Thanks to TikTok, Brita enjoys a surge in familiarity

According to QuestBrand data, Brita ranked as the top growth home care brand from Q4 2022 to Q1 2023, based on quarter-over-quarter brand equity growth. Brand equity measures the value consumers see in a brand at a particular moment in time. It is an average of four components – brand familiarity, perceived quality, purchase consideration, and perceived momentum.

Interestingly, Brita’s surge cannot be attributed to a flashy product launch or a wow-worthy advertising campaign. Instead, the brand gained a surge in familiarity due to a social media app popular with Gen Z and Millennials – TikTok.

Interested in seeing where the brand rankings originated? Download our Home Care Industry Snapshot for more brand rankings and industry insights. 

In September, influencer Elliott Norris posted a TikTok video testing whether filtering vodka through a Brita filter would improve the taste of the alcohol. After sampling the filtered vodka, he exclaimed, “It tastes like nothing.” Soon, other influencers rushed to participate in the vodka filtering challenge. By December, the trend had gained 90 million views. But it doesn’t stop there. Soon journalists took up the challenge, publishing articles on the TikTok trend.

Brita’s Familiarity – US Adults vs TikTok Users – Trended 12 Week Moving Average

QuestBrand. Base: General population of US adults (black), n=6,767. Base: TikTok users (red), n=2,616. 8/1/22-5/3/23.

This is not the first time consumers have tried to improve the taste of alcohol with a water filter. In 2006, MythBusters tested this theory. Like TikTokers, the MythBusters thought they could taste a difference between the filtered and unfiltered vodkas. But in the age of social media, ideas can gain faster and wider attention.

The graph above tracks consumers’ familiarity with the Brita brand from August 2022 through the end of April 2023. While the black line tracks overall US adults’ familiarity with Brita, the red line only tracks Brita familiarity among US adults who have used TikTok within the last 30 days. Comparing these two trend lines, we can see how greatly the TikTok movement impacted consumers’ familiarity with Brita.

Social media posts can significantly change how consumers feel about a product or brand. In many cases, brands partner with influencers to curate how they want their brand portrayed. In this case, Brita benefitted from an unexpected bit of buzz, as Brita rose from a simple water filter to a key player in a TikTok craze.