Steal from Liquid Death's CEO
Three Marketing pro-tips from a company that went from 0 to +9900% in 5 years | Vol. 30
Hello party people! Welcome to Move Fast, Think Slow. MF/TS is a weekly newsletter on finding the adjacencies in life, performance, and brand marketing. If you have not yet subscribed, join 100+ smart, curious humans by subscribing here:
Last week I shared how biological evolution and good ideas share the same patterns (Shout out to Steven Johnson). If you want to think like a first-rate innovator read Innovate or else. Writing this last dispatch speaks to something near and dear to me. Finding an innovative edge. Finding it for my clients. Finding it for the companies I work for. Finding it for my career.
In today’s marketplace, it’s not a maybe, it’s a requirement. The competitive marketplace will find a way to replace your company. Or replace your career. It’s practically inevitable.
The great news is this: anyone can find an innovative edge. Anyone can come up with innovative ideas. You just have to chase the adjacent possible.
Before we dive into this week’s newsletter an aside on how best to leverage MF/TS dispatches. I know many of MF/TS readers dig into the newsletter on their mobile devices. That’s great. Get in how you fit in. But if you’re looking to fully leverage the value of the newsletter you’d be better off reading it on your desktop. That way, you can click on the links shared and harness the great resources provided in each edition. You might leverage the knowledge for yourself in the future.
Now let’s get back to this week’s programming.
In this week’s Move Fast, Thinks Slow we’re geeking out on the fast-rising juggernaut Liquid Death. Let’s cut to the chase: these mofos facking get it.
Maybe we can learn from a brand that’s gone from $2.8M to $280MM in sales in five years time.
OF COURSE WE CAN LEARN FROM THE GENIUSES AT LIQUID DEATH!!!
Every brand marketer is jealous of Liquid Death. And if not they should be. So should their CEO, CFO, and board of directors.
Liquid Death’s business is a-booming. They’re adding velocity to their growth by being wild, brash, and having a lot of fun. All the while having a “do good" in-your-face ethos and product. Or as they put it:
DEATH TO PLASTIC!!! 💀💀
as it reads on the side of their cans.
“When a group of teenagres set off into the mountains for a weekend of drinking regular water in plastic bottles, they became hunted by an anluminium can of mountain water that was dead set on murdering their thrists and recycling their souls.”
LOL wut. 🤣
But they are not wrong. Plastic is ruining our environment. So yes. This is a stance many can get behind. #DeathtoPlastic indeed.
So their product has a noble cause behind it but also it’s just water. They’re selling…water. How can a company grow so fast in a boring category?
If you have missed some of their outrageous marketing work here are some of their greatest hits. Watch every single one.
Here are three marketing pro tips from CEO Mike Cessario. Anyone can steal them.
Tip 1: Prioritize brand value beyond functional benefits
“Gucci’s t-shirts are $700. Target’s is $16.00. One has a product that costs more because it goes beyond functional benefits.” - Mike Cessario, CEO
How is Liquid Death going beyond functional benefits? They’re selling entertainment (and a lifestyle).
“At the end of the day, we’re creating an entertainment company and a water company,” he said. “We want to actually entertain people [and] make them laugh in service of a brand. And if you can do that, they’re going to love your brand because you’re giving them something of value. You’re actually making them laugh.”
A really strong brand enables pricing power. And pricing power is a strong determining factor in the potential long-term trajectory of a company. Warren Buffett is all about pricing power. And what does the research say? Research shows a strong brand drives corporate value; see here and here. Someone should mention that to the folks at Solo Brands but I digress.
Tip 2: Everybody hates your marketing
“People hate it so much. They will pay money to not listen to it. Even if you’re telling the truth. The data says people still think you’re lying.” - Mike Cessario, CEO
This reminded me of an epic take from Bob Hoffman’s "No one gives a flying shi** about your brand.”
“A lot of people have shaky jobs. And many have unstable families. Some have illnesses. All have debts.
Lots have washing machines that are broken, and cars that need a tune-up, and funny things growing on their backs, and boyfriends that are always getting high, and socks that have holes, and hair that is falling out, and toilets that are unreliable, and 10 pounds of extra stomach, and kids that are unhappy, and teeth that hurt, and rent to pay, and...a lot of things to care about.
One thing you can be pretty sure of, they don't care about your brand.”
Tip 3: Hard work is a waste of time if your idea sucks
“Test your idea in a low-cost way to see how viable it is. Test it out on social.” - Mike Cessario, CEO
This is how Mike launched the company. A low-cost test to see if there was any traction in the VC marketplace.
Cessario took a 3D rendering of his can design and created a Facebook page in 2018 to make Liquid Death look like a legitimate product. He shot a two-minute commercial (also worth watching) starring his wife’s actress friend that cost him $1,500. Four months in, the video had 3 million views,” Cessario said. “The page had almost 80,000 followers, which was more than Aquafina on Facebook at the time.”
THE TL’DR: IT’S A VIBE
“At the end of the day people don’t remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou
Liquid Death is harnessing the power of Maya Angelou's wisdom.
Hello “go beyond functional benefits.”
As straightforward as this sounds, being flexible, and clearly stating your vibe while having fun is scary for the majority of companies. Hence why so many companies don’t grow at the pace Liquid Death is growing at.
But, as you will read below. It’s not all about the marketing.
A FEW TAKEAWAYS
Tip 1 takeaway: Laughter is a power move. Good old fashion entertainment works.
“At Liquid Death we just want to make someone laugh or have a little chuckle, and then they can get on with their day and they don’t have to think about us again until the next time we make something that will make them laugh. It’s not more complicated than that.” - Andy Pearson, VP of Creative at Liquid Death
Tip 2 takeaway: If you’re starting from a space where no one gives a sh** about your brand or your product, how does that influence how you start the conversation? If you’re at a cocktail party, how do you get people to want to talk with you within the first minute of conversation? That’s the place to start if you want to build a brand while selling a product at a high rate. Why should anyone give a sh** about you in 5 - 10 seconds or less?
Tip 3 takeaway: It’s astonishing how many brands don’t understand the power of the laboratory of audience targeting and testing ideas in social media. I remember in 2016 when Ubisoft leverage Facebook to find out what their most engaging TV creative would be before purchasing the very expensive TV media. I thought this would become a larger trend for brands looking to save money. Some do leverage testing TV creative to limit wasting TV creative marketing spend. But many brands do not.
Being different & distinct wins. They’re growing faster than other brands in the category because the wacky ensures they stand out. Standing out has been part of the proven growth formula for years (See #5 from Byron Sharp’s How Brands Grow - Distinction). They’re doing it in their communications. They’re also doing it in how the product looks. Like beer or an energy drink but in a category where every brand looks the same.
Brand growth is also about distribution (See #1 Physical Reach & #2 Be Easy to Buy). Distribution is a power move. Growth can’t just be all about marketing it has to be about physical availability. Something many DTC brands had to figure out the hard way.
In 2020, the brand expanded into Whole Foods stores, and it had roughly $10 million in sales for the year. That number jumped to $45 million last year, as chains such as 7-Eleven and Publix joined in.
Pro-tips from VP of Creative, Andy Pearson: Let brands have a character but be open to change and evolution. Just like we as humans do. Just like characters on television do. There’s a discipline there (your character) but there’s an openness to find out what works/what doesn’t work in a world where the social media feed drives culture and business.
We humans like the brands and Ads that make you feel something. Liquid Death is doing that every single time they make content or an advertising campaign or “something funny.”
And in spirit of Liquid Death’s ethos….
THANK YOU FOR FACKING READING THIS WEEK’S DISPATCH. IF YOU LIKE IT, TELL A FACKING FRIEND.
IMAGES OF THE WEEK
Go forth. Stay safe. Ride the wave.
-Mitch