Case Study: Liquid Death and the Power of Branding

While there are many examples of powerful brands, Liquid Death is powerful, timely, and relevant to the young adults most of us are teaching. The five-year-old brand is reportedly worth $1.4 billion (yes billion with a B). One reason is its social media as shown in the graphic below from a recent Chartr Newsletter, shocked me. The brand’s success comes from its ability to tap into a particular target market (mostly younger people) with a carefully crafted marketing mix.

You can learn more by reading a few articles, which you may want to assign to your students, or perhaps you can use these to get ideas for a story you can tell your students to get their attention.

• “How water in a can became a billion-dollar business” (MSNBC News, March 16, 2024) provides some insight. And as you might guess from the chart as shown above, one reason is its large following on social media (the TikTok below has more than 23 million views). While a healthy product, the brand is promoted a lot like alcohol. (Chapters 13-16)

@liquiddeath

Next time you lose your temper at your stepdad, just remember he didn’t choose you, either.🖤. Repost from // @vflow_xo // #liquiddeath #murderyourthirst #deathtoplastic

♬ original sound – Liquid Death

• “Liquid Death’s Billion-Dollar Valuation Stresses The Power Of Brand,” does a nice job of explaining how the core product (water) differs little from most brands on the market. And explains how its brand creates value that customers are willing to pay for (Chapters 4 and 8).
• “The Cult of Liquid Death” highlights distribution (among other marketing mix elements). Liquid Death initially sold in Whole Foods followed by 7-Eleven, Publix, and Wawa, as keys to its success (Chapters 10, 11, and 12). While the brand makes claims about its sustainability, that is probably in comparison with plastic bottles and certainly not tap water. This article also describes other promotional efforts.
• In “The 10 tricks Liquid Death used to beat the odds and stay alive,” you can learn about some of the implementation (Chapter 2 and Bonus Chapter 2) elements and more about the role of packaging (Chapter 8).
• Finally, a short article from Morning Brew, “The goth kid of canned water gets valued above $1b” suggests consumer behavior (Chapter 5) contributions to the brand’s growth.

This brand is an exciting one and using it as an example in class will get your students’ attention.