Water can be boring.
But, it doesn’t have to be.
Liquid Death is proving that water can be COOL. While Liquid Death started a few years ago (in 2019), they have quickly become a $700 MILLION water brand.
This week, I listened to a ‘How I Built This’ podcast episode about the origins of Liquid Death and it was realllllly inspiring.
When Liquid Death started, there were some heaaaaavy hitters in the bottled water space: Dasani (owned by Coca Cola), Pure Life (owned by Nestle), Evian, Fuji, and so many others.
The water space was…. saturated (no pun intended).
And even STILL, Liquid Death has been able to enter the space and completely disrupt it.
In the podcast, the founder said something like this (I’m paraphrasing):
“We’re not really selling water- you can get water from the tap.
And we’re not really selling canned water- if we were, Coca Cola could knock us off because they get cans really cheap.
What we're selling is our irreverent, bold brand.”
BRANDING is what makes Liquid Death so valuable. Their brand, in a nutshell, can be expressed through these elements:
- Brand Personality: Their whole brand personality is ‘idgaf’, and it works. Their official mantra is ‘murder your thirst, death to plastic’. Some words they use in their marketing are: murder, slaughter, torture, death, etc. It’s extreme and it quickly catches your attention.
- Fonts: Next time you’re at the supermarket, look at the fonts of most water companies. They tend to be soft, pure, clean, and simple. Instead, Liquid Death went in the complete opposite direction- they use a Blackletter Gothic font that has more of an old-school whiskey vibe.
- Colors: While most major water brands use clear light packaging with hints of blue, Liquid Death went dark. Their boxes are black with skull-covered graffiti on them. At first glance- their color palette is more reminiscent of an energy drink or craft beer. But nope- they’re still a water brand.
Liquid Death is a brand that knows who it is: it’s not like other water brands.
Liquid Death really created the road map to stand out in any market:
First- know who you are.
Then, use design to share your personality & attract your people.
