| 百事和可口可乐因为担心侵蚀现有品牌的销量，创新乏力，结果让原本默默无名的零卡牌纯天然甜味苏打水抢占了先机，成功圈定了一个被巨头们遗忘的细分市场。 |
Zevia, based in Culver City, Calif., produces the only zero or low-calorie carbonated soft drink with rising U.S. sales among the top 20 brands. Its secret? It uses stevia, a leaf, to sweeten its soft drinks naturally at a time when leading diet soda brands such as Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi are getting slammed by a backlash against the use of artificial sweeteners.
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零卡创建于2007年，由长岛的私人股本公司诺斯伍德风投公司（Northwood Ventures）掌管。零卡抓住大公司犹豫不决的时机，在边缘化的饮料市场分得了一杯羹。
据零卡CEO派迪•斯彭思说，几年前零卡在全食有机食品超市（Whole Foods ）上架后销量激增，现在已经是亚马逊网上销量前五的软饮品牌，进驻了全美一半以上的超市。而且饮用零卡的消费者属于较富裕阶层，家庭平均收入在六万美元左右，而全美国的家庭平均收入水平则为5.2万美元。
尽管取得了很大成功，但零卡还有很多工作要做。在这之前，它还没有足够底气自称已经占据了一片市场。零卡还没有在大型零售商沃尔玛百货（Wal-Mart Stores）上架，也没有在麦当劳（McDonald’s）等连锁快餐店出售，而且它在塔吉特零售店（Target）的存在感也很弱，这些都是亟需解决的问题。
零卡已不再局限于食品杂货店，开始走进硅谷一些公司的自助餐厅，同时开始赞助美国职业棒球大联盟奥特兰运动家队（Oakland Athletics）。超市里消费者一次能购买8到10罐零卡，所以零卡公司主要的营销渠道仍然为零售商，而不是像电影院和体育馆等所谓的“单次服务”市场。
“我们在食品店的货架上开展业务。坦率讲，在这些地方的销量最大，”斯彭思说。“你需要争取属于自己的货架空间，因为零售商不愿承担风险——除非存在市场需求，否则他们不会随便把哪种产品摆上货架。”
《饮料文摘》的西歇尔说，零卡在零卡路里苏打饮料的强势地位最终会让它成为巨擘的收购目标。他举例说，为了赢得在新兴市场中的份额，2000年百事公司收购了SoBe，2007年可口可乐公司收购了酷乐仕维他命水等。
斯彭思虽拒绝透露未来是否会出售零卡，但也提到，他时常回应有收购意向的询价。他还暗示记者说，现在就把零卡卖掉也未免太快了。
“迄今为止，我们的表现非常优异，但我觉得还有很多潜力有待开发，”斯彭思说，他认为零卡作为一个独立企业，会有更大的创新空间。（财富中文网）
译者：Joseph |
But that hesitation has given Zevia, which was founded in 2007 and is held by Long Island-based private equity firm Northwood Ventures, time to build an edge. The brand, which got a big break when Whole Foods WFM -0.54% started selling it a few years ago, is among the five best- selling soft drink brands on Amazon.com AMZN -0.34% and is available in about half of all U.S. supermarkets, according to Zevia CEO Paddy Spence. It is also a draw among more affluent consumers; the average household income of a Zevia drinker is $60,000, compared to a U.S. average of about $52,000, Spence said. Despite that success, there is still a lot of work to do before Zevia can really say it has cornered the market. For one thing, it doesn’t sell its products at major retailers like Wal-Mart Stores WMT 0.57% or restaurant chains like McDonald’s MCD -0.05% , and it has minimal presence in chains like Target TGT 0.43% . Zevia has begun selling its beverage outside of grocery stores. Its products are sold in the cafeterias of a few Silicon Valley companies and Zevia is a sponsor of Major League Baseball’s Oakland Athletics. But consumers buy 8 to 10 cans of Zevia soda at a time in a supermarket, so retail is its main focus for now, rather than the so-called “single-serve” market at places like movie theaters and sports venues. “We built the business at the grocery shelf because, frankly, that’s where a lot of the volume purchasing happens,” Spence said. “You have to earn your shelf space and retailers are not willing to take risks—they’re not going to put a product on the shelf unless it has proven demand.” Zevia’s strong position in the zero-calorie soda area could eventually make the company an acquisition target by one of the big guys, Beverage Digest’s Sicher said. He pointed to how PepsiCo bought SoBe in 2000 and Coke bought Vitaminwater maker Glaceau in 2007 to gain a foothold in beverage growth areas. Spence declined to say whether Zevia is up for sale but did say he fields inquiries regularly. He also hinted that it would be too soon, anyway. “We’ve had a phenomenal run so far, but I feel like I am only part way up the mountain,” Spence said, noting that being independent gives Zevia more room to innovate. |