Kicking Perrier In The Derriere

A genius for free publicity got Rick Scoville's Artesia Waters off and running without spending a nickel for advertising.

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When Rick Scoville began calling on Texas food brokers almost two years ago, many found him downright amusing. His plans to compete with Perrier, the French sparkling water that dominates the U.S. market, by marketing a Texas sparkling water, no less, raised more than one eyebrow and elicited some good-natured laughs, but no orders.

Undaunted, the 36-year-old San Antonio entrepreneur shrugged off the laughter, loaded a few cases of his Artesia mineral water into a van, and set out for Texas's lucrative urban markets. He personally introduced his bottled water to grocery store chains and chic discos. Before long the nightclubs and supermarkets were placing large orders for the amber bottles bearing Artesia's "pure Texas spirit." Scoville wrote dozens of letters to media organizations touting his product, and stories appeared in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio newspapers. Scoville soon found himself behind radio talk show microphones, and finally on TV.

"I went out and aggressively marketed myself," says the curly-haired, bearded Texan, "and it worked."

Perrier flatly denies that Scoville's Houston-based company, Artesia Waters Inc., is chipping away at its Texas market, but Scoville has established a definite presence in the state. Gross sales for 1980, Artesia's first year, were $102,000. Revenue in 1981 jumped from $12,200 in January to $80,000 in May, and Scoville predicts Artesia will post total 1981 sales of $1.5 million. And he contends Artesia has already taken up to 30% of Perrier's sales in Texas and will overtake the French bottler in the state this year. "Au revoir, Perrier," his advertising slogan bids his competitor, but he's fond of putting it another way. "I'm out to kick Perrier in the derriere," Scoville says.

His success rests largely on his marketing strategy. He has combined self-promotion with a classy ad campaign and a healthy dose of confidence in his product. He has focused his campaign by taking direct aim at the French company, whose groundbreaking efforts several years ago virtually created the U.S. market for sparkling water. "When I started I was riding Perrier's coattails," Scoville admits. "Now, in Texas, I'm halfway up their back."

Scoville had his marketing ideas but little money when he launched the venture in early 1980, with a $25,000 loan and a small, aging bottling facility in San Antonio. Without a nickel for advertising, he created his own crafty public relations assault that snatched headlines for the "Texas Hill Country" spring water.

One of the first and most valuable bits of exposure for the young entrepreneur came from a business writer at a Houston newspaper, who wrote a success story about Artesia when it was still too early to determine the company's future. Scoville made copies of the clipping and sent it to other publications. It was the best press release anyone could write -- and it was free.

He wrote letters to major magazines and newspapers touting his product. Follow-up calls produced a one-paragraph front page story in the Wall Street Journal and a new product feature in Texas Monthly magazine. The Texas Monthly piece, in turn, earned him an invitation to compete in a locally sponsored bottled water taste test. The taste test, which Artesia won, was filmed by a Dallas TV station, and suddenly Scoville was on the air, reaching thousands of Texans. Artesia sales in the Dallas area tripled one day after the broadcast.

The regional character of Scoville's public relations efforts is deliberate. He emphasizes that Artesia is a Texas product ("Texans are very loyal," he says) and plays up Artesia as an American product made by a small company that's taking on a big, foreign company. "We tell Perrier drinkers, 'We're chic. We're American. We're Texan. We're good. And we cost less."

Scoville says the amber seven-ounce and quart bottles help, too. Looking like beer bottles, they stand out on the tight shelf space in convenience and grocery stores, where 70% of his water is sold. The fancy Artesia label adds to its sales appeal; Scoville spent three months on the label design alone.

All the media coverage sent the young company into a spin. "My PR was taking off faster than my distribution," says Scoville. Bottling his brew was slow as well, because the intricate Artesia label had to be applied by hand. Last fall he finally mechanized the labeling process and set up a distribution system. That, with a shot of venture capital, enabled Scoville to begin direct mail, outdoor, and print advertising.

His print ads feature a sexy cowgirl reclining on a saddle, with a saddlebag containing two iced-down bottles of Artesia. "It's a Texas theme," says Scoville, "and the campaign has generated a lot of favorable response." It has been costly, though. He has already spent $200,000 of the $270,000 budgeted for advertising this year. "Our sales are better than we expected," he says, "so the cost hasn't been a problem, yet."

Even with his big ad budget, Scoville still consider himself a master of free PR. Even Ron Davis, the president of Perrier's American distributorship, has to agree: "He's a good promoter. He's getting a lot of good, free publicity in a tough category."