Grounded and SightX Power Brita’s Sustainable Bottled Water Innovation with Data-Driven Insights

Every second, 2,000 plastic bottles are used, contributing to a growing environmental crisis, and by 2050, there will be more plastic in our oceans than fish. Brita® is committed to reducing single-use plastic waste and has been a leader in at-home filtration. But when they turned their sights on the bottled water industry, they recognized that many consumers still purchase plastic bottles out of convenience, even if they want to avoid them. Brita® developed an idea: a premium bottled water in a refillable, infinitely recyclable aluminum bottle.

The challenge was to create a product and packaging solution that would resonate with their target consumers, primarily Millennials and Gen Z, and persuade them to trade up from traditional plastic bottles in a crowded, competitive market.

Grounded knew creating standout packaging and messaging for Brita®’s new eco-friendly water bottle would require deep insights into their target demographic’s motivations and purchasing behaviors. They turned to SightX for a comprehensive, end-to-end research solution. Grounded conducted stakeholder interviews before using SightX to perform a landscape assessment, retail audit, package design evaluation, shelf testing, and consumer segmentation studies.

With SightX’s flexible platform, Grounded completed two studies in just a few days, streamlining the process. Combining traditional surveys with packaging tests, competitive shelf testing, pricing studies, and sentiment analysis, Grounded quickly gathered insights, leading to a packaging design with high appeal, strong purchase intent, and competitive pricing.

Thanks to Grounded’s creative work and data-driven insights from SightX, Brita’s new aluminum-packed bottled water made quite the splash (pun intended)!

While major press pickups in outlets like Forbes and Dieline were significant, the real win came in the form of raving customers. Consumers loved that the bottles they often bought out of convenience could now be re-used and more easily recycled, reducing the amount of plastic waste generated. Plus the premium look and solid feel of the bottles made it even easier for the shoppers to make the switch.

But it wasn’t just consumers who loved Brita’s new innovation. Retailers took note of the warm market reception, helping Brita sell their newest product into major retailers in their very first meeting.