In the marketing rivers and lakes, the word "explosive" is like the dragon-slaying knife in Jin Yong's martial arts, attracting countless marketing masters to bend their waists.
Everyone is vying for the game-breaking artifact that cuts through the market, but it seems that not every product has the physique of Internet celebrity hits, such as soap, trolley boxes, and pure water, and it is difficult for you to associate these daily necessities with "hot styles". Until Liquid Death, a pure water brand in United States, appeared in the public eye, many marketers found that the solution to creating a popular model is not in the attributes of the product itself, but depends on what kind of way you use to create content.
Let's first use a set of data to see how "explosive" Liquid Death is.
In 2019, the first batch of Liquid Death hit the shelves, and 150,000 cans were sold in 2 months.
From 2020 to 2023, annual sales will maintain a three-digit roaring growth, earning $260 million last year alone.
A year ago, it closed its second round of funding, valuing it at $700 million, which is far more than three times PepsiCo's sales.
The reason why Liquid Death has become a depth charge in the United States pure water market is that this brand is "rebellious" enough.
The first step to create a hit:
Give the product a contrasting attribute
Liquid Death translates to "water of death" in Chinese, and this explosive way of naming is difficult to associate with a bottle of bland and tasteless pure water, but the brand focuses on unexpected contrasts. The brand's slogan is also super hardcore: Murder your thirst, it's hard enough! Delicious!
Let's take a look at the dark product packaging, the traditional transparent plastic bottle or glass bottle? Inexistent! Beer-shaped metal cans are the ones that match the heavy taste of Liquid Death.
The tank design integrates heavy metal, punk and other rock visual symbols, the Gothic font of the tomb castle painting style, the dark mystery is full, and the skull portrait is dripping, revealing the evil dark color, which is definitely the tone that the big brother of the flower arm motorcycle likes, and this is also in stark contrast to people's traditional visual expectations of pure water "fresh, natural and pure".
What's more, after the brand later developed a variety of flavors such as mango and lemon, the flavor names were bloody: Mango Chainsaw (Chainsaw), Berry It Alive (buried berries alive), and Severed Lime (bloody lemon). That's right, Liquid Death is all about getting as far away as possible from the traditional pure water mind.
If you spot this exotic species on a convenience store shelf, you'll say, "What the hell is this!" This reaction is precisely the success of Liquid Death's brand strategy. In an era of scarce and fragmented attention, Liquid Death has successfully captured consumers' curiosity and attention in a unique and unconventional way. Under this cultural system, Liquid Death is not just a bottle of thirst-quenching pure water, but a synonym for punk attitude, a cultural symbol of the rebellious spirit, which allows the product to get rid of the traditional mental cognition and give it contrasting emotional attributes, which is a key step for the founder of Liquid Death to create a popular pure water.
"Anti-marketing" marketing
A fresh move for the sword to go sideways
In addition to the basic information such as brand name, slogan, and product packaging, a package of "anti-marketing" marketing is a divine assist for Liquid Death to become a hit.
Let's start with Liquid Death's first commercial, in which the actress raises a glass of water and does water on the head of a man in a suit who is covered and tied up in bed, with the slogan "Water is the deadliest thing on earth". The absurd "murder commercial", which captured the attention of viewers in a unique and daring way, has been viewed a whopping 3 million times on YouTube.
Bizarre content is not all the charm of this commercial, what is even more difficult to imagine is that this is actually a "false advertisement", the actress's Liquid Death, which actually did not exist at the filming stage, it is just a 3D rendering virtual concept, which means that Liquid Death has not yet been put into production when this film is launched!
This bold creative move is completely contrary to the traditional entrepreneurial idea of "first have a product and then hit the content", the founder of Liquid Death took the "reverse method" of "first breaking the content and then creating the product", and it turned out that the 3 million views on YouTube, as well as the phenomenon of many dealers inquiring about the purchase channel, verified the market demand for this "strange species", which also created the first batch of Liquid Death sold 150,000 cans in 2 months on the shelves.
There are many more "rebellious ads" in Liquid Death, such as a group of kids who are having a good time, each holding a can of beer-like drink, and even a pregnant woman holding a "beer can". The final advertising slogan: "Don't be scared, it's just water", this reversal, even Thailand advertising is willing to bow down.
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Another example, "My Grandma's Energy Drink", continues to maintain a crazy personality, with the grandmothers rocking in a heavy metal band, drifting in a car, skateboarding, and even boxing in the octagon. (He can figure it out)
Liquid Death的叛逆营销绝不止在广告片中，它邀请摇滚歌手出了一张音乐专辑，直接摘取网络上对Liquid Death的负面评价作为歌名，硬控黑粉。 比如歌名“This Crap is Pure Evil”（这垃圾是纯粹的邪恶）、“Fire Your Marketing Guy”（炒了你的营销团队）等等。
When doing the membership system, Liquid Death has come up with a unique sense of ritual and in line with its dark style of joining, the official website gives two options, click "SELL MY SOUL" (sell my soul), you can join the membership for free, enjoy shopping discounts, participate in offline activities, purchase limited peripherals and other benefits. IF YOU CHOOSE ANOTHER "PAY CASH INSTEAD", YOU'LL NEED TO PAY $125,000 TO GET A MEMBERSHIP.
Obviously, the "soul selling contract", a way of cyberpunk membership joining, has a fatal attraction to the young generation in United States. This idea of Liquid Death has caused a lot of UGC content on tiktok, and there are even netizens who discuss whether soul trading is illegal under the existing legal system.
The most recent thing that brought Liquid Death back into the loop was a crazy marketing campaign this summer: every jar of Liquid Death purchased was entered into a raffle with the prize: a fight! Fight! Machine! Note, not a model, but a real L-39 jet combat training machine! They even created a promotional video in which the fighter jets fly from high-speed inversion to thrilling sharp turns, and every action is a visual feast for stunts. The offline promotion of "buy water and get free plane" is crazy!
Liquid Death's almost every campaign can go viral, and its rebellious and trendy personality hits the outrageous psychology of every Generation Z young person who wants to break the convention, including the "little evil" in the dark wind such as rock, punk, zombies, vampires, etc., which is almost irresistible to every young person, and this is the secret of Liquid Death's efficient gathering of streams in every marketing.
Insight into niche pain points
Detonate big business
In fact, in addition to the concept of pure play, the birth of Liquid Death products also has its solid consumer demand. The first is an in-depth insight into the pain points in niche scenarios, and the other is an insight into the personality psychology of young Generation Z.
In certain settings such as nightclubs and bars, alcohol is often a catalyst for social interaction, but many people choose not to drink alcohol for reasons such as health, personal preference, or driving needs. But choosing mineral water directly may be dissed. Not afraid of jokes, Toutiaojun once went to the bar and asked the waiter if he had boiled water, under the dim light, he showed an incredible expression, but this is indeed the hidden but real demand of consumers.
The appearance of Liquid Death cleverly solves this embarrassment. The cool packaging design gives non-alcoholic beverages social value, allowing you to maintain the sense of integration in social occasions in nightclubs, bars and other environments, and meet your own small needs.
On the other hand, although today's young people advocate freedom of individuality, at the same time, the bloodline of "punk health" is also awakening rapidly, and not all young people in the rock circle are "smoking, drinking and burning their heads", singing the strongest sound waves, and soaking the strongest ginseng, which is becoming a true portrayal of more and more "crispy youth", which is also the reason for the popularity of 0 calorie soda and sugar-free milk tea. The product characteristics of Liquid Death pure water just meet the dual needs of young people's personality and health.
With these insights, Liquid Death has a firm grasp of market demand, and innovation based on solving pain points can establish a deeper connection between brands and consumers.
The marketing story of Liquid Death is fascinating, but it is certain that copying this marketing method should not work in China, but we can draw inspiration from it:
Insight into niche pain points: Finding and meeting the specific needs of a specific group, even if it's small, is enough to build a loyal consumer base for your product.
Differentiated brand image building: Break the inherent mental cognition of consumers and ask yourself, has it always been like this, must it be so?
Unconventional Marketing Strategy: As the founder of Liquid Death said, what's the dumbest idea you can think of? Then go and execute it!
Finally, Toutiaojun would like to remind you that you should not become a slave to traffic for the goal of "explosive style", and detaching from the pure play concept of the product itself will only make marketing go to nothingness and even damage the long-term development of the brand.
The production of explosive models must be due to the fact that it solves the real needs of consumers, the concept is enough, after all, it is necessary to return to the product, the product itself is the core of the link with users, purely relying on the concept, planning and advertising bombardment to pile up the explosive model, after all, it will not go long.