Solarball: Ingenuity in Water Purification

Mahesh Ponnam

Rodent Relocation Device EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The following report is a marketing environmental analysis of the new water purification invention called the Solarball. The report is divided in four major sections. The first section provides in-depth description of the Solarball. The second section is a macro-environmental analysis, using the PEST model. The political, economic, social, and technological aspects of this industry analysis are provided to see how the macro-level factors may impact the market for Solarball. The third section offers a consumer behavior analysis using the Lazy User Model of consumer behavior, as well as a marketing mix and pricing analysis. The final section provides a theoretical support discussion for the need for this device, followed by a concluding summary and recommendation for the marketability of Solarball, based upon the analysis.

Rodent Relocation Device Solarball: Ingenuity in Water Purification Introduction The following marketing report aims to examine the marketability of a new invention called the Solarball. This report begins with an overview of the invention, including a brief overview on the need for such a device. A marketing analysis follows the device overview, beginning with a macro-analysis using the PEST model; further items in this report are a consumer behavior analysis, a marketing mix analysis including pricing issues, and theoretical support for the product. A conclusion is given which helps to synthesize this reports major elements. The Solarball The Solaraball was an invention presented to the general public in 2011 by inventor

Jonathen Liow (The New Inventors, 2011). This invention is a type of water purification system. The following diagram shows what this invention looks like: Figure 1: The Solarball Water Purification Device

(Braue & Fung, 2011) The device is rather small, about the size of a basketball. The next diagram shows its size relation to people, as well as showing who some of the potential consumers for the device are likely to be:

Rodent Relocation Device

Figure 2: Solarball with Children in Cambodia

(PR Lookup, 2011). The ingenuity of the device is that it uses sunlight to purify the water via evaporation. The Solarball is unique not because it uses evaporation as a method of water purification, but because it captures the function of doing it in a sustainable, efficient, and convenient form for users. Additionally, the inventor noted that the spherical shape of the device made it aesthetically pleasing, a bonus for users. Every consideration was taken in making a water purification system that could be toted in a bag. There is a refill point where dirty water goes in, and a discharge point where clean water comes out. The mechanism of the Solarball is to use solar energy to heat the dirty water, thus evaporating out the clean water and collecting it in a separate chamber within the ball, where there is a dispersion point. This product can produce 3 litres of clean water for a person every day. The Solarball is also culturally sensitive; in this aspect it means that the function of the device can be comprehended by different cultures and in different languages. The user symbols are universal, and neutral coloring make it visually easy

Rodent Relocation Device to understand. The material of the Solarball is completely recyclable, and thus sustainable. The

device is noted to have a long product lifespan and withstand environmental stressors in a variety of climatic conditions (The New Inventors, 2011). The inventor, Jonathen Liow, got his inspiration following a trip to Cambodia; while there he experienced firsthand the effects of poverty on basic living standards. He decided that he would help develop a way for people to purify contaminated water, so that they could have safe water to drink for themselves and their family (The New Inventors, 2011). The Solarball can even be arranged in a garden-type array, so that a family or even a community could recycle and purify their water. Environmental Analysis Part Two PEST Analysis: A Macro-Environmental Analysis The PEST analysis is depicted in the following visual aid:
The Solarball is politically neutral and can help raise the standard of living in developing countries. The Solarball has the potential to change the human living landscape in many areas, thus allowing people to engage in economy building activities.

Political

Economic

Technological
The Solarbal is low-tech, yet very efficient.

Social
The Solarball is visually pleasing, and can help bond communities through increased living standars; it is also socially acceptable as a sustainable device.

(Bensoussan & Fleishcher, 2008)

Rodent Relocation Device

Political Water resources are becoming a political issue. The population of the earth is approaching 7 billion people with a progressive growth trend; in the year 2050 the WHO estimates that there will be ~9 billion people living on the earth. The percentage growth from 2010 to 2050 is forecasted at 47% (WHO; United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2004). The demand on water resources is likely to be a political hotbed problem, with developing countries and areas of risk from water contamination increasing the potential demand for fresh, clean water (Bjornlund, 2003). In developed regions such as Australia, consumptive uses of water are overshadowed by irrigation and industrial uses (Australian Governement, Connected Water Department, 2012). Therefore, it is key to consider not only how to decrease demands from non-consumptive sources in developed countries, but also to have a way for consumers to be responsible for their own consumptive water purposes. In developing regions and areas of risk, the Solarball device may hold significant potential to decrease the public health hazard of drinking contaminated water as well as help the population enjoy a better quality of life due to increased quality of health. This decreases the burden on governments to devise appropriate sanitation and purification for clean water, freeing up resources to develop other areas of a society, such as education and healthcare (Bjornlund, 2003). Economic and Social The Solarball was not developed primarily for profit, though there is plenty of profit to result from this invention. This device may be marketed, and sold, and used in a variety of settings from personal households, to villages, and even in business settings (Kotler & Keller, 2006). The true value and thus economic impact of the Solarball is in raising the basic quality of

Rodent Relocation Device living for people in developing areas of the world, and in decontaminating water in developed areas of the world (Friedler & Lahav, 2006). A society runs on economy; in low standard of living areas, the economy is not

functioning optimally if at all (Kaplan, 2011). The result is a lack of funds to households, a lack of funds to government through taxing, and hence a lack of funds to support infrastructure such as education, healthcare, roads, and bridge building. With the Solarball allowing people in substandard living conditions to experience the health benefits of drinking clean water, the added value from this device is that these people can now engage in economic pursuits instead of fighting dysentery, and other water-borne diseases (Brunkard, et al., 2011). Everything in a society begins with the least common denominator; the Solaraball allows the people to experience health, renewable water sources, and the effects are felt on the society at large (Rusan, Hinnawi, & Rousan, 2006) (Friedler & Lahav, 2006). Technology The Solarball is not a high-tech device, yet the materials used in the construction of the device do reflect the latest environmental technology in using and re-using material for the device. Furthermore, the device harnesses a natural source of energy via the sun, captures it in the 360 efficient form which traps incoming heat, and then uses this form and function through the process of evaporation to transform contaminated un-potable water, into potable consumptive water (PR Lookup, 2011). In current terms, this device can be mass-produced and marketed to homeowners, businesses, environmental organizations, foundations engaged in supporting human health, hospitals, schools, governments, and many others not listed. Moreover, the device as the potential to become a military staple, as troops in the field could easily have a method of having clean water on long trips or deployments, using very little input of other resources.

Rodent Relocation Device Another venue for marketing this product due to its low-tech nature is in space programs; this device can easily be adapted for space flights, space stations, and even can be used to terra-form other planets. Consumer Behavior Analysis The Solarball has multiple applications in different settings, even extraterrestrial. The inventor has achieved something very significant, which is the inexpensive and efficient recycling of contaminated water for human consumption. In areas where water quality is low, and the human health risk is high, the Solarball is likely to be a welcome item. In developed

countries where people already enjoy the benefits of public-provided drinking water, the product may need to be creatively marketed in order to sell to the consumer; some people may simply be leery of drinking water that they know comes from their own households grey (does not contain sewage) or black water (does contain sewage). Thus in order to understand how the Solarball could be mass marketed based on consumer behavior, it is necessary to understand that a longterm view must be taken of water quality in general. Therefore while this product can be marketed for the individual and should be, the real target is going to be at the governmental and organizational level. With policy mandates, comes social change. To understand how policy mandates by government plus the support for the product by large commercial and non-profit organizations, the Lazy User Model (LUM) of consumer behavior is used here in this report (Collan & Tetard, 2007). The Lazy User Model is a simple way to understand why people behave how they do in response to a new market offering. The following diagram illustrates the LUM process:

Rodent Relocation Device Figure 3: Lazy User Model Process

(Collan & Tetard, 2009). Plugging in the Solarball to this models framework offers the following explanatory guide: the user need is to have safe and clean water. This defines the possible solutions to making clean water available. The user state is what limits the potential solutions that can be applied. The user state must be matched to the user need in order to have the proper set of solutions. A user in Somalia would have a high need for clean water, and a rather desperate state in human living terms; thus the solutions that would be available may be to wait for government to provide purification services, to drink contaminated water, or perhaps to use a low tech and inexpensive device like the Solarball. In the LUM model, the selection among the hypothetical solutions may be either the Solarball, or to drink contaminated water. Quite clearly, drinking clean water that is easily available would reduce the burden on human health. Thus, LUM processes lead to the selection of the Solarball (Collan & Tetard, 2007). To understand this in a modernized setting where clean water is already available, the following may serve as an example of LUM processes: family of four living in Sydney, Australia would have a low need for clean water, as they already have it provided to them

Rodent Relocation Device

10

through government and water authorities. The user state is thus already high in terms of quality of health and standard of living related to water resources. Potential solutions or alternatives in this setting would be tied to either incentives or disincentives by government. In order for the Solarball to really take hold at the public level, government would have to mandate a policy such as government-provided water via water authorities would be monetarily costly to the family of four. A cheap and easy solution would be for the family to choose the Solarball, with a tax break incentive for doing so, and use it for consumptive purposes. Further filtration can also be had via household filtration systems using charcoal filters. The LUM process states that in a setting where there is a policy disincentive to not use publicly provided water, and a tax break incentive to use Solarball water, the path of least resistance for the modern family is to use the Solarball (Collan & Tetard, 2007). In summary, while the product may be marketed to households in developed countries, it will likely only attract those individuals who are environmentally conscious at present. In the future, the product may be a viable alternative however, in a world where government absolutely must get involved in solving water shortages in the face of public demand, while not sacrificing other infrastructure to do so (Collan & Tetard, 2007). Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning This marketing report has thus far elucidates some of the major marketing barriers as well as marketing positives for the Solarball. To further analyze the impact of the Solarball, the marketing mix model of the Four Ps is used. This refers to product, price, promotion, and place (Kotler & Keller, 2006). The following diagram is offered to illustrate how market segmentation, targeting, and positioning for the Solarball are solved using the four-p model:

Rodent Relocation Device Figure 4: Marketing Mix for Solarball using Four-Ps Model

11

Product
Solarball

Price
Dependent upon User Need, Government allocation of resources, and grants from organizations such as the Gates Foundation.

Promotion
Must be marketed as humanitarian aid first; secondly marketed as an eco-service; third (and in the future) marketed as a solution for water scarcity.

Place
Macro: Earth. Space. Other Planets. Micro: Business. Industry. Communities. Tribes. Slums. Households. Ecotourists.

(Kotler & Keller, 2006). As the model demonstrates, the four ps of Solarball are both time and space-dependent. Meaning, in the short term the product can be marketed to governments to help aid people in their societies who are at risk from drinking contaminated water. In the long-term, the placement of the product will likely be due to water wars because of clean water scarcity. The product can be marketed now to households with a market strategy aimed at environmental consciousness, yet without significant investor input to develop this for the private market, the focus should be on the target audience of government and humanitarian/environmental organizations. Product and Pricing Plans In order to understand how to correctly price this product, focus groups should be conducted to see what consumers will pay at the individual level (Kotler & Keller, 2006). To price this for governments and organizations, as would be needed if responding to an RFP for example, actual material costs would need to be devised; at the present, this is unknown and

Rodent Relocation Device would depend on a variety of factors including cost of labor, cost of input resources, cost of

12

logistics, and return on investment. It is likely that should this product go into mass production, that government and privately held non-profit foundations like the Gates Foundation would be the best audience to fund the production and distribution of the Solarball. This product has the potential to change the world; not many products out there have this potential. Yet, making this product soley a for-profit enterprise would not only make it incredibly expensive to market in terms of cost of media advertising, it would also do a great disservice to mankind. People and business should not make money for profit by using human life as the bargaining chip. Theoretical Support Contamination in Developed Countries Water Bodies In a study on the contamination in rivers in the United Kingdom, Kay et al. (2008) analyzed the fecal concentration load in water bodies within the United Kingdom. The fecal indicator organism (FIO) concentration was compiled for a total of 205 rivers in the UK. Indicators included FIO concentration, and water quality data for the summer and winter seasons. The results of the study showed that the FIO concentrations were significantly elevated at conditions of high flow (summer) versus base flow (winter); furthermore, while FIO concentrations were significantly higher during the summer than winter months, there was also a marked variability between the types of water catchments, which depended upon the land use types near the water catchments. The FIO concentrations were elevated for rivers going through urbanized areas and through agricultural land. The FIO concentrations were low for areas that were dominated by rough livestock grazing land, as well as those with heavy forestry activities. The implications of the study demonstrate the types of variables that may be causing increased water contamination by land use type, and to develop strategies to lessen the negative impact on

Rodent Relocation Device

13

human and animal health from these variations. The Solarball could very well be used by those living along the Thames, as well as for those living in the country area for both household consumption, and for those farmers that are concerned about the water that their livestock are drinking, particularly for rare breed animal and rare livestock rearing activities. Recycling Water Water is ancient. Water, as a molecule, occurred through repeated earth/asteroid/comet collisions almost 4 billion years ago; all the water currently existing on the earth is recycled water. The first water molecule ever on the earth, is here today. No extraterrestrial sources supply the earth with new water. Polar ice caps and deep aquifers currently hold up to 98% of the earths reserves of fresh water; however current technology to harvest those reserves is either not available, or too costly to develop (Bjornlund, 2003). This trapped water is known as fossil water, meaning that it is likely that these polar cap and deep aquifer sources have not been used in human history (~25,000 years) as history is known in human terms (Fossil Water, 2012). Sutherland (2008) noted that water is a renewable resource; this means that the first molecule of water on the earth has been self-recycling to the present day. However, the current demands on water resources coupled with the severe environmental contamination to all the water bodies of the earth has placed usable water supplies in critical jeopardy. Without a means to mine fossil water, products like the Solarball have an extremely attractive quality called hope. Ovchinnikova et al. (2008) reported that people do not want to sell their soul to protect the environment to get a profit in monetary terms; however, people were willing to forgo financial profit to save the environment because it they had a sense of duty and a feeling of altruism. The Solarball could use this finding to expand the awareness of the product, and thus its market.

Rodent Relocation Device

14

Thus, recycled water in the modern age refers to taking water that is unusable and turning into usable water. This includes human consumptive uses such as drinking, cooking, and bathing, and non-consumptive uses, such as agriculture and industrial uses. The methods used to recycle water from an unusable state to a usable state reflect the scarcity of supply and the urgency of demand. The Solarball has the potential to change the human and social landscape in many areas in the current day, specifically for those regions where there is a lack of methods to purify the water, and for those areas where water contamination exists yet clean water is already available. This marketing report has shown that through the environmental analysis, consumer behavior analysis, marketing mix analysis including price, and through the theoretical support, that there is a significant market potential for Solarball; however, as a final note and in a somewhat humanitarian sense, the Solarball has a much greater potential to support human life everywhere, and not just where people could afford it. Governments and non-profit organizations should be targeted as the audience in which the greatest potential for market development and distribution of the Solarball can be made.

Rodent Relocation Device References Australian Governement, Connected Water Department. (2012). Water Scarcity and Demand. Retrieved January 5, 2012, from Connected Water: http://www.connectedwater.gov.au/water_policy/water_security.html Bensoussan, B., & Fleishcher, C. (2008). Analysis without paralysis: 10 tools to make better strategic decisions . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Bjornlund, H. (2003). Efficient water market mechanisms to cope with water scarcity. International Journal of Water Resources Development, 19(4), 553-567. Braue, D., & Fung, D. (2011). Aussie young inventors shine at 2011 James Dyson Award. Retrieved January 5, 2012, from www.cnet.com.au: http://www.cnet.com.au/aussieyoung-inventors-shine-at-2011-james-dyson-award-339319404.htm Brunkard, J., Ailes, E., Roberts, V., Hill, V., Hilborn, E., Craun, G., et al. (2011). Surveillance

15

for waterborne disease outbreaks associated with drinking water---United States, 2007-2008. MMWR Surveillance Summaries, 60(12), 38-68. Collan, M., & Tetard, F. (2007). Lazy User Theory of Solution Selection. Proceedings or the CELDA 2007 Conference (pp. 273-278). Portugal: Algarve. Collan, M., & Tetard, F. (2009). Lazy User Theory: A Dynamic Model to Understand User Selection of Products and Services. Proceedings of the 42nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (pp. 1-9). Honolulu: HICSS42. Fossil Water. (2012, January 5). Fossil Water. Retrieved January 5, 2012, from Fossil Water: http://www.fossilwater.ca/ Friedler, E., & Lahav, O. (2006). Centralised urban wastewater reuse: what is the public attitude? Water, Science, and Technology, 54(6-7), 423-430.

Rodent Relocation Device http://www.greywater.com/treatment.htm. (2012, January). Treatment Options. Retrieved January 5, 2012, from Grey Water: http://www.greywater.com/treatment.htm

16

Kaplan, M. (2011). Lonely drinking fountains and comforting coolers: paradoxes of water value and ironies of water use. Cultural Anthropology, 26(4), 514-541. Kotler, P., & Keller, K. (2006). A Framework for Marketing Management, 3rd ed. Hoboken, NJ: Prentice Hall. Ovchinnikova. (2008). I dont want to be selling my soul: Two experiments in environmental economics. Journal of Socio-Economics, 38(2), 221-229. PR Lookup. (2011). New Invention uses sunlight to produce clean water. Retrieved January 5, 2011, from PRLookup.com: http://www.prlookup.com/new-invention-uses-sunlight-toproduce-clean-water.htm Rusan, M., Hinnawi, S., & Rousan, L. (2006). Long term effect of wastewater irrigation of forage crops on soil and plant quality parameters. Desalination, 215(1-3), 143-152. Sutherland, K. (2008). A Future for Grey Water Recycling. Filtration + Separation, 18-21. The New Inventors. (2011). Invention: Solarball. Retrieved January 5, 2012, from The New Inventors: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/newinventors/txt/s3158420.htm Tularam, G., & Ilahee, M. (2007). Environmental concerns of desalinating seawater using reverse osmosis. Journal of Environmental Monitoring, 9(8), 805-813. WHO; United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (2004). World Population to 2300. Geneva; available online at http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/longrange2/WorldPop2300final.pdf: World Health Organization; United Nation.