Testing demand and pricing for a household water filter in Ghana

The challenge

Kohler and the nonprofit iDE needed to know whether Kohler’s household water filter could succeed with lower-income consumers in Ghana: was there real demand, what would people pay, and what business model could reach them?

What we did

• Mapped how households in Ghana get and treat water today, from wells and community taps to sachet and bottled water, as the baseline the filter had to compete with.
• Set up pop-up shops in four cities to test demand and willingness to pay directly with consumers.
• Tested door-to-door, group and retail sales models, and surveyed more than 100 consumers on site while they used the product.
• Held 20 stakeholder interviews and designed a pilot programme and a phased roadmap for testing and scaling.

Results

• Strong demand among households with tap water, best reached through direct sales backed by customer service.
• Southern Ghana identified as a more robust market than the north, with multiple viable sales channels.
• A phased roadmap for testing and scaling, and a customer-service model whose data could help the wider water filtration industry.