

drinking water source when they perceive that drinking water is not safe.

Furthermore, those who give lower ratings to the quality of their ground

water are more likely to regularly purchase bottle water for drinking and use

bottle water as their primary drinking water source.

Armand Luc Fotuè Totouom, et al, (2012) in their article entitled

“Household Choice of Purifying Drinking Water in Cameroon” this

study contributes to the still short literature on demand for drinking water

quality in Africa by modeling Cameroonian households’ choice of purifying

drinking water. Specifically, the study seeks to: analyze households’ access

to water and various measures undertaken to improve water quality; identify


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Hu%20Z%5Bauth%5D

the factors driving households’ decision to purify drinking water. Our

analysis uses data from the second Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey

carried out in 2006 by the National Institute of Statistics. In order to control

for possible simultaneity of the choice of drinking water source and the

decision to purify water or not before drinking it, a bivariate probit model is

used for discrete analysis. Most previous studies have neglected to consider

this issue in their analysis. Our findings suggest that households’ educational

level has a positive and statistically significant impact on households’

decision to purify water before drinking it. Results also reveal that wealth

quintile, health status and number of children less than five years strongly

affect households’ decision. In particular, the magnitude of the wealth

quintile impact on households’ decision is larger than those of the other

variables. Implications for drinking water policies are discussed.

Jim A Wright et al, (2012) in their article entitled “Public perception

of drinking water safety in South Africa 2002–2009: a repeated cross-

sectional study” have discussed that, public perceptions of drinking water

safety are relevant to promotion of household water treatment and to

household choices over drinking water sources. The objective of this study is

to explore trends in perceived drinking water safety in South Africa and its

association with disease outbreaks, water supply and household


characteristics. The results suggest that perceived drinking water safety has

remained relatively stable over time in South Africa, once the expansion of

improved supplies is controlled for. A large cholera outbreak in 2000–02

had no apparent effect on public perception of drinking water safety in 2002.

Perceived drinking water safety is primarily related to water taste, odour,

and clarity rather than socio-economic or demographic characteristics. This

suggests that household perceptions of drinking water safety in South Africa

follow similar patterns to those observed in studies in developed countries.

The stability over time in public perception of drinking water safety is

particularly surprising, given the large cholera outbreak that took place at the

start of this period.

Khan, Mehwish Aziz and Mahmood, Zahid (2012) in their article

entitled “Impact of brand loyalty factors on brand equity” this paper

investigates the relationship between brand loyalty factors and brand equity

of Mineral water. This study focuses on one product category of two

different companies of mineral water. Data were collected through

questionnaire with a sample of 300 mineral water consumers from

Islamabad and Rawalpindi region. Structural Equation Model (AMOS) is

used to analyze the relationship between variables. Findings reveal that

brand loyalty (BL) is influenced by willingness to pay more (WPM),


perceived quality (PQ), and brand awareness (BA) and has a positive direct

effect on brand equity (BE). Brand loyalty is viewed as a link in the chain of

effects that indirectly connects willingness to pay more; perceived quality

and brand awareness with brand equity.

M. Nandhini et al, (2012) in their article titled “Brand Preference

Towards Water Filters – An Analysis” has discussed about the Importance

of using a Water Filter in recent years, home water filters have gained

widespread popularity. As the logical, most convenient and most

economical solution for high quality water, water filters offer many benefits

over tap water and bottled water. Home water filtration offers a higher

quality water product than bottled water and the convenience of tap water.

Point of use water filters remove lead from drinking water immediately

prior to consumption, thus preventing this harmful substance from entering

the body. The purchase of a countertop filter results in a source of clean,

healthy water that costs much less than bottled water. Water filters greatly

reduce the risk of rectal cancer, colon cancer, and bladder cancer by

removing chlorine and chlorine byproducts from drinking water. A solid

block carbon water filter can selectively remove dangerous contaminants

from drinking water while retaining healthy mineral deposits that

balance the pH of drinking water. Drinking clean, filtered water protects


the body from disease and leads to overall greater health. The Importance

of using a Water Filter in recent years, home water filters have gained

widespread popularity. As the logical, most convenient and most

economical solution for high quality water, water filters offer many benefits

over tap water and bottled water. Home water filtration offers a higher

quality water product than bottled water and the convenience of tap water.

Most bottled water is bottled and sold in the same state in order to avoid

regulation and accountability. The home water filter alternative is a far

better, more economical and convenient way of getting truly healthy water.

Poulos C et al, (2012) in their article entitled “Consumer

preferences for household water treatment products in Andhra

Pradesh, India” has discussed that over 5 billion people worldwide are

exposed to unsafe water. Given the obstacles to ensuring sustainable

improvements in water supply infrastructure and the unhygienic handling of

water after collection, household water treatment and storage (HWTS)

products have been viewed as important mechanisms for increasing access

to safe water. This paper reports the results of the first state-of-the-art

conjoint analysis study of HWTS products. In 2008, they conducted a

conjoint analysis survey of a representative sample of households in Andhra

Pradesh (AP), India to elicit and quantify household preferences for


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Poulos%20C%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=22621996

commercial HWTS products. Controlling for attribute non-attendance in an

error components mixed logit model, the study results indicate that the most

important features to respondents, in terms of the effect on utility, were the

type of product, followed by the extent to which the product removes

pathogens, the retail outlet and, the time required to treat 10 L. Holding all

other product attributes constant, filters were preferred to combination

products and chemical additives. Department stores and weekly markets

were the most favorable sales outlets, followed by mobile salespeople. In

general, households do not prefer to purchase HWTS products at local

shops. Our results can inform the types of products and sales outlets that are

likely to be successful in commercial HWTS markets in AP, as well as the

influence of different pricing and financing strategies on product demand

and uptake.

Sultana Nazia and V. Santhoshi (2012) in their article entitled “An

analysis of the marketing mix and consumers’ attitudes towards water

purifier brands – a study of select brands in India” has examined about

the major problem in drinking pure water in India on account of different

types of pollution in the country. With more and more Indians becoming

aware of the hazards of drinking impure water, the demand for effective

water purifiers is growing rapidly. Global and Indian brands are now vying


for consumer attention in a fast growing market. Research shows that water

purifiers are the most sought products in Indian market. This paper

highlights the brand awareness among consumers in the city of Hyderabad in

India with respect to the existing and emerging brands of purifiers in Indian

market. A few brands are selected for the study and the company’s

marketing practices are analysed. Also the awareness of dangers associated

with the use of water purifiers in India is documented in the paper. The

paper attempts to compare the marketing mix (the 4 P’s) of marketing) of

five leading brands of water purifiers. In all, the paper talks about the

marketing mix and consumer’s perceptions on the same.

Harishchandra SB (2013) in his report titled “Customer Satisfaction

towards Bisleri Bottled Water” has discussed that to be successful,

organizations must look into the needs and wants of their customers. That is

the reason why many researchers and academicians have continuously

emphasized on the importance of customer satisfaction, loyalty and

retention. Customer satisfaction is important because many researchers have

shown that customer satisfaction has a positive effect on an organization's

profitability. Due to this, the consequences of customer satisfaction and

dissatisfaction must be considered. There is also a positive connection

between customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention. Therefore, customer


satisfaction, loyalty and retention are all very important for an organization

to be successful.

Nilima Das (2013) in her article titled “A Study on Factors

Affecting Consumer Purchase Decision of Water Purifier” has discussed

that in India nearly 80% people die due to water related diseases. Both urban

and rural areas in India are suffering from scarcity of clean water for

domestic use. Although access to drinking water has improved, the World

Bank estimates that 21% of communicable diseases in India are related to

unsafe water. Diarrhoea, cholera, malaria etc water related diseases are

mostly found in India and due to these diseases approximately 1,600people

from 7,00,000 Indians estimated in 1999 died each day. Consumer behavior

in India is always unexpected and dynamic. This study is all about consumer

behavior, and the factors that motivate them to purchase water purifier for

their own health. This study is conducted in an urban area named

Bhubaneswar, capital city of Odisha. I have taken 100 sample and tried to

find out how much consumers are aware about water purifiers while

purchasing and using it. This research is based on both primary data and

secondary data. Samples are randomly selected. All the samples include user

and nonuser of water purifier. In order to analyze the data, descriptive

statistics were employed.


Philippe Burny and Carmen Valentina Rădulescu (2014) in their study

entitled, “Drinking Water: Legislation, Policy, Economic Aspects - Case

Studies from Cluj-Napoca (Romania)” presents an analysis of how

drinking-water quality depends on the existence of adequate legislation,

standards, and codes. Therefore, the aim of drinking water quality

regulations should be to ensure that the consumer has access to sustainable,

sufficient and safe drinking-water. Presentation of the relevant provisions of

EU directives and national legislation in the field constitutes the main

approach of the first part of this scientific approach. The second part of the

paper discusses the relationship natural environment – company –

consumers and its connection to sustainability. It also presents the results of

two studies: one is a simple random survey conducted on consumers’

perceptions and habits related to a regional Water Company, environment

protection and water consumption. This survey showed water is well

appreciated by most consumers (very good and good: purity – 42%, taste –

53%, smell – 55%, turbidity – 49%, safety – 28%). The other study analyzes

consumers’ attitude towards drinking water: what they think, believe and do.

According to its results, most of consumers tested (62%) drink between 1-2

liters of liquids per day and the most used liquid is water.


Ranchay Bhateja et al., (2014) in their study titled, “A Study of

Consumer Behavior on Safe Drinking Water in Household” recapitulates

ensuring safe drinking water remains a big challenge in developing countries

where waterborne diseases cause havoc in many communities. A major

challenge is limited knowledge, misinformation and attitudes that work

against ensuring that drinking water is safe. This study investigated the

knowledge, attitudes and practices of urban households in rural and semi

urban areas, concerning the collection, treatment and storage of drinking

water. Alongside this we examined the role of solid waste disposal in water

safety. Three hundred and seventy eight households from four residential

regions of varying economic levels were randomly sampled. The study

recommend that the government undertake training programmes on drinking

water safety that advocate appropriate water use, hygiene and sanitation

strategies

2.3 CONCULISION

Most of the reviews were found from the research studies conducted

outside India. As there are no studies so far done in the area of consumer

perception on Domestic RO Water treatment equipment, a gap exists and the

present study has been undertaken.


Documents

2.1 INTRODUCTION - Shodhgangashodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/37274/3/chapter1.pdf · positive consumer perception and attitude into the final purchasing of bottled water