“You kind of have to trick your brain to come up with a bad idea to truly be thinking in innovative territory,” Mike Cessario, CEO of Liquid Death, told CNBC. “It works really well because you start thinking, like, ‘Oh, what’s the dumbest possible name for a super healthy, safest beverage possible?’”
Some trick, Liquid Death, the water brand Cessario first trademarked in 2017, is currently valued at $1.4 billion, according to Forbes. Right from the get-go, Cessario, whose background is in graphic design, understood his jokey name for the product and ‘double-take,’ beer-style packaging would be key to its success.
“If someone…saw that in a store, I’m pretty sure they’re going to have to pick that up and be like, ‘What is this?’” he told CNBC. “And once someone picks something up, you’ve basically won.”
From its inception, American consumers fell in love with Liquid Death. Currently, the brand has 5.9 million followers on Instagram. And US sales were $263 million in 2023.
But, as The Grocer reports, UK consumers have not been so enamoured, “Liquid Death…has failed to make a splash in the UK since debiting in spring 2023…The brand’s performance is a far cry from its domestic market.” That disappointing performance resulted in a strategic review. “As of summer 2024, Liquid Death completed its strategic shift from European production to 100% US manufacturing,” the company told FoodBev. The product is no longer being distributed in the UK.
Britain’s bottled water market will generate £2.12 billion in revenue in 2025 (Source: Statista), so what went wrong for Cessario’s brand?
Well, somewhat ironically, jokes, it seems, may be behind it’s problematic launch. Josh White, CEO of CanO Water, talking to FoodBev, put it down to: “British consumers having different humour, drinking habits and relationships with brands. What works in the US doesn’t always translate elsewhere, the UK market is different.”
Not then, as Oscar Wilde famously said, “two countries separated by a common language,” but, rather, a different sense of the ridiculous.
Other factors included the strong brand loyalty shown by UK consumers to old favourites like Highland Spring, Evian, and Buxton. Liquid Death “faced challenges convincing British consumers to swap their trusted bottled water brands or free tap water for its premium-priced cans,” says the International Business Times.
The company has promised to return to the UK and other international markets in the future. And, despite this setback, after building a ‘joke’ brand into billion-dollar business, who would bet against CEO Cessario?