When people think about business, they usually think of data, models, or markets. Some believe that this particular major is dry and even boring because it deals mostly with numbers. However, business has many different branches under it such as finance, accounting, etc. To be honest, accounting or finance major does work with numbers a lot, but there are millions of different types of products and each product has a large variety of companies. So how can those companies make themselves stand out in the market? In order to find out the answer for this question, business has come up with marketing major as a department who will work and research to create a solution, or more accurately, an illustration to attract the consumers to any specific company.

To me, as a business-majored student who has a passionate faith in creativity, I choose marketing as my future path. I love art, I love to paint, and I love to create stuffs based on my “sometimes” crazy mind. So why don’t I choose to attend into an art major? The reason is I love to be in a dynamite and active environment such as the market’s environment where I can contribute my works and efforts to my future’s company to compete with others. So the question is why I decided to choose marketing?

Marketing is such a tremendous art in business. It requires a lot knowledge, creativity and even fair amount of understanding in psychology. A very representative example to show how fascinating it can be is the diversity of bottled water in the American market.

Why a person chooses to buy a bottle of water of one specific brand even though there are 109 different companies in the market about this product and maybe, that one specific brand is not even the cheapest brand?

As I have mentioned before, because of the large variety of bottled water, it’d be better if I divide those branches into groups.

The first group i have contains the national branches that include Aquafina, Dasani, and Deer Park. These branches are very common with cheap price and they offer the customers a normal bottle of water.

The second group has the stylish branches which are Fiji, Perrier, etc. This group is a little bit more expensive than the first group due to their different shape of their bottles, their packaging, and they also convince their customers that their water come from special sources. For instance, Fiji said that their water originates straight from the Mother Nature in Fiji Island which has “the taste of paradise.” I have a story about my friend that relates to this brand. We used to hang out together and when we went to a store to grab some water, she without any hesitation, picked up a Fiji bottle even though there are many different choices which are much cheaper. I asked her and she told me that she believes Fiji water taste better than others and with the fact that she knows all the water is the same with one atoms of oxygen and two atoms of hydrogen, that’s when I’m really amazed about how marketers can affect their customer’s minds.

The third group is the dramatic group with Evian, Voss, Highland Spring, and Smartwater. I believe these brands take a lot of time in thinking to create a story which makes their consumers believe about their product’s unique value. Those stories can be very historical such as Highland Spring when: “It takes around 15 years for the water to filter through the 400-million-year-old basalt and red sandstone strata to boreholes. These allow it to be gently pumped to the surface, then down to our nearby bottling plant. Highland Spring is delivered to consumers exactly as nature intended.” or they can be about benefits such as when Evian said that its customers can live young while they drink Evian water. Either ways, these brands can have the same value or maybe just a little bit higher than the second group, however, their entrepreneurs seem to be more patient in adding great backgrounds for them.

The last group, as I may call is a ridiculously fancy group. It only has one brand and that brand is Bling H2O. This may sounds crazy but a bottle of water from this brand can cost up to $55. The water is contained in a frosted glass, long neck bottle like a wine or a vodka bottle. On the bottle, there is the brand name which the company uses Swarovski crystals to fill each letter of H2O up. In general, this water is more about image than just the taste so the luxury classes as well as the Hollywood stars are the targeted audiences. Paris Hilton is one of the most favorable customers of Bling H2O.

After all the groups have been listed, let’s come back to the question why a person chooses to buy one specific bottle of water but not the others? Well, it’s all about each individual’s mind and perspective. It’s all about how each customer allows the marketers enter his or her mind. Moreover, let’s just see how many things that the marketers can do to just one certain product in order for their firms to be unique in the market. A lot of ideas, a lot of efforts from many people need to be contributed to a product. Not only that, they also have to think about something that no one has known about (yet)! All of these processes in business, to me, are art. They are not dreary. They are very impressive and alluring.

“Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.”- Andy Warhol.

Works Cited:

Fuller, John. “Would you pay $55 for bottled water?” 02 October 2007. HowStuffWorks.com. 01 September 2014.

Gentile, Dan. “Do Bottled Water Actually Taste Different? We Fount Out!” Thrilllist. Thrillist Media Group, 22 Feb. 2014. Web. 1 Sept. 2014.

“Worldwide Bottled Water Brands Listed by Country.” – FineWaters. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Sept. 2014.

“Our History.” Highland Spring. Highland Spring Group. Web. 1 Sept. 2014.