How families choose a home water purifier

What is shaping water

Water research covers households, utilities, purifier brands and development programmes. Access, quality, reliability and trust in the source decide how people use and pay for water.

• Many households combine several water sources
• Trust in water quality drives purifier adoption
• Utilities are judged on reliability and billing

A water purifier brand, working in India & Indonesia. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.

Organisation

A water purifier brand

Sector

Water

Team engaged

Market Research

Services

Consumer panel, Quantitative research, Qualitative research

The brand was entering Indonesia while defending its share in India, and wanted to understand how families decided to buy a purifier, which technology they chose and how much the service network mattered.

• Answer the core question: how families choose a home water purifier.
• Understand the views, needs and behaviour of recent buyers.
• Measure how widespread each pattern is, and explain the reasons behind it.
• Give the client evidence it can act on within 8 weeks.

The work focused on 2,200 recent buyers.

• recent buyers2,200

Audiences we typically reach in water

HouseholdsUtility customersPurifier buyers and ownersCommunity water committeesWASH programme beneficiaries

Coverage: India & Indonesia. Markets: India and Indonesia.

• India
• Indonesia

A mixed-method design: structured research measured how widespread each pattern was, and qualitative conversations explained why.

1. 1Brief
2. 2Online and face-to-face survey
3. 3In-home interviews
4. 4Insight

We surveyed recent buyers about triggers, research, technology choice, price and installation, combining online panels with face-to-face interviews in smaller cities. In-home interviews explored water sources, maintenance habits and trust in different technologies. Questionnaires were adapted carefully for each country.

Consumer panelQuantitative researchQualitative research

recent buyers

2,200

• Business respondents were screened on role, company size and involvement in the decision before being invited.
• Respondents were selected across India & Indonesia using quotas set in advance for each location and respondent type, so no single area or group dominated.
• Online respondents were drawn from verified panel members who matched the screening criteria, with quotas on key profile attributes.
• Qualitative participants were recruited purposively to cover the full range of experiences that mattered, rather than for statistical representation.

home visits

30

• Trained local-language interviewers conducted interviews in person, supervised in the field.
• The online survey was mobile-friendly and offered in respondents' languages.
• Interviews and discussions were led by experienced moderators using a guide agreed with the client.

• Back-checks on a share of completed interviews
• Time and location checks on field interviews
• Supervisor accompaniment in the field
• Digital fingerprinting and duplicate checks
• Attention, speed and straight-lining checks
• Review of open-ended answers
• Recordings and transcripts for every session
• Re-screening of qualitative recruits
• Logic and range checks on the final data
• Work carried out under our ISO 20252 quality procedures

• Cross-tabulation by key groups and locations
• Significance testing on the differences that mattered
• Thematic coding of interviews and discussions
• Journey and decision mapping

• In both markets, health concerns after illness in the family triggered purchases, and after-sales service reputation was decisive.
• In Indonesia, buyers knew little about technology differences.
• Early results in Indonesia showed strong interest in the home testing service, which became a key lead source for sales teams.

Service confidence sold purifiers more effectively than technical specifications.

• Build on the core insight: service confidence sold purifiers more effectively than technical specifications.
• Focus effort where the evidence was strongest: in both markets, health concerns after illness in the family triggered purchases, and after-sales service reputation was decisive.
• Re-measure after the changes to confirm the effect.

• The brand built its Indonesian launch around a service promise and simple water quality testing at home.

What changed in the business as a result of the work. Impact is described qualitatively.

• Insight report and management presentation
• Cleaned data file and data tables
• Interview summaries and key verbatims

• Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
• A natural follow-on question: how do households source and store water?