Certified organic... water!

I enjoyed a terrific "urban, contemporary, creative French" meal last night at Restaurant Garcon in Montreal.

As usual, I just can't help looking: product labels, menu font choices, meal descriptions, restaurant design, wait staff clothing. Always a marketer, right?

So the bottled water was tasty and obviously expensive so I check the label.

Yikes, they're saying the water is organic.

From the site: "llanllyr SOURCE is one of the world's premium quality bottled waters. It comes from our sources beneath certified organic fields in west Wales in the UK.”

OK, I get that sometimes you just have to jump on the latest thing. In food, organic is popular now.

But water?

Comments

[Mike Sullivan]

It is kind of silly, but I guess it makes sense... you don't really want water to filter through pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers. But can they guarantee the water didn't come from a faraway underground stream contaminated with all types of pollutants?

[Leo Wurschmidt]

If anyone is interested, our company provides "certified, neo-traditional" organic web marketing.

I figure if the food industry can use organic, we can too. That is what O'Reilly actually meant with the term Web 2.O (O not Zero). It actually means Web 2.Organic. :)

[Toby Hemmerling]

We are in the "organic" industry, and as far as I know, one cannot label water as organic in the US (not sure about Canada), because to be certified organic one must be able to document that the product in question was never "adulterated" by non-organic matter. Hard to do with water. (That's also why there is no organic honey).

[Jen]

First off, damn they stole my idea - I thought of organic water years ago!

In their defense, they don't actually claim the water is organic, just the ground above the spring. As the first commenter pointed out, you really don't want a bunch of herbicides, etc leaching down into the ground water so I think their marketing point is sound. They also make no claims guanteeing the water wasn't contaminated in another location.

But, "organic" is soooooo 2 years ago. "Local" and "sustainable" are the new organic... Their marketing team needs to keep up. ;)

[Craig]

I agree it seems a little bit extreme. You already have "spring" water and filtered water and I'm sure the "spring" water is probably 1% spring and the rest filtered. Seems more of a marketing strategy that really has no legitimacy to it.

Craig
www.budgetpulse.com

[Chris Tammen]

As I drink my local, sustainable, hormone-free, caffeinated organic beverage with a low carbon footprint and made without any genetically modified organisms, I recognize that the lid is probably made from a low density polyethylene substance. Looking forward to seeing 'Organic' in round two of the Gobbledygook Business Adjectives list.

[Ari Herzog]

I don't understand why people pay for water in the first place. When residents and businesses of a community are paying taxes for municipal H2O, why wouldn't they want to serve the tap to patrons?

Oh, wait. They want to make money. If they want to pay taxes and pay for additional water, I suppose that's one's right.

You'd enjoy something I wrote last month, titled, "Tap H2O or No H2O: http://www.ariwriter.com/2008/08/tap-h2o-or-no-h2o.html

[Chris Baggott]

uhhhh....Compendium Blogware helps with "organic search"....

No pesticides whatsoever and very sustainable...and great for local too. LOL

[Chris Baggott]

uhhhh....Compendium Blogware helps with "organic search"....

No pesticides whatsoever and very sustainable...and great for local too. LOL

[Mike Lefebvre]

That is so bourgeoisie, David! The only water I personally drink is organic, free range H2O!

Please....

[Michael A. Stelzner]

David;

Do you know where I can find some organic air?

Mike

[Casey Hibbard]

This definitely takes the water industry one more step toward the ridiculous.

I love this video mocking the whole chic water trend.

http://www.dothegreenthing.com/videos/126

[Mary]

Fluoride in tap water is causing many people to get very sick... and those who believe that tap water is healthy, then soon, they should love to be eating pork chops that come from pigs engineered with mouse genes . And the best part is that you won't even know you are eating it , because the FDA is fighting labeling.

Bon Appetit!

[Jaime Borschuk]

I am glad that there are now more and more alternatives to beverages containing high fructose corn syrup, though it is up to the consumer to decide what is worth a premium. Some may buy a product like this initially because of the novelty or convenience, but if it does not resonate it will likely lose interest. In the end, the market will sustain what people find valuable and the rest will fall away.