This Ones Out of Left Field
Hello Friends!
This week – a marketing masterclass organized to sell…water, a first-hand account of a man living in the middle of an ocean, and another of my favorite quotes!
1. Startup Idea that Caught my Attention
This week I read about a startup that is certainly out of left-field but cool enough that I could see it working. This startup sells canned water called “Liquid Death” with the tagline “murder your thirst”.
As we know, using gimmicks to monetizing water isn’t anything new. We have all paid for overpriced water at one point or another, whether that’s Evian, Voss (I love the bottles!), Boxed Water, or Fiji. Liquid Death’s co-founder, Mike Cessario, is a marketing veteran with prior creative director roles at companies such as VaynerMedia. Fully aware of water bottle stunts, he is banking on capturing a small chunk of the bottled water market, which is expected to grow to almost $215 billion by 2025!
Source: TechCrunch
In Cessario’s words, his goal is to make water:
Just as exciting, if not more exciting, than energy drinks, soda, alcohol and candy.
Liquid Death sells for almost $1.60/can if you buy it on their website but their message is that their aluminum cans are made out of 70% recycled cans + they donate 5 cents/can to fight plastic pollution.
Takeaway: I personally really like seeing marketing masterclasses put into action, which is the basics of the Liquid Death model. The founders know that they need a strong community and a story to sell water at a premium price point, which they have with their messaging around sustainability. Also drinking any beverage out of an ice cold can isn’t a bad “User Experience” either!
2. Short Video I Found Fascinating
Here’s an example of how my mind works! I leave my building for lunch, see a window-cleaner, realize how dangerous his profession his, eat lunch, come back to my desk, start thinking about other dangerous professions, think about oil rigs and how living/working on an oil rig would be like, and then come across this short video.
Source: BBC
For those who don’t know, oil rigs are large floating structures for drilling and servicing oil wells and can even be in the middle of the ocean! Due to the places where oil is found, working on any rig is an ordeal but as you can already imagine, working in the middle of an ocean is in a league of its own (and not for the faint of hearted, as you can see in the video).
Rig workers work 12 hour shifts every day for a month and then get a month off. Other than the basic necessities, oil rigs commonly have amenities such as a gym where workers can work out or mini theaters to watch movies in their free time. Despite these “perks,” workers can get very lonely and spend their days thinking about the next time they’ll be able to see their family and friends.
Takes a special kind of person to work on these rigs, for sure.
3. Quote I Love
"Did I spend today chasing mice or hunting antelope??"
Newt Gingrich, Former speaker of the US House of Representatives
While certainly not a popular figure among the left-leaning crowd, I really enjoy this quote and the analogy behind it. According to Gingrich, a lion can capture and eat mice but the effort it requires to do so far exceeds the caloric count, which is why he takes on big animals like the antelope. Large prey might take longer to hunt but will provide a feast if he’s successful (think, high risk-high reward?)
Photo Source: The Wire Cutter
I found this quote particularly relatable for several reasons. By the end of each day I often find myself either feeling positive and energetic because I did things I wanted to accomplish, or I find myself weary and uninspired with the knowledge that while I might have kept myself busy but not with the tasks that would “move the needle.”
I try to set my goal to get a couple of major tasks done every day rather than 10-15 unimportant ones.
4. Shower Thoughts of the Week
Here are this week’s shower thoughts (via Reddit):
The only difference between an omelet and scrambled eggs is whether you’ve fucked up or not.
No one got taught the game where you make races of raindrops running down the car windows, but we all played it anyways.
They don’t let you smile in passport photos because they want you to look the same as if you had been standing in line at customs for hours.
That’s all for this week!
Cheers,
Rohail
More of one thing, less of the other? Comment here or reach out on Twitter (@rwk93) - Instagram (ro.khan)