MGT726 Managerial Project: Drinking Water Packaging and Marketing

This research report explores the significance of packaging in the marketing of drinking water, using Mount Franklin as a case study within the Australian market. The study aims to analyze recent trends in water packaging, understand consumer perceptions, and recommend strategies for packaging modification. A qualitative research approach is employed, involving interviews with Mount Franklin managers and thematic analysis to address the research questions related to packaging trends, consumer mentality, and potential improvements to current packaging procedures. The report includes a literature review covering marketing concepts, types of bottled water, and the current design of Mount Franklin bottles, ultimately proposing outcomes that satisfy the research objectives and provide recommendations for new engineering designs. Desklib provides access to this report and many other student resources.

Running head: IMPORTANCE OF PACKAGING FOR MARKETING OF DRINKING WATER 1
Importance of packaging for marketing of
drinking water” Mount Franklin scenario.
[Put your full name here]
[student number – i……..]
[date]
[MGT726 Managerial Project]
School of Business
Faculty of Arts and Business

2
University of the Sunshine Coast
Executive Summary
This research deals with the importance of packaging for marketing of drinking water. A
case study of Mount Franklin has been discussed in the research. The aim of the research is
to analyse the importance of packaging of drinking water for marketing and promoting in
the Australian market. The purpose of the research has been discussed in the first section of
the study. The literature review section will discuss about the concept of the customer
behaviour and types of water in the bottle. The current design if the water bottle of the
company will be discussed. The methodology of the research study will be discussed in the
third section. The research will use qualitative approach for the data collection and analysis
method. Interview will be conducted with the help of three managers of the Mount Franklin
Company. Thematic analysis will be done by creating three themes based on the importance
of the packaged drinking water. The proposed outcome will satisfy the objectives and
research questions. Some recommendations related ti the new engineering design will be
provided in the research.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction.........................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Purpose..............................................................................................................................................4
1.2 Background and significance.............................................................................................................4
1.3 Research question and objectives......................................................................................................5
1.4 Research boundaries..........................................................................................................................5
1.5 Report outline....................................................................................................................................5
2. Literature Review/Theoretical Framework..........................................................................................6
2.1 Introduction.......................................................................................................................................6
2.2 Marketing..........................................................................................................................................7
2.3 Types of Bottled water.......................................................................................................................8
2.4 Current design of bottles....................................................................................................................9
2.5 Implications – the research gap........................................................................................................10
3. Methodology......................................................................................................................................11
3.1 Introduction.....................................................................................................................................11
3.2 Research approach and justification.................................................................................................11
3.3 Details of specific data collection techniques..................................................................................12
4. Proposed Analysis of Results.............................................................................................................18
References.................................................................................................................................................19
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1. Introduction
1.1 Purpose
The purpose of the study has been examining the perception of customer on the packaging
of the drinking water in the market. The importance of the packaging of drinking water in the
marmite by the company will be discussed in the research. The research focuses on the current
posing of the industry of disposable water bottle and limitations of the study will be discussed.
The primary purpose of the project has been investigating engineering design process of
packaging of drinking water for marketing in the market.
1.2 Background and significance
The demand of packaged drinking water has been increasing in the market in recent years.
There has been increase in competition in the market related to drinking water industry. Various
companies are introduced in the market related to the drinking water and it packaging.
Therefore, it has become difficult for existing companies in the market including Mount Franklin
(Gómez, Martín‐Consuegra and Molina 2015). Therefore, the company have to create strategies for
retaining in the market. The company needs to focus on the packaging and marketing of the
drinking water bottles in the market of attracting maximum number of customers to the
company. There has been problem in the management of the Mount Franklin Company related to
engineering design of the disposable water bottle in the market (Kanat 2017). Various strategies
need to be prepare by the management of the company in order to mitigate design and packaging
problems in the company. Various factors have been identified for marketing of drinking
packaged water including quality, price and availability. The packaging if drinking water has
been the most important factor for the marketing of water bottles of Mount Franklin. The
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packaging of drinking water has been gaining priority in the market by the companies. A proper
packaging of drinking water helps in attracting customers to the product of the company.
1.3 Research question and objectives
The aim of the research is to analyse the importance of packaging of drinking water for
marketing and promoting in the Australian market.
Following are the objectives of the research:
 To analyse recent trends in packaging of drinking water
 To analyse acceptability and mentality of the customers
 To recommend strategies for modification in current packaging procedure
Following are the research questions of the research:
 What are the recent trends in packaging of drinking water?
 What is the acceptability and mentality of the consumers?
 How can be current packaging procedure modified?
1.4 Research boundaries
The research will be done in analysing the impact of packaged drinking water of Mount
Franklin Company. This research will focus in the current engineering design procedure of the
company and will help in providing strategies for modification in the current procedure. The
research will be bounded to the company infrastructure. The engineering design of the company
for the packaging of drinking water bottles have been discussed in the research.
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1.5 Report outline
This research will analyse the importance of packaged drinking water in the market for
attracting ore centres to the company. The research will use various methods for the
development if the engineering design of the packaging system of water bottles.
2. Literature Review/Theoretical Framework
The concept of selling water in drinking bottle has been in fashion for many years. However,
botte has been recent seller in the beverage market. Various companies have been investing their
money in the beverage industries and selling of water bottles in the market (Rundh 2016).
Marketing and promotion of water bottles have been popular in the market by various companies
in the last decade. The Mount Franklin has been focusing in its promotion and marketing of
packaged water bottles in the Australian market (Vedachalam et al. 2017). The results have been
positive and focused n the money making market. The Australian market has increased
exponentially to 730 million litres in 2012 selling and making turnover of $600.7 million.
A range of peer reviewed journals will be used in this section including journals on impact of
packaging drinking bottles in the market. Data and information might be collected from both
primary and secondary data sources. This help in creating a framework related to components of
the research and highlight gaps in research.
2.1 Introduction
This section will help in understanding a basic concept of the marketing and promotion of
the drinking water bottles in the market by any organization. This section with help in answering
research questions initialised in earlier sections. Various customers of the research will be
discussed in below sections. Therefore, an idea of the drinking water packaging process can be
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built from this section inwards. This section will highlight various components and factors that
will be required for modification of the engineering design process of packaging drinking water
bottles.
2.2 Marketing
The beverage industry has been increasing in the Australian market. The market has been
growing exponentially reaching a market size of $1.3 billion. However, in last 10 years between
2001 and 2011, bottled industry has been growing by 75% and reaching to 597 million litres per
annum. However, the global market has been increasing by 90 to 218 billion litres per annum
(Tua et al. 2017).
Figure 1: Market Size Bottle water Australia
(Source: González-García et al. 2016, pp. 26)
The growth in the Australian market in beverage industry has been an attribute to many
companies including Mount Franklin. The water consumption in the country has been increasing
on a daily basis in the society. The company has been able to create a legacy in the market by
selling the maximum number of packaged water bottles in the market. The revenue generated by
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the company has been astonishing in the market. The leaders in this industry has been
continuously creating competition for the Mount Franklin in the market (Shoeib et al. 2016).
Therefore, the company has to change its strategies and modification in the engineering design of
packaged drinking bottle.
2.3 Types of Bottled water
Bottles can be categorised according to the source of water and process of treatment of
water. However, on this basis there are five main categories of bottled waters and sold in the
market. There are different types of water including spring water, mineral water, purified water
and flavoured water.
Spring water: Spring water has been the most sold water in the packed bottles. Over 55%
of all the bottles have spring water in it. It has been originated from underground aquifers and
processed naturally (Rossi et al. 2015). Spring water can be filtered through the crust if the earth
by passing through sand, minerals, rocks, granite and other fractured rocks.
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Figure 2: Groundwater flow in hydrological spring water cycle
(Source: Sousa and Miguel 2015, 139)
Mineral water: Mineral water is a natural commodity and collected from
underground. It has been scientifically proven for having at least 250 ppm of total dissolved
solids (Cak et al. 2016). These minerals have been occurring naturally in the water that
contains both normal and sparkling water. Salts, gases and sulphur compounds are the main
components of the mineral water.
Purified water: Purified drinking water has been commutated by a filtration process
by eliminating unwanted particles from it that cannot be consumed by human. However,
there have been different procedures of the purification of water including microfiltration,
ultraviolet oxidation, and ultrafiltration and electro dialysis (Jinkarn and Suwannaporn
2015). The purification process have been subjected so that pure minerals are not destroyed
from water.
Sparkling Water: Sparkling water has been effervescent beverage consisting of there
that has been pressurised dissolved carbon dioxide (Fisher et al. 2015). This carbonization
process can be used in the soft drinks. However, there are no added colours and flavours in
the product.
2.4 Current design of bottles
The current design of the bottle will be discussed in this section. The design of the bottle
has been reviewed properly in order to maintain a good image in the market. Mount Franklin has
been the leading company in bottled water brand in the market. It has been capturing 40% of the
total market of Australia. The company has seven different sized bottles from 250 mL to 2 L.
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The 600 mL bottle has gone through redesigning for providing light weight to bottle (Brei and
Tadajewski 2015). The shape of the bottle has been kept round at corners and vertical. The sides
are labelled for providing aesthetic look.
Figure 3: Mount Franklin 600 mL easy crush bottle
(Source: Munsell et al. 2016)
2.5 Implications – the research gap
The research has been focusing on the importance of the packaged drinking water for
marketing purposes of the product of the company. The literature review section of the research
has been able to demonstrate the research questions. However, there have been some gaps in the
research related to use of previous literature. The characteristics of the present packaging has not
been properly mentioned in the literature (Manoli and Voutsa 2016). The study is useful in
understanding the types of water available in the market. The packaging characteristics has been
discussed in the research.
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Figure 4: Conceptual Framework
(Source: Created by Student)
3. Methodology
3.1 Introduction
This section deals with the methodology that will help in responding to the research
questions and objectives. The following section disuses about the research approach and
data collection procedure respectively. Both the sections will provide proper justifications
for selection of methodology.
3.2 Research approach and justification
There are two of types of research approach including inductive and deductive
approach. The inductive approach deals with the observations and theories related to the
research topic. The deductive approach deals with the research questions and objectives
(Guzmán and Stoler 2018). The scientific investigation if the drinking packaged water has
been done in the approach. The deductive approach has been maintaining the importance of
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