Why are Evian American sales plunging?

Since the late 1990, Evian’s U.S. market share has been on a continual decline after selling at a price much higher than gasoline ever since it had been a marketing success, akin of selling refrigerator to the Eskimos.

What killed Evian's early success were the cola giants' (Coke and Pepsi) introduction of their own water brands and Evian's marketing chiefs inability to understand that selling bottled water in the U.S. is completely different from selling bottled water in Europe.

In Europe, consumers have been trained to look for natural spring water, whereas in the U.S. the demand is simply for purified water such as Perrier or Evian. Further, the U.S. consumer is indifferent to the types of bottled water and make purchase decisions based solely on price.

With its product being shipped from France, Evian ‘s average cost per case is about 80% higher than that of Aquafina and Dasani. Snob appeal is totally unable to bridge that huge price gap and this is why Evian water is no longer what it used to be on this side of the Atlantic.