ZEVIA – Natural Diet Soda

Yesterday, Bloomberg News reported about the plans of Pepsi and Coke to manufacture a soda with stevia. Of course, ZEVIA® has had a product on shelves for over a year that we are confident will beat Coke and Pepsi’s versions when they eventually make it to market.

ZEVIA® is ALL natural. We are betting that Coke and Pepsi won’t be able to help themselves; they will probably have artificial ingredients in their stevia sodas. You will likely see the artificial preservative sodium benzoate, which has been linked to cancer. They’ll probably put phosphoric acid in their colas, which has been shown to deplete calcium in the bones.

Also, don’t believe the hype. Pepsi and Coke are marketing that their grade of stevia, with 97% rebaudioside A (or rebiana), is better tasting than other stevia. There are even rumors that their stevia is safer. These claims and rumors are all false.

ZEVIA® is pure, and contains nothing artificial. It never has and never will. ZEVIA® has the best quality and best tasting stevia in the world. All ZEVIA® ingredients are the finest quality and most natural available. We’re extremely confident that the taste of ZEVIA® will beat the taste of the Coke and Pepsi stevia products.

To learn more about why Coke and Pepsi will not be using any better quality stevia, click on this link.

-Derek

It is always fun to run discover Zevia in an unexpected place.  Today I was with on vacation with my family in Hanalei Bay, Kauai, and stopped into a health food store called Papaya’s.    It is a terrific store in one of the most beautiful places on earth.    Papaya’s only had Twist and Orange but were expecting a delivery tomorrow.

Papaya

The store owner, David, said Zevia was doing well despite being a fairly new product.  Hanalei Bay is such a majestic setting it is hard to imagine ingesting something artificial and unhealthy while surrounded by nature in all of its glory.

-Ian

Bristol Farms Valencia Grand Opening

Bristol Farms is arguably the nicest grocery store in Southern California. There are 19 locations (including one in my home town of Westlake Village). The newest Bristol Farms is having a grand opening in Valencia, which is very close to the Six Flags Magic Mountain theme park.

ZEVIA Shelf at Bristol Farms Valencia

Abigail appeared at the grand opening to provide ZEVIA® to customers. The store anticipated her, and made sure to have plenty of stock on hand. In just a few hours, Bristol Farms customers bought 7 cases (that’s 168 cans). Please make sure to visit Bristol Farms and stock up on ZEVIA® if you live in the Valencia area, or when you need a cool natural refreshment for a visit to Magic Mountain.

-Derek

Erewhon Natural Foods

Erewhon Natural Foods market is a gorgeous 12,000 square foot natural grocery store in the Beverly Hills area. Blocks from The Grove and Beverly Center, it offers the finest selection of organically-grown produce and groceries; and of course you can find ZEVIA® there.

Abigail at Erewhon

Today, Abigail provided ZEVIA® samples to Erewhon customers. ZEVIA® Natural Orange was the big hit, completely selling out by the time Abigail left the store, followed closely by ZEVIA® Natural Twist (with just two six packs left on the shelf).

Happy ZEVIA Customer at Erewhon

Erewhon will place an order quickly to replenish. We’re happy to be at this fine store in a great part of Los Angeles.

-Derek

ZEVIA® has a Facebook page. If you are on Facebook (and it seems like everybody is now), then please become a “fan” of ZEVIA® by searching for ZEVIA, and then clicking on “become a fan” when Zevia® appears as the first search result.

We asked our fans to submit photos of ZEVIA®. Jennifer from Ohio submitted the above photo of her new daughter, Romi, apparently drinking ZEVIA® Natural Cola. ZEVIA® tastes great, and is pure and natural. Why not supplement a steady breast milk diet with some refreshing ZEVIA?

-Derek

When marketing a product, the first question is usually “who is your target market?” Business people who want to sound smart will have an answer to that question prepared, even if pulled from thin air. Companies with a real budget will usually spend money on formal focus groups, hire consultants, and engage marketing experts to define the target market.

For ZEVIA®, we meet regularly to discuss who is our target demographic, and how best to reach that person. We know the obvious: ZEVIA® customers like soda, usually diet soda, and crave a great tasting version that is all natural and calorie free. We believe the target consumer is an adult (probably between 25 and 50 years old), mostly female, relatively sophisticated and educated.

However, even though we try to apply science, visceral instinct, empirical data from the field, and feedback from customers – do we really know who you are? We receive email on a daily basis from people across America who love ZEVIA®. They come from all walks of life, every state in the union; they are male, female, young, old, wealthy, low income, health nuts, and people who don’t care much about health but love the taste of ZEVIA®. We have a huge following in the diabetic community, and kids love ZEVIA®. We’ve heard from retirement communities who buy ZEVIA® in bulk and have replaced all soda with it.

The photos above come from the Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity at the University of Washington. They love ZEVIA®, serve it at fraternity parties, and drink it before classes. They mix it with alcohol, and enjoy a refreshing ZEVIA® after playing sports.

I wonder whether we’ll ever really know our target market, or whether it is as important to know as marketing professionals insist it is. Whoever you are, thank you for supporting ZEVIA® and telling everybody you know about it.

-Derek

ZEVIA and KO Teams

We started ZEVIA® because there was no all natural zero calorie diet soda before us. We hired a flavor artist and tasted lots of bad soda before coming to the refreshing and great taste that today’s ZEVIA® is.

The “look and feel” of the ZEVIA® logo and package was created before we had a final product to taste. Now that we know who we are, it’s time for an image that reflects better what ZEVIA is: pure, natural, refreshing, nothing artificial, sophisticated yet everyday, light, and fun.

We hired Koopman Ostbo in Portland, Oregon, a preeminent package design firm, to help us create the next ZEVIA image, by which we will be known for the next many years. We started working with the KO team many months ago, but today was the first time I felt as if we are almost there.

The photo above from left to right shows Jessica, me, Ian, Robert (KO’s creative director), Craig (KO principal), and Ted (KO’s project manager for ZEVIA).

-Derek

Have you signed up for the ZEVIA Leaf™ newsletter? We send it monthly, with ZEVIA® news, fun facts, ZEVIA discounts, and inside information. We do not send other emails, we never disclose your information to so-called “partners” or anybody else, and we make sure the content in the Leaf is relevant and easy to read. Our director of business affairs, Michael Spain, writes and edits the ZEVIA Leaf™. His email address is michael@zevia.com if you have suggestions.

The day after the election this month, we released the November edition of the Leaf. In the newsletter, we gave every Leaf subscriber a $10 discount on ZEVIA®. My favorite story in the recent edition, because it shows how we so value our customers’ opinions, was:

“ELECTION RETURNS ARE IN
BLACK CHERRY’S YOUR CHIOCE

In the October issue of the Zevia Leaf we asked readers, ‘If you created the next Zevia flavor, what would it be?’ We kept the polls open late and hundreds voted. As the votes were counted, we heard the mantra loud and clear: ‘Black Cherry, Black Cherry, Black Cherry!’ And, as always, when Zevia fans speak, we listen. Black cherry? Yes we can! Look for the delicious inauguaration of Zevia Natural Black Cherry in early 2009. Thank you for such a refreshing result! You wont have to wait ‘four more years’ if Zevia Black Cherry was not your candidate. Watch the Zevia Leaf for the start of the next tasty election cycle.”

Sign up today for the ZEVIA Leaf if you have not already. Just enter your email address in the box at the bottom of our web site.

-Derek

ZEVIA in Whole Foods Ponce de Leon

Whole Foods Market is the quintessential store for ZEVIA®. We designed ZEVIA® because before us there was no zero calorie natural soda. The need for ZEVIA® hit home when we would visit Whole Foods, the largest and arguably most respected natural food store in the country, and there was no choice for my wife (Jessica) and our business partner (Ian) who just wanted a great tasting natural diet cola. Was that too much to ask?

We are so happy to see ZEVIA® on the shelves at Whole Foods. I never tire of seeing photos of ZEVIA® displays in Whole Foods Market. Thank you to Amy Bell at Presence Marketing (our broker in the Southeast) for sending this pic of an end cap at Whole Foods in the heart of Atlanta’s Midtown on Ponce de Leon Avenue.

-Derek

Nature’s Best is California’s largest natural foods distributor. It has been very supportive of ZEVIA®, having been one of the first major distributors to offer ZEVIA® to west coast grocery stores and natural food markets.

Abigail at Nature's Best Show

Today is the Nature’s Best Table Top show at the Ontario Convention Center in Ontario, California. Retailers from Hawaii, California, Arizona, and Nevada walked the show to learn about new products, including ZEVIA®. Above is a photo of Abigail, our California sales manager, at the show.

Below is Stacey, our awesome Pacific Northwest sales rep (and the first employee we ever had), with Maria Burrows, our buyer at Nature’s Best. Maria told Stacey that ZEVIA® is selling extraordinarily well and that Nature’s Best is thrilled to have NATURE’S ANSWER TO DIET SODA®. Well, we are thrilled to have Nature’s Best, which takes quality and service to the highest level in the industry.

-Derek

Stacey and Maria from Nature's Best