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Dr. Ayala Laufer-Cahana

Founder and VP of Product Development
Ayala’s Herbal Water

Featured Lady Dr. Ayala Laufer-Cahana admits she has an unusual background for an entrepreneur. She is a passionate cook, pediatrician, gardener, talented artist, wife, mother and lifelong vegetarian. As a physician, Dr. Ayala knew that sugary drinks contributed to the obesity epidemic, so she created unique, sugar-free blends of water infused with organic herbs. After receiving rave reviews from family and friends, demand for her water grew. In 2007, Dr. Ayala launched Ayala’s Herbal Water, the first nationally available organically-certified enhanced flavored water made with all organic ingredients. Ayala’s Herbal Water is available at 2,500 locations throughout the United States, Canada, the Far East and Australia. In February, Sunsweet Growers and Ayala’s Herbal Water announced a strategic collaboration to increase the current distribution points and meet growing customer demand.

By introducing the world of culinary herbs to the bottled water industry, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania-based Dr. Ayala began a food revolution. Prior to starting her business, Dr. Ayala regularly used her personally-grown herbs to create unusual, unexpected and delicious flavors. As a pediatrician specializing in medical genetics with no business background, she brought her idea to market using experts who filled in the blanks. Her passion, personal capital and private investors ultimately put Ayala’s Herbal Water on store shelves.

Dr. Ayala’s key interest in pediatrics was preventive medicine, especially nutrition. She focused on these often neglected fields prior to them becoming popular topics of discussion. Dr. Ayala feels that good nutrition is important to optimizing health, and many illnesses can be prevented by eating a well-balanced diet. This includes avoiding sugary soda, which adds an average of 300 empty calories per day to the American consumer. Ayala’s Herbal Water is a healthy alternative to the sugary drinks that are so readily available, especially to kids. Dr. Ayala believes that herbs are nature’s gift to us by flavoring food without calories.

This mompreneur knows that Ayala’s Herbal Water competes with better known, more established beverage companies. To establish her niche market, Dr. Ayala created a marketing plan to get her drinks to people who would fall in love with the flavors. It was important to get the water into the hands and mouths of those who would appreciate the flavors and become passionate about the product. However, when a large New York beverage distributor put Ayala’s Herbal Water wherever he could despite Dr. Ayala’s guidance, she had to regroup. This meant completely redoing the company’s marketing strategy to better target specialty and natural distribution channels. Despite this setback, Dr. Ayala says the experience put the business on the right path.

In addition to her success as a pediatrician and entrepreneur, Dr. Ayala is an accomplished artist. She feels it’s vital to apply her creative side to the business because “all art is reworking ideas and improving what you do.”

Dr. Ayala and her husband work together at Ayala’s Herbal Water. Their three children, ages 14, 12 and 11, observed Dr. Ayala’s kitchen beverages launch and grow into a thriving business. She thinks this was great for her kids to see, because it shaped the way they view their dreams. They know it’s possible to see the aspects of an idea become reality.

Currently, Ayala’s Herbal Water offers six flavors: lemongrass mint vanilla, ginger lemon peel, cinnamon orange peel, lavender mint, lemon verbena geranium and cloves cardamom cinnamon. The beverage combinations also pair beautifully with any meal to complement its flavors, akin to wine. Dr Ayala believes that “we can all have a very sophisticated palate if we broaden our horizon beyond sweet, fat and salt.”

Each Herbal Water blend is all-natural and sets a new standard for healthy beverages: zero calories, zero artificial sweeteners, flavors and colors and zero chemical preservatives. The water comes from an Artesian Well in Virginia and goes through a multi-step filtration process, including reverse osmosis.

This year, Dr. Ayala donated more than $60,000 worth of Ayala’s Herbal Water to the Haitian earthquake victims through Convoy of Hope. Among the numerous charities she supports, Dr. Ayala provided water bottles to the New York League of Humane Voters Gala, sponsored the 2009 Philadelphia Memory Walk for the Alzheimer’s Association and gave 54 cases of water to The 23rd Annual Great Chefs of Los Angeles Benefit for the National Kidney Foundation.

What we learned from Dr. Ayala: “Live a passionate life. My best moments are when I get positive feedback from consumers who tell me they fell in love with Ayala’s Herbal Water. They share their snippets of life and share amazing descriptions of how they enjoy it.”

Art in Industry

“As an artist, I know that design and creativity are very important in consumer packaged goods. It’s what differentiates a good company from a mediocre one. People expect a lot.”

Be Yourself

“Our biggest challenge is that we’re a beverage company among giants. We developed a marketing plan that was clever, creative and used our strengths and weaknesses to create the Ayala Herbal Water brand.”

In Good Company

“I married an entrepreneur and was always surrounded by people like him. They were fascinating. I looked at what I wanted to change in the world and decided to do whatever it took to make it happen.”

This Featured Lady was profiled by Megan L. Reese, WORDrobe™ Stylist for Her Write Image in West Grove, PA.
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