| Description |
Though marketing has existed in one manner or another for the duration of human history, the field has only seen strong development since the beginning of the 20th century. Marketing is now an inescapable part of everyday life and companies across every industry advertise of to us as potential customers. This development has been indiscriminatory to the nature of the product and necessity products are marketed to consumers in the same manner as every other product. This research has aimed to investigate if some common aspects of marketing, including brand name and distributional availability, will impact a consumer's willingness to pay for a necessity product. This research examined these aspects using bottled water, a product that sells one of the core needs for human survival, water. Conducted at the University of Utah, the conjoint survey given to students yielded results that indicate that the brand associated with bottle of water significantly impacts a consumer's willingness to pay for the bottle. Other variables measured did not have an impact on willingness to pay, including distributional availability, health consciousness, and environmental consciousness. These results seem to indicate that the brand can play a significant role in the decisions customers make, even for necessity products. Additional research must be done to confirm the exact economic impact that branding can have, and to understand how this may change for other necessity products, but this research highlights the importance of consumers remaining aware of how brands are marketing to them in order to avoid spending unnecessary additional money on products necessary sustaining their modern way of life. |
