There is an energy drink company called Zenedge. We are looking for some broader distribution and have been coming up against all sorts of detours. Every single distributor has expressed interest initially because we do have a quality product. We have been complimented on our packaging and logo as well.

We have pretty strong distribution in lower NY state and metro NY. We actually have hooked up with A/B in certain parts of NY.

Once we reach outside, we keep getting pushed away.

The lineup is currently two shooters and am 8 oz RTD can.

We ran our first production line back in July of 2007. In Sept we ran our berry shooters and had the Lemon Lime in Nov. So we are very, very young.

All are welcome to offer advice in this forum. If you are very serious and would like to contact me, please PM me. There can be a huge opportunities here.

We currently are found in NY, NJ, CT, PA, TX, FL. We are close to bringing in the balance of the eastern seaboard.

Thanks

It seems that your local activity can be attributed to just that- You are local. Everyone likes to carry the local guys products.

What type of shipping offers do you provide?
What type of pricing do you have?
What promotions, ongoing or one time do you have?
What type of marketing budget do you have? Do you have a planned market development strategy ?
What type of penetration do you have in the C-Store chains, Buying Groups/clubs, Mass Merchants?
What type of support are you offering the distributor? Feet in the Street? Marketing Dollars? Billboards? Etc.

No Offense and this is not a slam on you , I am just trying to help:
I have been to your website and I found your packaging very nice, however, your message was confusing. You have the implicit name of ZEn-Edge which to me means a calming good clean energy, while you pump Dance Mix Hip hop music to me on your website. It was confusing. I couldn't tell who you were trying to attract with your message(s)


There are many different ways you can attract the distributor. One thing the dist needs is the confidence that once he buys your product you will be there for him. He has surely been burned enough by other products.
Make the distributor recognize you before you even present your product to him. Place an ad in Beverage Spectrum for at least 3 months. After 3 months the dist will be accustomed to seeing your product and be comfortable with it to make a more decisive decision.
If you just walk in off the street he has no idea who or what you are.

You have to play the game in order to get the distributors.

Greg, well said.

Originally Posted by greg

It seems that your local activity can be attributed to just that- You are local. Everyone likes to carry the local guys products.

What type of shipping offers do you provide? At this point we have p/u all shipping costs.

What type of pricing do you have? We have priced under the big guys, but not as low as the bottom feeders. I feel you need to sell a value to customers, otherwise you will lose out to the next "cheaper guy".

What promotions, ongoing or one time do you have? We have offered free promotional product, but it seems that instead of them using it for promo, they use it to bring their overall cost down

What type of marketing budget do you have? This has been an ever evolving problem. How do you spend on marketing in an area, if the product is not available in that area.

Do you have a planned market development strategy ? I think this is a place where we fall way short to be honest. I am a sales guy by trade and have a hard time putting my arms around marketing. The other partners have experience in various areas, but none have a string marketing background


What type of penetration do you have in the C-Store chains, Buying Groups/clubs, Mass Merchants? Local has been excellent, rest virtually non existent

What type of support are you offering the distributor? We have put together some street teams and that has really worked well. We have also done some radio ads in any markets that we have distribution ie, NY and Miami. We have a ton of POS, stickers, posters and some give aways like t-shirts and sunglasses.


No Offense None taken, all feedback is very welcomed, it is the only way that we will learn.and this is not a slam on you , I am just trying to help:
I have been to your website and I found your packaging very nice, however, your message was confusing. You have the implicit name of ZEn-Edge which to me means a calming good clean energy, while you pump Dance Mix Hip hop music to me on your website. It was confusing. I couldn't tell who you were trying to attract with your message(s)


There are many different ways you can attract the distributor. One thing the dist needs is the confidence that once he buys your product you will be there for him. He has surely been burned enough by other products.
Make the distributor recognize you before you even present your product to him. Place an ad in Beverage Spectrum for at least 3 months. After 3 months the dist will be accustomed to seeing your product and be comfortable with it to make a more decisive decision.
If you just walk in off the street he has no idea who or what you are.

You have to play the game in order to get the distributors.

As far as the music mix, I am not a fan of hip hop and dance music, but that seems to be whats gets the attention of our target age demo. People do have a tenedancy to associate our name with "Zen", but that was not our intention. If so that would kind of make Zenedge an oxymoron of sorts.

We did not want a stupid over the top name, we did not want to be controversial. Someone came to us with the name and logo and we liked it. We liked it ALOT.

The sucky part is that we have a smooth tasting product with a nice name, packaging and a slamming logo. Its enough to get us in the door, but something is missing. Its not translating into big opportunities and it my job to try and find the missing "ingredient" so to speak.

So thank you very much for your response and anyone who would like to chime in please do so.
Thanks