Liquid Death’s unlikely branding strategy
Every category runs on assumptions nobody questions. Calvin Ross Carl shows how Liquid Death flipped water’s most basic one, and why your brand might do the same.
Summary
Calvin Ross Carl asks a question every brand should face: what if the most basic assumption of your category is wrong? Water is supposed to be pure, refreshing, clean, light, and airy. Liquid Death said no, it’s a dirty, gross, heavy metal brand. Calvin calls it an absurd premise that works. His challenge is to undermine your category’s most basic assumption and change one thing everyone else thinks is permanent.
Highlights
- Ask what if your category’s most basic assumption is wrong.
- Liquid Death turned pure, airy water into a heavy metal brand.
- Change one thing everyone thinks is permanent, and the world may follow.
Key insights
Find the assumption beneath everything
Every category has a rule so basic nobody notices it. That’s the one worth challenging.
Absurd can work
Liquid Death’s premise sounds ridiculous, which is exactly why it stands out. Breaking the most obvious rule gets you to interesting places.
Detailed analysis
This is the sci-fi move applied to positioning. Sci-fi challenges a standard, traditional viewpoint and follows the consequences, and Calvin sees Liquid Death doing the same in a category that seemed settled. The opportunity is in the assumption competitors never think to question.
Conclusion
Undermine your category’s most basic assumption. The rest of the world will probably follow you.
What if the most basic assumption of your brand’s category is wrong? That’s what we’ve talked about with Liquid Death. The most basic assumption of that brand category, water, is that it should be pure, refreshing, clean, light, airy. And Liquid Death was like, “No, it is a dirty, gross, heavy metal brand where you go to the extreme by drinking this water.” That’s an absurd premise, and it works.
When you start challenging whatever that most basic assumption beneath everything is, that’s when you start getting to interesting areas. So undermine that most basic assumption of your category. Try to change one thing that everyone else thinks is permanent, and the rest of the world will probably follow you.