Cashing in on scarcity  ( August '16,2001, HBL)

THERE is now the IFB ad with the unwieldy yet attention-grabbing heading ``Now 75,165 families in Tamil Nadu manage the severe water scarcity.''

It has topical appeal because today everybody is annoyed over water scarcity, especially in places such as Chennai, let down by the monsoon.

The text explains that the IFB washing machine ``consumes up to three times as little water as most other washing machines''.

It may cross the wary reader's mind that this could be true too of some other tumble-wash machines, but the significance of the ad is its timeliness.

Failure of the rains leading to municipal water supply breakdown had in earlier years been an occasion for some consumer durables to be taken to towns with publicity. Thus there was a famous brand of bathroom fixtures which advertised that its improved flush tanks were designed for economy in water usage.

In the long hot summer also water is a theme that makes an impact. Dancing fountains, waterfalls and sparkling rivers and streams also look refreshing. The splash of water breaking into a spray in some of the current commercials for soaps, toothpastes, soft drinks and even beers never fails to delight.

It is to be wondered if such ads will wash in the eastern areas and Kerala hit by floods, but then it is not always that weather forecasters' opinions are sought when planning advertising schedules. Seasonal advertising is, of course, a must.

In commerce quite often what is bad news for some is good news for others. Reference here is to the sale of packaged water in volumes unprecedented in the history or places such as Chennai.

Piped supplies having all but failed, people who can afford it settle for drinking water sold in bottles, bubbletop jars and the all too familiar 12-litre plastic containers. These containers bearing fancy names decorate the entrance of stores as there is no better place to stack them up.

Advocates of point of sale advertising think that besides the advantage of display, there is a public relations message that is conveyed, namely, that the stores are very much alive to the crisis.

Some research suggests that though it is a seller's market, people have developed their own preferences for brands. ``Pure'', ``Safe'', ``double-distilled'', ``doctor-certified'', ``tamperproof'' are some of the properties hyped up.

Driving the market to an extent of course is word-of-mouth publicity. There is also talk going on about a brand being superior as the water is ozonised. Then it is said a company uses the reverse-osmosis technique. As for mineral water, it's just plain eyewash.

So goes the tattle made of half-baked opinions and surmise. It is ironical that there are folk who, after buying the so-called ``pure water'', pass it through their own filters and drink it only after boiling it, brand loyalty notwithstanding.

Tanker suppliers, for bulk water discharge into sumps, advertise through classifieds about the promptness and purity, claims which are germane at a time when poor quality and delayed deliveries are more the rule than the exception.

Much of the water yielded by borewells in one's own backyard and in remote regions being untreated is `hard'. About hard water there is a theory often cited which could be of some consolation. Hard water, according to some medical authorities, is not exactly inimical to good health.

In a survey taken in England some years ago in a place where a high incidence of sudden deaths was reported, the cause was suspected to be soft water for which the place was well known. Yet not all the findings can calm the troubled minds of people who are unhappy using certain types of hard water for a shower and to wash clothes.