About 4 months ago, I stopped by Whole Foods while biking around the city (Boston) and the words “hydrate naturally” jumped out at me on a container of Vita Coco. I’d never heard of it but I’m always a sucker for trying healthy stuff. And as I read the label, I quickly understood the benefits of 100% coconut water and, in this case, the added passion fruit puree was an awesome match for my taste buds.
I’m now hooked on the stuff (drinking one now actually) and get it all the time at Whole Foods, but lately I’m seeing it everywhere including this past Saturday morning as I picked up an egg sandwich at the local corner cafe, Blunch. Since I’ve never seen it advertised, I decided to check into the company a bit this weekend and was thrilled at their backstory.
It seems Vita Coco’s success ($20 million in sales last year according to Forbes) has been primarily based on word-of-mouth, pounding the pavement with beverage distributors, and getting a big name (Whole Foods) behind them.
A search on Twitter shows it certainly has its brand advocates and given the company’s target market (“young hipsters”), I would love to see them much more actively engaged within the social web. They have a very basic presence on Facebook (I stress basic) and @vitacoco is not yet taken on Twitter. Since the company seems like they’re into soliciting feedback from their customers via their website (i.e. new flavor ideas), they are well positioned to energize their loyal base by connecting with them in real time and turbo charging the word-of-mouth that’s already naturally occurring.
All the marketing in the world cannot sell crappy products. But just watch how great products spread like wildfire: Kudus to Vita Coco – I have a feeling this is just the beginning for them.
Try Zico!
Posted by: Luke | July 21, 2009 at 05:23 PM
Hi Luke, I've tried both Zico and "One". Zico uses passion fruit "flavor" whereas Vita Coco uses real puree (and it makes a huge difference in taste and seems a lot more natural). I had "One" at a BBQ over the weekend and it's got added cane sugar in it which makes it too sweet (and not as healthy).
Sorry bro, I'm a Vita Coco loyalist (plus they have an authentic start-up story).
BTW, say hello to Terry over at Street Attack for me ;-)
Posted by: Mike Proulx | July 21, 2009 at 06:21 PM
I'd prefer Vita Coco over Zico and One any day!
Posted by: Kristen | May 27, 2010 at 02:18 PM
I like vita coco better too.. i started with other brands and switched over to try to get a healthier drink, and it turns out i liked the flavor alot better anyways.
Posted by: Kristy Aquillak | July 22, 2010 at 01:26 PM
My personal favourite is ZICO.
nice site
Posted by: Robert Bowmer | November 03, 2011 at 07:45 AM
I think ZICO is the best :-)
Posted by: ZICO | November 03, 2011 at 07:46 AM