"Ever wonder about those people who spend $2 apiece on those little bottles of Evian water? Try spelling Evian backward"

After today’s class with Kerry, I have determined the direction for my semester project that will guide me throughout the course. It supplements my current thesis topic and lays a strong foundation for me to carry on with once the course has finished.

Based on the practices and structure of consumption, my research project will look into the habitual and contextual purchase of the product, which for the purposes of the study will be bottled water. Consumption of habitual products is often spontaneous and a physical practice rather than a conscious purchase choice. Consumers do not often make a planned choice to travel to a vendor and purchase a bottle of water. Rather, it is a result of their habits and contextual environment that drives the purchase decision.

In doing so, I will conduct a comparative case study between tertiary students from The University of Canberra (UC), where the sale of bottled water has been recently been banned, and the Australian National University (ANU).  The case study will ascertain the attitudes between both groups of consumers, as well as see if anything occurs to consumption habits when the option to purchase (UC) is taken away from a primary location.

As such, the project will be focussed on habitual purchasing under the assumption that certain product choices are a result of the purchase environment and influenced by common practices and structures.