“Water, like wine, gets its taste from the terrain that forms it. (Wine experts reverently speak of terroir.) FIJI Water comes from tropical rain filtered for hundreds of years through volcanic stone. You can taste the purity in every sip. You can also taste the unique mineral composition, because geology creates its own taste profile, distinctive as a fingerprint.”
Does anyone believe that?
Does everyone who buys Fiji Bottled Water think of the hundreds of years of volcanic filtration for purity sake, or is it the cool story behind them drinking 40% more expensive bottled water?
Probably the story.
A recent Amazon.com customer review of Fiji Bottled Water:
“I have tried alot of bottled water and usually go right back to drinking the water from my tap. Fiji is the first bottled water I have tried and will buy it again. It has the taste of refreshing water. The way it should be.”
It’s common marketing strategy to build a story and image behind a product to get emotional responses from consumers, although this person clearly doesn’t mind the taste.
For bachelors, it can boil down to this. If you’re spending 40% more on water, then to an observant (perhaps superficial) woman you’re successful. How many guys do you know that are on $12 an hour that are spending 5% of their income on bottled water?
I’m a huge fan of Fiji Water not just for the mere image, cool bottle, and conversational prop.
This happened to me recently.
I walked into 24 Hour Fitness to workout and a woman commented out of nowhere, “Oh yeah. I love how that water tastes. Good choice.” Weird. I didn’t think pure water was supposed to have a flavor. Although, try drinking Fiji Water for a few weeks and then go back to Arrowhead, or even worse, Sam’s Club brand. It’s all in the aftertaste…You’ll thank all those pig-farm ocean dumping Fijians for their volcanic purified water eventually.
Go order the $45, 24 pack of Fiji Bottled Water like I do, and be done with the notion of buying water… (like a band-aid, right off)
Popularity: 18%
20 responses so far ↓
1 anon // Jul 24, 2007 at 5:56 pm
Sometimes being a man has a lot to do with awareness of our world and the effect your lifestyle has on this planet and not just how you *appear* to others.
From fastcompany.com:
The label on a bottle of Fiji Water says “from the islands of Fiji.” Journey to the source of that water, and you realize just how extraordinary that promise is. From New York, for instance, it is an 18-hour plane ride west and south (via Los Angeles) almost to Australia, and then a four-hour drive along Fiji’s two-lane King’s Highway.
Every bottle of Fiji Water goes on its own version of this trip, in reverse, although by truck and ship. In fact, since the plastic for the bottles is shipped to Fiji first, the bottles’ journey is even longer. Half the wholesale cost of Fiji Water is transportation–which is to say, it costs as much to ship Fiji Water across the oceans and truck it to warehouses in the United States than it does to extract the water and bottle it.
That is not the only environmental cost embedded in each bottle of Fiji Water. The Fiji Water plant is a state-of-the-art facility that runs 24 hours a day. That means it requires an uninterrupted supply of electricity–something the local utility structure cannot support. So the factory supplies its own electricity, with three big generators running on diesel fuel. The water may come from “one of the last pristine ecosystems on earth,” as some of the labels say, but out back of the bottling plant is a less pristine ecosystem veiled with a diesel haze (…)
Fiji Water produces more than a million bottles a day, while more than half the people in Fiji do not have reliable drinking water.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/117/features-message-in-a-bottle.html
2 Donovan // Jul 24, 2007 at 6:08 pm
Thanks Artie,
I like the way to put it in perspective. I have a subscription to Fast Company and read that recent article and it made me sick - to be honest.
Although… pollution in Fiji has been a problem for a long time, the link to the article I provided came out July 2007 (to my knowledge). Fiji Water, however, might provide a good leadership incentive for the economy to clean up their own local farming and industries.
I don’t think Fiji Water is to blame for the condition of the environment in Fiji. I think Fijians are to blame for it. Let’s hope they lead the way for a more eco-friendly/economic prosperous solution for all Fijians.
I’m helping the local Fijian economy by buying only when I’m thirsty… =)
3 LOL // Jul 24, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Let me see here. You say,
“the cool story behind them drinking 40% more expensive bottled water? Probably the story.”
then you say,
“try drinking Fiji Water for a few weeks and then go back to Arrowhead, or even worse, Sam’s Club brand. It’s all in the aftertaste…”
So make up your mind, ok. Do you think it’s the marketing, or do you think the product is actually good?
based on this story alone, you don’t seem attractive, actually. you’re too jaded sounding.
4 Donovan // Jul 24, 2007 at 8:21 pm
Sidenote: Why does it have to be different: Can the marketing be great, and the product also?
Main response: I think the majority of people buy Fiji Water for the stories sake, which is the marketing. I think they stay with Fiji Water because of that fact which influences their response to the product. I’m sure there are many who like the taste as well, although I’m not sure that they’re mutually exclusive.
I myself, like the after taste, which I stated.
5 GG // Jul 25, 2007 at 9:31 am
Real men drink ordinary water. I’ve tasted bottled water all from Scotland to Sweden to Japan, and none of them either taste any better or appear to give me anything else than what ordinary water could.
If a woman would come up to me and comment the bottle of water I was drinking, I’d laugh at her and tell her to piss off.
It’s a trick, it’s not good for mother earth and chicks that dig it shouldn’t be allowed to drive.
Think about it — it’s not attractive to drink water tapped from another “exotic country”. It’s attractive to stand up for something, like fighting global warming or something else.
6 Donovan // Jul 25, 2007 at 11:31 am
I’m not saying bottled water is a necessity.
You would laugh and tell her to piss off? Attractive. That’s a REAL MAN.
Global warming is overrated. We can cut out our share of pollution - I’ll give you that, but it’s been proven now that the large majority of CO2 in the atmosphere isn’t caused by humans, and there isn’t any evidence contrary that the 0.8 degree rise isn’t part of the earth’s normal atmospheric cycle.
BTW, since when did meteorologists in the 1800’s get reliable enough technical instruments to measure accurate temperatures, when they couldn’t even figure out how to light up a room without wax. Even now the weatherman gets the temperatures wrong half the time.
That’s a rant for a different time though
7 James T. // Jul 29, 2007 at 9:42 pm
1800s? Huh? Donovan, I suggest you go look up “ice cores” to see how they measure temperature and climate change over the long run.
The scientists are still out on whether current climate change is definitively man-made or natural abberation. To state definitively either way as fact is questionable.
8 Donovan // Jul 29, 2007 at 10:14 pm
Let me put it this way.
I try to be an energy conservative person. Growing up in Australia - we always turned off lights, used are cars less, rode bikes, took buses, didn’t run central heating/cooling, we even turned off idling cars at major traffic lights to minimize exhaust fumes (ridiculous)
I’m all for bringing down the levels of pollution, but not for the global warming movement. I do it for the current pollution levels that impact everyone right now.
I’m in Oregon right now, and I swear their freeways are more polluted than LA’s. No joke.
9 jonah // Jul 31, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Charlie Trotter serves Fiji. If it’s good enough for Charlie it’s good enough for me. Case closed.
And when Fiji isn’t available, Aquafina is da bomb…
10 Donovan // Aug 1, 2007 at 10:58 am
I heard on Jay Leno that Aquafina admitted that they use tap water. Hmm… I wonder what that means for the bottled water industry?
11 jonah // Aug 1, 2007 at 7:15 pm
aquafina is purified water. it never made a claim to being spring water. nevertheless it’s better than 95% of “natural” waters out there.
12 zxgmwdo trheb // Aug 16, 2008 at 4:31 pm
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13 clifford browning // Aug 20, 2009 at 12:02 am
It is easy bash people for bein ignorant or gullible and ya i can’t spell but there are a lot of complex factors involved and you can not do anything in this modern life without leaving your foot print. I am not going to say I am an expert on fiji water but what do most of you know about water and water filtration. I like to respect the environment but I also like to have a choice of all natural, pesticide, chemical, chlorine, flouride free water. Plus add the benefits of natural minerals. It is a lose lose situation and all people can do is use their best judgement and research. So fiji may leave their imprint on the delicate environment of the fiji islands but also weigh out what they may do for it. my main issues are they are still in plastic bottles which leech chemicals and what are their effects on the island buy tapping into the ground water.
14 solomon // Oct 30, 2009 at 8:26 am
Some of these comments are more about something other than the quality and discernment of FIJI water. Almost all bottled water is just rebottled tap water, so you are paying over 1000% more for fancy bottled tap water. The only way to really tell if an expensive bottled water tastes better is to use a double blind test. E.g., get 5 bottles that look exactly alike. Put a different water into each with an almost invisible but distinctive label on the bottom of each. Drink from one, and write down your taste reaction on a paper placed next to the bottle. Wash your mouth with distilled water. Then swig the next water bottle and write down your taste observation. Repeat until all bottles have been tested and noted for taste. Lastly, look at the labels to identify any that stands out or is putrid, –or if there is no difference at all!
15 BIZZY BEAVA // Jan 2, 2010 at 6:37 am
I EATS POOP
16 Matthew // Mar 1, 2010 at 1:45 am
Hi!
I think I would have something to say here for you folks. I actually lived next door the the FIJI WATER FACTORY! - at the moment i dont as I am studying overseas.
It is true it is artesian water between two rock layers. HOWEVER!!! … the FACTORY IS TERRIBLE! IT IS RUN DOWN AND OLD ! by the way I drink the stuff, flush it down the toilet and have a bath in it as we have a bore hole that sources the same line of underground springs as the water from fiji water.
All in all it is brilliant water - we have got it tested , infact ours is cleaner than Fiji water. Their pumps are probably full of rubbish as there is no government health regulations on them as they give more money to Fiji in return on investment than anyone else. And the gov in Fiji is corrupt anyway.. We got it tested in London Uni and also at Maquire University Australia and it returned back higher graded and with more nutrients - maybe because the nutrients die after being bottle for months.
But certainly it is brilliant water - packed with silica which is good for you apparently and contains natural fluoride.
Anyway - eMail me if you want any questions at matthew@afcfiji.com
Regards
Matt
17 samantha // Apr 19, 2010 at 1:47 pm
I just think the water is very goooood!!!! i luv it! its awesome.<3, : )!!!!!
18 Anna // May 2, 2010 at 1:24 pm
FUCK YOU FOR CALLING US PIG FARMING OCEAN DUMPING FIJIANS!!
HOW ABOUT I CALL YOU OVERWEIGHT, RECOURCE BURNING AMERICANS >:(
19 X S D // Aug 29, 2010 at 8:55 pm
I too thought first its a marketing strategy. i thought water is the same everywhere and they decided to make money out of those who do things to make statement that they are rich. Anyway I was staying in a hotel where a bottle of it costs 15$ while in downstairs grocery 5, but anyway i tried it once. And 3 monthes later i feel like all the water i tried afterwards tastes rubbish plus in my country it costs just some 2$. so i gave it a try again and i am now seduced by its taste. nothing like evian or anything else i tried. :) how can that be possible?
i lived once on an island in pacific ocean and i head well. it had some funny taste of water which was little bit salty and sweet. i dont know why is it sweet but who knows maybe the same thing makes fijian water taste like that.
20 Brad // Sep 1, 2010 at 4:30 pm
It’s all in the PH 7.8, you need your blood to be near 7 to be healthy and over 7 to be very healthy, good blood ph does everything from fight off cancer to help you age slower and feel better. I don’t notice a taste as much as i notice the soft quality of the water.
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