Subverting expectations can sometimes turn off people looking for familiarity, other times it can flip a whole perspective on its head. That’s certainly the case for canned water brand Liquid Death. Upon first glance, nothing about its branding represents what people typically associate with water: plastic bottles, basic design, and a boring blue colorway.
Liquid Death on the other hand, drips with a rock star-ish edginess that immediately piques your curiosity. After all, who in their right mind would want to drink liquified death? Despite the apparent “turn back now” sign, the tongue-in-cheek genius of it all is that it makes you want to try it even more. Not to worry, it’s just water.
Launched in 2019, CEO Mike Cessario saw an industry in desperate need of some innovation. He posed the simple question, can I make water cool? Although bottled water itself has been evolving — from glacial sources to alkaline alchemy — the actual presentation has pretty much remained the same.
The first thing that grabs you is the beer-like can design with the words "Liquid Death" emblazoned on it. It makes you do a double-take in disbelief. Whoever designed this can found the sweet spot: subversive yet appealing. The brand identified an innovation vacuum in the water space, and filled it. Simply put, they took something old and familiar, then made it new and exciting.
Whereas traditional bottled water carried neutral marketing, Liquid Death chose a masculine living-on-the-wild-side feel. Cessario originally believed the brand would only gain niche popularity amongst punk-rockers and underground music scene types. Safe to say, he underestimated the viral appeal of the marketing tagline “Murder your thirst.”
Their product line-up has since expanded beyond mountain water to sparkling and flavored options. Liquid Death now boasts a following that even includes moms that consider it a cool and healthy option for their kids. Fast forward to today, and it's now valued at a staggering $700 million, blowing other bottled water brands out of the… well, water.
Punkish aesthetic aside, apparently aluminum canned water is also safer than plastic bottled water. They're more durable, recyclable, and don't contain (bisphenol A) BPA, which is reported as potentially cancer-causing and hormone disrupting according to the scientific journal Bisphenol A and Hormone-Associated Cancers: Current Progress and Perspectives.
Liquid Death is a great example of what one can accomplish with a bit of daring and design innovation. Cessario has managed to not only make water cool, but also make loads of money doing it.
