Boxed Water is Better: Boxed Water Is Better

Boxed Water is a product whose name states exactly what it is: water in a box. And with no mention of the source or benefits of the water (aside from a tiny “purified drinking water” tag), it’s the box that is the entire selling point of the water As for the box, it’s a 500 mL screw top carton that looks like a miniature version of a quart of milk (Boxed Water was originally launched in a quart size). The design of the package is otherwise very stark, which seems like a very subtle but effective way of saying that this is an eco-friendly product (or at least one that is more eco-friendly than water). In addition, they’ve placed a list of the steps they’ve taken to minimize the product’s impact on the environment over traditional bottled water. However, it’s still a lined carton, which, much like the Tetra Pak cartons, cannot be recycled in very many places at this point. To that end, there are certainly going to be naysayers on a product like this (and perhaps is why they changed the copy from “Boxed water is better for the earth.” to “Boxed water is better.”) whereas there would probably be way fewer if it were simply marketed as a cool and innovative looking package. We certainly think that this product could sell simply on that angle alone. Overall, really nice packaging design, but the environmental angle is likely to be a double-edged sword for the brand.