Personal Brand & Positioning
How does the three-tier alcohol distribution system work in the US?
Answered independently in 4 episodes, by 2 different people. Every line below is verbatim from the transcript, timestamped to the moment it was said.
The short answer
What the archive says
01In alcohol you can't sell to retailers directly because of the three-tier system, so Loverboy reverse-engineered it by driving consumers to ask retailers, who then asked wholesalers, creating pull instead of push. source →
02Loverboy's differentiation was a nutrition facts panel and zero sugar: Kyle notes 99% of alcohol products don't list nutrition or ingredients, and only one hard tea had mass distribution with no change in 20 years. source →
In their words
What 2 people actually said
It's been a three-tier system and a three-tier system for those of you who don't know what that means is, I'm a supplier, I own the brands and I sell to distributor and the distributor sells to bars and restaurants.
And I looked at the fact that there was only one hard tea that had mass market penetration and distribution. And it was the same brand that had a change in 20 years. And I realized there was this theme in alcohol.
The episodes
4 episodes answer this
Apr 21, 2026
The “Real American Beer” Playbook for Breaking Into a Saturated Industry FAST
Jan 30, 2026
How Brett Berish Built Billion-Dollar Spirit Brands by Ignoring Industry Rules | Sovereign Brands
Jun 25, 2024
Lessons from Maverick Brand Builder of Luc Belaire | Brett Berish
Oct 3, 2023
Sipping Wisdom With Kyle Cooke: Balancing Stardom and Start-Ups
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