Beverage brands must decide whether to expand geographically (Breadth) or increase sales density within existing markets (Depth). This decision dictates how you allocate your sales team, marketing dollars, and inventory.

The "Go Deep" Strategy (Velocity Focus)

This involves maximizing Velocity (units sold per store per week) and Account Density within a specific city or region before expanding further.

• The Logic: Brands choose this to consolidate marketing spend and simplify supply chain management. Concentrating your presence creates a "billboard effect"—when a consumer sees your brand at the gym, then the coffee shop, and finally the grocery store, brand awareness compounds.
• Founder Guidance: Prioritize "Depth" during the Proof of Concept phase. It is far more efficient to manage five accounts on one block than five accounts across five states. High velocity in a single market proves to future distributors and investors that your brand has genuine consumer "pull." If you can't dominate your backyard, you likely aren't ready to defend a national shelf.

The "Go Wide" Strategy (Footprint Focus)

This involves placing product in as many doors as possible across multiple states or regions, often triggered by a national retail mandate.

• The Logic: This is utilized by brands with significant capital or those that have secured a national "pick-up" from a major chain like Target, Kroger, or CVS. It prioritizes sheer availability and market share.
• Founder Guidance: "Width" is a strategy of Scale, not discovery. Only pursue this once your supply chain is stress-tested and you have the capital to support the "field" (the people needed to ensure the product is actually on the shelf in distant markets). Expanding geographically before you have stabilized your unit economics often leads to "leaky bucket" growth, where you gain new stores but lose old ones due to neglect.

The most successful modern brands typically earn the right to go wide by first going deep. Use your local data to identify your "winning" account profile. Once you have a high-velocity playbook that works in one city, you have a repeatable model that you can then take "Wide" with much lower risk.