Has bottled water gone too far?

An article in AdAge caught my attention today, Fortified Water has Gone to the Dogs. I'm an avid dog lover who has spent an insane amount of money on her dogs throughout the years. Yet I'm having a hard time imagining myself at the grocery store buying them bottled water. If tap water is good enough for me surely it's good enough for my dogs. Fortifido (as clever a name as any) is fortified with the vitamins dogs need (so Cott Corp. claims) and it comes in dog friendly flavors like peanut butter and spearmint. But I have to wonder if a different niche might be more lucrative. It's a proposition I've run up against before. There's an industry in front of you that's exploding. In 2006 water was a $1.46 billion industry and the natural question is where's my piece or how can I get a bigger piece. However, the better question is whether or not there are things on the horizon that might change the industry, like the proliferation of negative media surrounding the environmental concerns the water industry is awash in. And how you can become part of that story. After all, the $1.46 billion water industry is yesterday's news, the niche players will likely be lost in the larger product extensions of large conglomerates. A better way to break into the water industry is to change the rules by anticipating what's next and produce the product that fulfills that unforeseen need.