South West Water came to us to help them make the value of the water they supply clear to their customers. The average household bill for South West Water’s services is now lower than it was seven years ago. The company will peg average household bills below inflation to the end of the decade whilst spending around £1billion on maintaining and improving services. These are facts that the company wants to communicate, but underlying it all is the basic idea of value for money. They asked us if we could help make that real for their customers.
They brought us research to show that that tap water in the South West is typically 600 times cheaper than bottled water bought from a shop. We showed that figure in terms of what you get for your money. One 500ml bottle of shop-bought water, typically priced at 60p, costs the equivalent of 600 bottles of tap water from South West Water. It helps to actually see 600 bottles. We can understand an idea like 'bottled water is 600 times more expensive' intellectually, but seeing what that means in a physical way gives the idea a stronger sense of reality.