Question 1 : To what do you attribute Britas success?

Brita is the dominant player in the home water filtration industry, with 83% of pitchers and 75% sales in filters sold in retail outlets across the United States. As market research indicates, 14% of U.S. households have purchased the Brita water filters. This signals growth opportunity for Britas products. Britas success in the pitcher water filtration system is due to its ability to tap a market that has yet to be utilized to its complete potential. Over the course of time Brita emerged as the market leader in the pitcher/filter category and also built a very strong brand image. During the 1990s, Brita has built its marketing position using the strategy Established in class, first in mass, and alone in grocery.Their large retail distribution channels and their presence in multiple chanels gave them a huge advantage. Another factor that aided their success was the strong advertising and brand building campaigns. They have attached a tag of purity to the Brita pitchers and the water-fall image was attached to the image promising a good, clean taste. The loyal customer base which they have is another reason for Britas success. With 80% of customers remaining with the Brita system after five years and purchasing an average of 4 filters each, suggests that the value of the customer, once captured and retained, is enormous. Question 2: What marketing assets has Clorox acquired in these years of vigorous growth and what is the best use to which these assets can be deployed? Clorox in its period of rigorous growth has acquired quite a good number of marketing assets. They have made use of these various assets in capturing new markets and market segments and also increasing the market share in existing markets. In January 1999, Clorox acquired First Brands by which they expanded their portfolio by acquiring brands like STP, Glad bags and Johnny Cat. The strategy which Clorox followed was building dominant brands, pursuing international expansion and acquiring promising businesses. An outcome of this strategy was that some 85% of Clorox brands were first or second in their categories. After the First Brands merger, sales beyond U.S would increase to 20% from 18%. The

portfolio now covers STP automotive products, Scoop Away cat litter, Ever clean cat litter, Johnny Cat cat litter, StarterLogg fire starters, HearthLogg fire logs and Glad plastic wraps and bags.