Effective global competitiveness is rare in the Pacific islands, yet FIJI Water has been a major success story since 1997, exporting bottled water to the USA and elsewhere. A bland commodity has been linked to an ‘exotic’ place, and sold to elite consumers, as a form of cultural capital. The company website and newspaper extol the virtues of a ‘pristine’ product, produced in a natural context, in an environmentally sensitive manner. Marketing these themes and product placement have enabled success in a highly competitive market. Place has been used as a means of marketing perceived taste, distinctiveness and quality.
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John Connell (2006) studied this question.
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