Experiential Marketing of Clean Drinking Water: Experimental Evidence for Kenya and Rwanda

Rachel Howell, Kinsuk Mani Sinha and Natascha Wagner

Review of Development Economics, 2026, vol. 30, issue 2, 1163-1181

Abstract: To date, limited work investigates how consumers in emerging markets make consumption decisions. With the rise in demand for clean drinking water in sub‐Sahara Africa, a field experiment was conducted on non‐consumers of two socially oriented drinking water companies providing low‐cost, re‐usable bottled drinking water in Kenya and Rwanda. The non‐consumers of both brands were randomly divided into two groups to causally assess whether exposure to a physical experience (free sample) leads to increased purchase (intention). For both countries, we identify that personal advertising information about the water companies motivated purchase intention (80% for Kenya, 67% for Rwanda) but intended purchase was even higher among those who were exposed to experiential marketing, that is, receipt of the free sample (90% for Kenya, 77% for Rwanda). Similarly, purchase was significantly increased in the free sample group. A back‐of‐the‐envelope calculation suggests that in marketing healthy products to consumers in emerging markets, there is a non‐negligible role for experiential marketing tools like a pre‐purchase free sample in further increasing purchase (intention), especially among the newly emerging middle class.

Date: 2026
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