2.1 INTRODUCTION - Shodhgangashodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/37274/3/chapter1.pdf ·...
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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),
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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