xs energy drinks: innovative growth through stratetic disruption

david vanderveen, founder, xs energy drink



if you're trying to be innovative and disruptive, traditional market research will never get you there.

your facts come from your questions. your questions come from your assumptions.

if you assume you have to do the same thing everyone else did, you may be wrong.

once a market has grown to two or three national players . . . it’s very hard to be the fourth player into the market.

traditional research never would have got us there.

innovative growth through strategic disuption

xs thinking

"a little rebellion now and then is a good thing"
-thomas Jefferson

all the energy drinks taste like crap.

brand innovations
xs has led the energy drink marketplace way with:
taste: first energy drink to focus on flavors in the market
nutrition: first sugar-free formula with real vitamin doses
demographic: first brand to capture family purchaser by the case, rather than single can sales to young males. first brand with significant purchasers over 35 years old
distribution: first brand to leverage online, direct sales versus traditional mass sales

focus on mom: person who buys for the household
case quantities

all of the energy. none of the “evil” sugar.

high fructose corn syrup has become the new cigarettes.

sell by the case to moms at safeway and costco.
"what’s in it? how much is a case?"

young guys
"how much caffeine does it have? i hope it has more."
"this is pretty good. can I have more?"

everything we did had to be effective.

sample
nobody wants to take a risk on something they don’t know where it is.

costco roadshow

amway quixtar
600,000 distributors in the u.s.
50,000-100,000 who are very active

no sugar. no carbs. no bull.

simple, incremental story

xsgear.com

building and developing the action sports and snowboarding stories

take your business to all new heights
xs energy drink

email campaign

jamilah star for going xxl
differentiation

keep the brand cool enough that teens love it but give moms a reason to buy it.

film: unsalted: a great lakes experience
two surfers after a blizzard in january

the brand story
krakoosh: new adventure and entrepreneurship magazine

men’s journal
june 2006

do you set trends rather than follow them?

unique and disruptive marketing distribution

where are the big holes? where are the things that the reports aren’t telling anybody?

we’ll have a lot of fun or we’ll do something else.

we spent a lot of time in the marketplace. surf industry, skate industry. i go on surf trips with guys from quicksilver. how can we be integrated in the stories that are being told or not being told.

we get the story because we’re in the middle of it.

compelling stories and images. products are natural background.

if we were targeting moms in our marketing, teens wouldn’t like it.

opportunity is stepping into diet sodas. everybody needs innovation.