Move Over, Coke
One morning in the late 1990s, Joe Doria Jr. glanced out the window of his family's upscale Manhattan grocery, Grace's Marketplace, to see one of his regular patrons pull up in a Porsche Carrera. It was J. Darius Bikoff, owner of a fledgling local beverage company, and Mr. Bikoff was loading cases of his bottled water onto the sidewalk.
"I'll never forget it," says Mr. Doria, who has been in the grocery business for two decades. "Darius comes in and says, 'Hey Joe, will you sell this for me?' He was just a customer of the store, but it impressed me that he was delivering the product himself and pushing it. You've got to respect that."
THE JOURNAL REPORT
See the complete Small Business report.Today Mr. Doria devotes 12 linear feet of cold space to Mr. Bikoff's most popular drink, vitaminwater; by comparison, industry giant Poland Spring gets one foot. Grace's carries every vitaminwater flavor as well as two other Bikoff beverage lines called fruitwater and smartwater. What's more, Mr. Doria says he won't sell any other brand of enhanced health water -- even PepsiCo Inc.'s Propel, the nation's top seller. "Darius was the first, and I have an allegiance to him."
When it comes to making an entrepreneurial dent in markets dominated by big giants, the nonalcoholic-beverage category where Mr. Bikoff and his company, Glacéau, competes is among the toughest, and costliest, to crack. For starters, many mainstream chain restaurants as well as schools, sports stadiums, airports and other outlets strike exclusive contracts with the biggest suppliers -- namely Pepsi or Coca-Cola Co. -- that preclude them from selling most competing beverages; in return, they typically get lump-sum payments, discounts, coolers or other marketing support. Meantime, shelf space is at such a premium at most major supermarkets that the chains charge newcomers prohibitively expensive "slotting fees" to mitigate the supermarkets' risk of pulling an established product to make room for something untried. That leaves a network of smaller outlets such as Grace's Marketplace that are often game to experiment, but have less foot traffic.
Glacéau's three product lines
Yet the story of Glacéau's vitaminwater offers insight into how inroads can be made in even the most saturated of industries, from food and toys to office supplies and cosmetics. In seven years, the brand has grown from a no-name upstart whose charismatic founder, Mr. Bikoff, delivered sample bottles from a cooler bag to become the cornerstone of a $350 million mini-empire that has won shelf space in 50,000 outlets, including Albertson's, Safeway, Jewel-Osco and Whole Foods. Once-skeptical stores and distributors now credit Glacéau with bringing them the Holy Grail of retail -- an entirely new product category to push on consumers, in this case one dubbed enhanced water. Today vitaminwater comes in 13 flavors fortified with everything from folic acid and vitamin B-12 to magnesium and zinc, including a grape variety co-created by the popular, and always enterprising, rapper 50 Cent.
What got Whitestone, N.Y.-based Glacéau to this point is a multipronged strategy that first involved building demand under the radar, particularly in smaller retailers, and then bolstering the drink's chances of survival once it managed to get into larger ones. That ranged from giving away millions of bottles from a fleet of music-blaring vans to designing unconventional packaging that stood out on a congested water shelf. Even the company's marketing verbiage isn't standard corporate fare; it explains pronunciation of the Glacéau name this way on company missives -- "hint, hint: rhymes with lasso and el paso, but not with johnny cash-o." And as much as anything, the tale of what exactly vitaminwater is -- that's to say, how it differs from other products -- was one of the most valuable marketing tools of all.
"The goal with products is to give people a great story to tell, so they can tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on," says Mark Hughes, author of "Buzzmarketing." "Being new is a great advantage on this front. Would you go tell a friend about Pepsi? No, because they've been around too long. That's the advantage of being David in the David and Goliath story."
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Vitaminwater's yarn began in February 1998, when Mr. Bikoff was standing in his kitchen sipping bottled water. Feeling run down, he slipped a vitamin C wafer into his mouth, and the citrus flavor combined with the clean water registered on his taste buds, and in his entrepreneurial mind. At the time, Mr. Bikoff, who had made some money in a family metal-importing business, had already started to dabble in the beverage category with two products: smartwater, a plain bottled water, and fruitwater, a flavored version of the former. His next thought was simple: Why not add vitamins to water?
Glacéau founder J. Darius Bikoff
The timing was right. In terms of volume growth, water was drowning every other major beverage category from milk to soda to beer. The word "organic" had crept into popular lexicon, and consumers increasingly sought more-healthful alternatives to their diets, both at home and out. And drinks with a function -- those that did more than just hydrate -- were starting to take off.
What's more, at the time, Mr. Bikoff was going through his own health awakening, trying to shed and keep off 30 pounds.
"What I realized during that period of time was that all the food eaten during the day had nutrients stripped out through processing and preserving," says Mr. Bikoff, 44 years old, who now stands 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 153 pounds. "If I put these back in, I figured I'd feel better and have more energy."
He hired a team of experts, including a food scientist, flavorist, microbiologist and dietitian, to help him devise his vitaminwater formulas. Though water sales were booming nationwide, the notion of enhancing the beverage with nutrients was something different -- and this distinction registered early on with consumers and retailers. To drive the point home, Mr. Bikoff chose a name that specifically highlighted what set his drink apart from other waters.
"I thought it couldn't be too terrible if it was called vitaminwater," says Barbara Norman, a Manhattan photographer whose children Sam, 6, and Nora, 9, now drink it by the case at home.
Moreover, Mr. Bikoff insisted that vitaminwater be stocked alongside other bottled water, because he didn't think consumers would understand the product if it was lumped in the soda or sports-beverage sections. It was just a hunch, but it paid off in ways even Mr. Bikoff didn't foresee, namely how the colorful bottles looked amid plain clear competitors.
"Darius said, 'We are a water and want to be with the waters,' " says Ken Ditty, the San Francisco branch manager for 7 UP Bottling Co., which distributes vitaminwater. "The visual makes it stand out. We pushed that. If you put it in with the Gatorade and Snapple, it doesn't sell as well."
The novelty also gave retailers the potential for incremental sales. As the category manager for beverage products at Wild Oats Markets Inc., Bob Richardson sifts through thousands of new items a year looking for what might work at his company's hundred-plus organic-minded stores that operate under the names Wild Oats, Henry's and Sun Harvest. "Not a day goes by that I don't see something new," Mr. Richardson says. "I don't need the same product with a different label. [Glacéau] created a new water category." Vitaminwater is currently in all of his company's stores and has averaged 27% to 28% annual growth in sales volume over the past four years.
BEATING THE BIG BOYS
VIDEO | PODCAST: How can a little guy win over retailers to get a chance with consumers? See a video report with WSJ's Gwendolyn Bounds on how Glacéau got its products into stores. And Ms. Bounds discusses specific tips for getting buyers at big retailers to take notice, in a podcast.In the early days, Mr. Bikoff himself delivered the gospel of his vitaminwater to anyone who would listen. He held off entering bigger, mainstream supermarkets until his company could afford the slotting fees typically charged to first-timers; he says Glacéau has since had to pay anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 in those outlets depending on the number of stores in a chain. First, though, Mr. Bikoff concentrated on smaller mom-and-pop outlets, primarily those with a health-food bent. As he aimed bigger, he initially targeted chains that embraced organic lifestyles and those that would test small vendors on a regional basis, such as Whole Foods Market Inc. There again, being "first" paid off.
"We've only got a limited amount of shelf space," says Perry Abbenante, national grocery buyer for Whole Foods. "If you show me another soy milk, I've got plenty of them. There's got to be a unique slant to their product."
A skilled promoter of both his beverages and himself, Mr. Bikoff pounded the streets of New York, dropping in on independent shops and cajoling owners to give his vitaminwater a try -- a strategy he'd successfully employed with smartwater and fruitwater and still does today from the back of a mammoth Cadillac Escalade he's outfitted with a cooler. This personal touch earned loyalty among the smaller retailers who gave him an early presence in the marketplace.
These are lessons for any newcomer trying to break through big-industry juggernauts, and compete with deeper-pocketed rivals. "They can't compete on price, so it's crucial that they develop a different proposition and build demand from there," says Gary Hemphill, managing director of Beverage Marketing Corp., a New York-based research and consulting firm. "That's what Glacéau has done."
* * *
Of course, being different won't take you to $350 million in wholesale revenue. For that, a brand needs distribution -- a way to get into retailers' shelves and ultimately consumers' hands. In the beverage industry, this is no small feat. Coke and Pepsi hold an enormous advantage because both have bottling and distribution operations (known respectively as the "red" and "blue" networks) devoted almost solely to delivering those companies' products. The rest of the beverage world must rely on a pool of independent distributors -- the "white" network -- that divide their attention between dozens of brands. And even that is shrinking, as Cadbury Schweppes PLC, owner of 7 UP, Dr Pepper and others, has been consolidating this third-tier system under its umbrella.
"If in the real-estate business it's all about location, location, location, then in the beverage business it's all about distribution, distribution, distribution," says John Sicher, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest. "Coke, Pepsi and Cadbury with their bottling networks can get into almost every venue in the country."
The upshot is that smaller players must do whatever they can to land on distributors' radars -- and stay there. Tony Haralambos is the third-generation co-owner of Haralambos Beverage Co., a beverage distributor in City of Industry, Calif. He recalls sitting down in the summer of 2002 to draft his annual "hit list" -- the fated roster of drinks his distributorship would quit delivering the following year because they weren't selling briskly at retail. At that point, vitaminwater was on the list.
Then came an unexpected phone call from the borough of Queens, N.Y. It was the headquarters of Glacéau, and top brass there wanted Mr. Haralambos to fly to New York to discuss business. He grudgingly agreed, figuring they could unwind their relationship face-to-face, and began scoping out affordable airline reservations three weeks out. That wasn't soon enough for the Glacéau folks, however, who insisted Mr. Haralambos jump on a plane the next day.
" 'Do you realize how much that will cost me?' " Mr. Haralambos recalls replying, noting that he typically pays travel expenses for supplier meetings. "And they said, 'No, no, we are paying. We have a hotel. Just come.' "
The hotel happened to be the Four Seasons, and the Glacéau folks encouraged Mr. Haralambos and his head of sales to visit retailers of their choice to get a true sense of vitaminwater's market saturation in the New York area. Manhattan, Mr. Bikoff of Glacéau explained to his guest during the tour, was just the first piece of the company's game plan. It was the market Mr. Bikoff knew best, so they'd started there. California, he told Mr. Haralambos, was next.
"I'm in my head, I'm comparing my market and their market and picturing what I could be doing," Mr. Haralambos says. "The dollar signs started becoming visible."
Still, the distributor was unconvinced; after all he was only moving a few hundred cases of vitaminwater a month and didn't see how he could grow fast enough to make it worth his while. He expressed his reservations at dinner that night to Mr. Bikoff, who smiled and told him that they planned to sever relationships with all other distributors in Mr. Haralambos's area. What's more, Glacéau would pay all the fees associated with terminating those contracts and simply give the incremental business to Mr. Haralambos.
"Well, that's about the height of flattery," says Mr. Haralambos. "We made the deal that night at dinner."
Months later, Mr. Bikoff flew a team out to Haralambos headquarters, hired a top Beverly Hills caterer and staged a mock wedding with Mr. Haralambos where the two marched into a conference room to greet the distributor's sales force. (Mr. Haralambos wore a top hat, Mr. Bikoff a veil.)
Mr. Bikoff addressed the room and explained his strategy: start with territories near the beach where consumers led active outdoor lifestyles, and expand from there. "Ladies and gentleman," he said grandly, "if this does not work and we are unsuccessful in making it a big brand, we will take full responsibility at Glacéau."
The presentation wowed a cynical sales team accustomed to pizza and pat speeches from suppliers who then blamed them if things went wrong. "I've never had anyone do something like this," Mr. Haralambos says.
After that day, his company backed Glacéau 100%; Glacéau's strategy worked, and soon paparazzi were photographing Hollywood celebrities, including Britney Spears, Madonna and Nicole Kidman, clutching vitaminwater. Mr. Bikoff says he hand-delivered a case to Paris Hilton's home himself. (She came to the door too, he says. "Nice girl; nothing like what the media shows.") The buzz built from there.
"Darius is a pretty flashy guy," says Mr. Haralambos. "He's so enthusiastic about his product that you are immediately on guard. But you can only fool people for a short period of time. We're now seeing the real effect of his personality and how much he believes in himself and his product." Last year, Haralambos Beverage sold "well over a million" cases of vitaminwater, which accounted for about 10% of the distributor's total volume and 20% of its revenue. This year, he says, vitaminwater will be his No. 1 supplier.
* * *
Such unconventional tactics were the cornerstone of Mr. Bikoff's marketing plan to build brand awareness. One tool his company still employs is a pool of 39 "news" vans -- dubbed Glacéau Tasting Vehicles, or GTVs -- that canvass the country with emcees and cases of vitaminwater. Last year, the vans were adorned with "spin the bottle" wheels and parked in busy locations such as San Francisco's Union Square, where the emcees enticed passersby to give the wheel a whirl and get a free bottle of vitaminwater. In stores, Glacéau regularly sets up what it calls "hydrology booths," where servers preach the merits of vitaminwater over other beverages with pithy supporting material, including placards with phrases such as: "OJ Found Guilty (of being high in sugar that is)."
A Glacéau Tasting Vehicle at Jones Beach on New York's Long Island last year
"That personal contact really works," says Mr. Hughes, the author of "Buzzmarketing." Sampling -- the industry term for giving out free product -- isn't so effective on its own, he notes. "You need a conversational prompt to go with it."
Meantime, to help open the California market in 2003, Mr. Bikoff's management team conducted a competition between two of the state's regional distributors to see, among other goals, who could open the most new accounts in a week. The winning distributor's best performers and their families were then flown to New York for a weekend of Broadway, baseball and dining. The competition was repeated by pitting the Southeast against the Midwest, and a third contest will occur this spring in Texas.
For the first California rivalry, in 2003, Mr. Bikoff shipped his entire company out West and paired his staff with the distributors' salespeople.
"It's very difficult to get the independent distributor to focus on one product when there are so many," Mr. Bikoff says. "In new territories, this really lights the fire." Prior to the competition, Glacéau was selling about 25,000 cases a month in California; that's now up to 2.5 million.
One of the teams was Mr. Ditty and his crew at the 7 UP Bottling Co. San Francisco branch: "We were already into the brand a couple of years, and this brought it to the next level," Mr. Ditty says. "Out of all the companies I've been associated with, they were probably the most aggressive in having people come out to help us." Vitaminwater is now his No. 2 brand in terms of monthly sales volume, second only to 7 UP.
* * *
There's no sign of the enhanced-water market drying up anytime soon; if anything, competition looks to become more intense. PepsiCo is rolling out a calcium-enhanced version of Propel, and its SoBe division will launch five flavors of SoBe LifeWater in March. Coke has a clear sports drink called Powerade Option that it considers a competitor in this category, though it isn't technically a water; a spokesman for Coke's Dasani brands adds that the company is always exploring new options.
That prospect hasn't quenched Mr. Bikoff's own thirst. His current craving: to crack what he dubs the "captive market" -- those accounts that have exclusive beverage contracts. Last fall, he strolled into an Au Bon Pain in downtown Manhattan and introduced himself to the manager. "We aren't in here, but we want to be in here," Mr. Bikoff said waving his arm at the open cooler stocked with Pepsi, Aquafina and Propel -- all PepsiCo brands. He handed the manager his business card and left, bemoaning what he calls a "restraint of trade" by the big players.
"It outrages me," he says with his customary dramatic flair. "It happens in colleges, high schools, baseball stadiums, airports, or places where they know you have 15 minutes to eat and won't leave to go find something else to drink."
But now that vitaminwater itself is so prevalent -- there are some 50,000 free-standing branded coolers nationwide in high-traffic places such as Bed Bath & Beyond stores and Virgin Megastore cafes -- it becomes tougher for Mr. Bikoff to assume the role of David battling the Goliaths. His company is on track to double its $350 million 2005 revenue this year, and that carries weight. In fact, just a few weeks ago he convinced Au Bon Pain executives to discuss the possibility of adding Glacéau products in the chain.
Meantime, smaller copycats are popping up in regional markets, fortifying their waters with everything from fiber to herbs, and suddenly it's Mr. Bikoff who is protecting his turf from hungry upstarts in ways that ring faintly of his bigger rivals.
Mr. Haralambos says an edgy company called BooKoo Beverages, founded in 2002, recently approached him about distributing its vitamin-enhanced water. He says he had to decline because of his contract with Glacéau, though he is quick to note: "Even if I wasn't contractually prohibited from bringing [BooKoo's water] on, I wouldn't do it anyway. I have such a great relationship with Glacéau, why would I want to mess it up?"
让开点，可乐！
上世纪90年代末的一个清晨，在位于曼哈顿的高档食品店Grace's Marketplace，老板乔?多里亚(Joe Doria)站在窗前，看到一位老主顾正从一辆保时捷Carrera上下来。那是达瑞斯?比考夫(J. Darius Bikoff)，本地一家成立不久的饮料公司的老板。比考夫正在将一箱箱瓶装水搬到人行道上。
“我永远也不会忘记那一幕，”在食品百货行业打拼了20多年的多里亚说。“比考夫走进来对我说，'乔，你能帮我销售这个吗？'虽然他以前只是这家商店的客户，但打动我的是，他身为老板亲自送货上门并努力推销产品。这点很值得敬重。”
现在，多里亚将12延尺的饮品空间留给比考夫生产的最受欢迎的维他命饮料；而行业巨头Poland Spring也只有1延尺。Grace's销售各种口味的维他水，还有比考夫另外两种叫做鲜果水(fruitwater)和智能水(smartwater)的饮料。而且，多里亚还表示，他不会出售其它任何品牌的保健饮品，哪怕是全美销售最好的百事公司(PepsiCo Inc.)的Propel。他说，比考夫是第一个，我是他忠实的伙伴。
对于由巨头垄断的市场而言，比考夫和他的公司Glaceau所在的非酒精饮料领域可能是开拓难度最大，成本最高的行业了。对初创企业而言，许多主流餐馆、学校、体育馆、机场和其它销售点都同百事或可口可乐公司(Coca-Cola Co.)等最大的供应商达成了独家协议，使他们无法销售别的竞争产品；作为回报，他们通常都会获得一次性付款、折扣、制冷机及其它营销支持。与此同时，在多数大超市，货架空间价格不菲，这些连锁店会向新来者收取相当高的“进场费”，以降低超市将现有产品撤下、为这些前景莫测的新产品腾出空间的风险。这就还剩下一些象Grace's Marketplace这类令企业垂涎，但客流量较少的小零售店。
不过，Glaceau维他水的故事能够启示我们如何进入即便是最饱和的行业，如食品和玩具、办公用品和化妆品市场。在七年时间里，颇具领导魅力的创始人比考夫从最初用保温袋上门推销样品，到占据Albertson's、Safeway、Jewel-Osco和Whole Foods等5万家零售店的货架空间，这个品牌也从一个无名之辈发展成为一个规模达3.5亿美元的市场上的中流砥柱。一度对它持怀疑态度的商家和分销商现在也相信，Glaceau这种很吸引消费者的全新产品给他们带来了零售业最需要的东西。如今，维他水包括13种口味，从叶酸、维他命B-12到加镁、加锌不一而足，甚至还有与流行RAP歌手50 Cent共同创造的一种葡萄口味。
Glaceau能发展到这一步，要归功于其多元化战略，首先发掘市场，尤其是小零售商中的需求，一旦在进入较大的商店后，就努力提高饮品的生命力。采取的做法包括从播放著音乐的货车中派发数百万瓶饮料，针对拥挤不堪的货架设计的独特包装等等。甚至公司的营销口号也不是标准的企业用语。而最重要的是，维他水的传奇──即它与别的产品到底有何不同──是最有价值的营销工具之一。
《蜂鸣式营销》(Buzzmarketing)一书的作者马克?休斯(Mark Hughes)说，“产品的目的是赋予人们一个很好的故事，让他们告诉别人，一传十，十传百。”“在这方面新颖是一个很大的优势。你会把百事可乐告诉给朋友吗？不会，因为它们问世的时间太久了。这就如同《大卫与哥利亚》(David and Goliath)的故事中大卫所具备的优势。”
维他水的故事始于1998年2月，当时比考夫正在厨房里喝瓶装水。快喝完的时候，他随手把一块维他命C饼干填到嘴里，柑桔的味道同清澈的水结合到一起刺激了他的味蕾，也激发了他的创业灵感。比考夫之前从家族的金属进口业务中积攒了一些资金，而且当时已进入饮料业，并有两种产品，一是智能水──普通的无味瓶装水，一是鲜果水──加入了水果口味的智能水。他的下一个想法非常简单：为何不在水中加入维他命呢？
天时对他非常有利。就销量增幅而言，水饮料正在超越牛奶、苏打和啤酒等几乎所有其它的主要饮料领域。“有机”一词已广为人知，消费者希望在家中或外出时都能获得更加健康的食品。功能性饮料已经开始深入人心。
而且，当时比考夫自己也正开始意识到健康问题，他希望能减去30磅体重并保持下去。
今年44岁的比考夫说，“当时我意识到人们日常吃的所有食物在加工和保存过程中都会出现营养流失。”“如果我能把这些营养成分补充回来，我想我可能会感觉更好，精力更旺盛。”
他聘用了一个由食品学家、调味专家、微生物学家和营养学家组成的小组帮助他开发维他水的配方。尽管当时在美国，瓶装水的销售增势迅猛，但添加养分提高饮料品质的理念却有所不同，这种想法最初反映在消费者和零售商那里。为了使这个理念深入人心，比考夫特意为他的饮料起了一个突出与其它水饮料不同之处的名字。
曼哈顿的摄影师巴巴拉?诺曼(Barbara Norman)说，“我认为叫它维他水应该糟糕不到哪里去。”她的孩子──6岁的萨姆(Sam)和9岁的诺拉(Nora)──现在在家里都要成箱地喝维他水。
而且，比考夫坚持维他水要摆放在其它瓶装水旁边，因为他认为，如果摆在汽水或运动饮料的货架上，消费者就不会理解这种产品。这只是一种直觉，但它却收到了比考夫也没有预料到的效果：它的那些五颜六色的瓶子在立在其他素面朝天的瓶装水旁边给人们带来了强烈的视觉冲击。
“比考夫告诉我们，'我们的产品是水，要和水在放一起，'”维他水的分销商7 UP Bottling Co.驻旧金山的分公司经理肯?迪奇(Ken Ditty)说。“外观使它与众不同。我们利用了这点。如果同Gatorade和Snapple摆在一起，销售就不会这么好了。”
这种独特之处也使零售商获得了不断增加销量的潜力。作为Wild Oats Markets Inc.饮料产品分部经理，鲍勃?理查德森(Bob Richardson)每年都要从数千种新产品中进行筛选，寻找适合于公司旗下100多家以Wild Oats、Henry's和Sun Harvest等品牌运营的有机食品商店出售的产品。“有时几天也看不到一件新产品，”理查德森说。“我要的不是贴著不同标签的相同产品。Glaceau创造了一个新的水饮料领域。”Wild Oats Markets旗下的所有商店目前都在销售维他水，过去四年来，销售量年均增幅在27%至28%。
最初，比考夫每逢遇到愿意倾听的人，就会向他灌输维他水的理念。他对进入更大的主流超市敬而远之，直到公司能够负担起向初来乍到者收取的进场费；他说，从那以后，Glaceau要根据这些超市连锁店的数量支付1万至10万美元不等的进场费。不过，比考夫最初关注的是那些家庭作坊式的小店铺，尤其是侧重健康食品的商店。随著他著眼于更大的商店，他也是首先以那些提倡社区有机食物和Whole Foods Market Inc.那样愿意先在某个地区考验小供货商的连锁店为目标。这种做法再次率先获得了回报。
“我们的货架空间非常有限，”Whole Foods的全国食品采购员佩里?阿拜纳特(Perry Abbenante)说。“如果你向我展示另外一种豆奶，我们已有的豆奶品种已经很多了。供货商的产品应该有与众不同之处。”
对于他的饮料和他本人，比考夫都是一位技巧高超的推销员。他拜访纽约街头的各家商店，劝说商家试销他的维他水──这种策略在他推销智能水和鲜果水时就获得了成功。现在，他仍开著装备制冷机的凯迪拉克Escalade，挨家挨户地推销。这种面对面的交流赢得了小零售商的忠诚，使他在这个市场中获得先机。
他的做法对任何希望突破行业巨头的森严壁垒、同财力雄厚的竞争对手一较高下的“新手”都具有借鉴意义。“他们无法在价格上进行竞争，因此，创造出不同的理念并由此创造需求就显得至关重要了，”纽约研究和咨询机构Beverage Marketing Corp.的董事总经理加里?海姆菲尔(Gary Hemphill)说。“Glaceau正是这样做的。”
当然，仅仅凭藉出奇制胜并不能带来3.50亿美元的批发销售额。要达到这样的销售规模，一个品牌还需要分销的支持，分销能帮助品牌到达零售货架，并最终到达消费者的手中。在饮料行业，这可不是小事情。可口可乐和百事有极大的优势，就是因为他们都拥有自己的装瓶和分销业务（分别被称为红色和蓝色网络），专门经营自己的产品。饮料行业的其他公司都必须依赖被称之为白色网络的众多独立分销商，一个独立分销商往往要运作几十个品牌。不过白色网络正在缩小，因为拥有7 UP、Dr Pepper等品牌的Cadbury Schweppes PLC已开始整合其羽翼下的第三级分销体系。
“正如房地产行业中地段为王一样，饮料行业是分销为王，”Beverage Digest杂志编辑和创办人约翰?斯切(John Sicher)表示，“拥有自有瓶装业务的可口可乐、百事和Cadbury几乎能进入这个国家的每个地方。”
结果是中小竞争者必须尽一切可能吸引分销商，并竭力维持好这种业务合作。托尼?海若拉姆博斯(Tony Haralambos)是加州饮料分销公司Haralambos Beverage Co.的第三代共同所有人。他回忆2002年夏天他正坐下来起草一年一度的“筛选清单”，计划将上一年零售情况不佳、下一年停止经销的饮料品牌一一列出，维他水榜上有名。
后来，他突然接到了纽约市皇后区Glaceau总部打来的一个电话，该公司的管理高层希望他能飞到纽约来讨论一下业务情况。海若拉姆博斯勉强同意了，估摸著这家公司是希望能与他当面解除业务关系，就开始预定三周以后的、价格较为便宜的机票。但Glaceau等不及了，他们坚持要海若拉姆博斯坐第二天的飞机前往纽约。
“你知道这要花我多少钱么？”海若拉姆博斯记得自己当时这样问对方，并说明通常他都会自己负担与供货商见面的费用。“Glaceau的管理层说，不，不，我们会付机票钱。我们为你订了酒店。你只要来就好了。”
Glaceau为海若拉姆博斯预定的是四季酒店(Four Seasons)，并热情邀请他和Haralambos Beverage的销售主管拜访了一些优质零售商，亲眼目睹维他水在纽约地区受欢迎的程度。Glaceau的比考夫在这期间向来客宣称，曼哈顿只是公司发展计划的第一个地区，因为这是他了解最深的一个市场，所以他们从这里起步，加州将是下一个。
“我想得很多，我将两个市场进行了比较，并构想自己能做些什么，”海若拉姆博斯表示，“赚钱的机会似乎不那么渺茫了。”
但他并没被完全说服；毕竟，当时他们一个月的维他水销量只有几百箱，再怎么增长似乎也还是太少。当晚，海若拉姆博斯在与比考夫共进晚餐的时候表示了自己的保留意见，比考夫笑了，并告诉他，Glaceau计划和Haralambos Beverage所在地区的其他所有经销商终止合作关系。由此引起的费用都将由Glaceau支付，这样做就是为了让海若拉姆博斯的业务做大。
“哦，这简直让我受宠若惊，”海若拉姆博斯说，“当晚的餐桌上我们就敲定了合作关系。”
几个月后，比考夫向Haralambos Beverage总部派出一个小组，请来比佛利山一家顶级的宴会承办公司，与海若拉姆博斯一起上演了一场婚礼秀：比考夫头带面纱，海若拉姆博斯戴著礼帽携手步入一个会议厅，向Haralambos Beverage的销售人员致意。
比考夫向在场的人员发表了讲话，解释了公司战略：从领导各种户外活动潮流的沿海地区开始，向内陆推进。“女士们，先生们，”比考夫正言道，“如果这个策略不成功，我们无法将这个品牌做大，我们Glaceau将负全责。”
这次活动让势力的销售人员对Glaceau顿时刮目相看：销售人员太习惯于供货商提供的匹萨餐以及简单的宣讲，事后如果销售状况不好，又总是归咎于销售人员。“我从未看到有人这样做，”海若拉姆博斯称。
自那以后，Haralambos Beverage就开始全力支持Glaceau；Glaceau的策略奏效了，很快娱乐记者们就拍到了好莱坞明星们──包括布兰妮(Britney Spears)、麦当娜(Madonna)和妮可?基德曼(Nicole Kidman)──手捧维他水的画面。比考夫称，他亲自将一箱饮料送到了帕丽丝?希尔顿(Paris Hilton)的家里。
“比考夫是一个很有感染力的人，”海若拉姆博斯称，“他对自己的产品非常有热情，这一点可能会让你立刻心生戒备。但如果你是糊弄人，时间不会长。我们可以看到他的人格产生的影响以及他对自己以及公司的产品是如何的信心十足。”去年，Haralambos Beverage销售了100多万箱维他水，占其经销总量的10%左右，收入的20%。今年，海若拉姆博斯说，维他水将是他最大的供货商。
此类非传统的策略构成了比考夫建立品牌知名度的营销计划的基石。至今Glaceau依然沿用的一种营销方式是开著39辆名为“品尝Glaceau”的货车，带著现场主持人和成箱的维他水在全美各地巡回推广。去年，这些车身上装饰著“转动瓶子”大轮盘的货车曾停靠在旧金山联合广场等繁华地段，现场主持人邀请过路人转动大轮盘，并赠送给他们一瓶维他水。在商店里，Glaceau定期设促销台，有促销员向接受免费品尝的顾客宣传维他水相比其他饮料的好处，并发放设计简洁的宣传页。
“这种人际接触的确发挥了作用，”《蜂鸣式营销》的作者休斯说，免费品尝本身并没有这样有效，“你需要通过对话促进推广效果。”
与此同时，为了在2003年帮助打开加州市场，比考夫的管理团队在加州两个地区的经销商间展开了竞赛，看谁能在一周内赢得更多新客户等等。获胜一方业绩最出色的员工及其家属将受邀飞往纽约过周末，内容包括看百老汇歌剧、棒球比赛以及享用纽约美食等。有两场竞赛都是在加州东南部地区和加州中东部地区之间展开的，第三场竞赛将于今年春季在得克萨斯州举行。
2003年第一场加州经销商竞赛时，比考夫将公司全体员工 都送到了西部，与经销商的销售人员进行一一配对合作。
“当市场上有那么多产品时，很难把独立经销商的目光吸引到一个产品上来，”比考夫表示，“在新的市场，这种方式的确能让产品一下子火起来。”竞赛前，Glaceau在加州的月销量为2.5万箱左右；如今，这个数字已上升到250万箱。
其中一个参赛团队就是7 UP Bottling Co.旧金山分公司的迪奇及其同事。迪奇称，“我们经销这个品牌已经有几年了，这次竞赛将我们的参与度提到了新的水平。”“在我打过交道的所有公司里，他们或许是最积极地派出人员来帮助我们的。”如今，维他水在他的月度销量中排名第二，仅次于7 UP。
没有迹象显示保健水市场不久将萎缩；如果说未来会有什么变化的话，就是竞争将变得更加激烈。百事公司正在推出加钙型Propel，其旗下的SoBe今年3月将推出5种口味的SoBe LifeWater。可口可乐也有一种无色的运动饮料Powerade Option参与这个市场的竞争，但这种饮料理论上不能称之为水；可口可乐Dasani品牌的发言人称，公司一直在开发新产品。
但这样的前景并没有让比考夫泄气。目前，他的渴望是打开“专属市场”，就是那些拥有独家饮料合同的客户群。去年秋天，他来到曼哈顿下城区的一家Au Bon Pain简餐餐厅，向经理介绍了自己的来意。“我们的产品没有进入你们餐厅，我们希望能进来，”比考夫一边说，一边在满是百事可乐、Aquafina和Propel的开放冷柜前挥舞著手臂；这些都是百事的品牌。他给经理递了一张名牌后离开了，大饮料公司的独家销售协议成了一道难以逾越的障碍。
“这让我很气愤，”他以自己独特的戏剧化方式说著。“这种情况出现在大学、中学、棒球场、机场以及任何他们知道你只有15分钟就餐的地方，这样你就不会离开去找其他饮料。”
但既然维他水已经如此盛行，在全美许多Bed Bath & Beyond商店、Virgin Megastore咖啡厅等人来人往较多的地方已大约有5万个独立品牌冷藏柜出售维他水，比考夫要扮演大卫与哥利亚之战中的大卫就更困难了。Glaceau正在按计划实现今年收入较去年增长一倍、达到7亿美元的目标，这的确是一个沉甸甸的目标。事实上，就在几周前，他刚刚说服Au Bon Pain的管理层同意讨论在连锁店中增加供应Glaceau产品的可能性。
与此同时，地区市场中正在涌现许多效仿者，在他们的水中加入各种东西，从纤维到草药一不而足。突然之间，站在那里对后来者虎视眈眈的变成了比考夫。
海若拉姆博斯称，有一家成立于2002年的公司BooKoo Beverages最近找到他，洽谈经销他们的维他命水饮料的事情。海若拉姆博斯说，因为他和Glaceau有合约，他只能回绝。但他接著又说，“即使合约不禁止我经销（BooKoo的维他水），我也不会去做。我和Glaceau的关系如此好，为什么要破坏它呢？”
