Stephen Adele we love this post! Thank you!
Helping ambitious entrepreneurs scale their business using a proven, principles-centered framework 📈 Professor @ DU 📚 New Book (Now Available): "Ready, Set, SCALE! Scaling Your Business, Without Losing Your Soul" 📣
Here’s why GHOST Energy won Liquid Death will become the largest valuation of single-use water on the planet And Corpse Reviver will reposition the entire hydration category Class is in session, my fellow business leader… Here is the Art of Strategic Chess …and why these three CPG beverage brands aren’t just about putting more cans in hands, but making the tough tradeoffs to separate their brands from the rest of the pack. After building, scaling and selling four businesses, and teaching Strategy at the University of Denver, I’ve learned that crafting your strategy doesn’t need to be a complex process, but it's a critical one. Strategy isn't a fancy PowerPoint deck or a complex framework. At its core, it's about making deliberate choices and accepting their trade-offs. Just like a chess grandmaster doesn't move pieces randomly, great businesses don't try to be everything to everyone. Look at today's insurgent beverage brands… —While traditional water brands chase pristine mountain imagery and wellness messaging, Liquid Death boldly chose heavy metal aesthetics and irreverent humor— transforming a commodity into a cultural statement. —When most energy drinks fight for shelf space with stodgy colors and extreme sports, Ghost Energy zigged by bridging gaming, kicks, and fitness cultures - creating a lifestyle brand that speaks authentically to both communities. Corpse Reviver? Instead of joining the crowded functional beverage space with bright, energetic wellness messaging, they embraced mystery, creativity and intrigue, building their brand around alluring aesthetics while delivering serious hydration science. They chose sophistication over simplicity—and it’s working! Each brand made bold choices that meant saying "no" to their category's status quo. —Liquid Death rejected eco-earnestness for punk rock environmentalism. —Ghost Energy passed on X-Games for Twitch streams. —Corpse Reviver chose enigmatic storytelling over transparent functionality. The secret sauce? Building unique activities around these choices that competitors can't easily replicate. It's not enough to be different—you need to be different in ways that matter to your customers and are difficult for others to copy. In the end, a well crafted strategy should make your competitors uncomfortable. If everyone agrees with your choices, you might not be making choices at all. Here's the punchline: In the game of business, the winner isn't the one who plays every piece perfectly—it's often times the one who knows which pieces not to play at all. ——- Have you crafted a wining strategy for your CPG brand — to compete, and win, in 2025? If not, we’re ready to help you. Just DM me or Zach Lewis. #business #Strategy #CompetitiveAdvantage #Beverage #Innovation #Innovation #Mindset #StrategicThinking #Entrepreneurship #leadership #cpg #DTC #ecommerce #retail #readyforscaling #readySetSCALE