The Influence of Factors Stimulating the Consumption of Bottled Water in Malta

Abstract

Consumption of bottled water is often referred to as one of the biggest mysteries of capitalism, in other words, the packaging and selling of something that is already more cheaply available. Within this context, this research study aims to investigate what drives the Maltese customers to opt for bottled water rather than cheaper, more accessible and similarly high-quality tap water. To reach this aim, this study intends to examine the influence of factors namely image, social norms, emerging trends, advertising, convenience, lack of public information on tap water, taste and hardness of tap water, the colour of tap water, health and safety risks associated with tap water, and irregular water supply (as independent variables) on the consumption of bottled water (as the single dependent variable). A research methodology was developed to systematically apply the research strategy adopted in this study. The two key multivariate analytic techniques implemented were Factor Analysis, followed by the Multiple Regression. Whilst the former aims to condense the information contained in the initial ten independent variables into a smaller set of new independent variables with minimal loss of information, the latter aims to predict the consumption of bottled water in terms of the most influential factors.