Millennials are growing up. What was once a demographic defined by young urban professionals disrupting established norms is quickly becoming a group of new parents with a set of daily consumer needs carried with them from their youth. As this generation is aging, they are still reshaping the consumer packaged goods market in ways that align with their values.
In the opening presentation of BevNET Live Winter 2017 in Santa Monica, Calif. Andrew Henkel, SVP of brand growth solutions at SPINS, took a deep dive into the state of a beverage marketplace featuring tens of thousands of brands.
“We will not see again another Coke or another Pepsi, a brand that is so dominant and so large for so long,” Henkel said.
Since the 1950s, Henkel said, beverage brands have proliferated within specific niches. The internet and social media have supplanted the traditional gatekeepers such as television and print advertising as the optimal way to reach consumers, and today’s brands are smaller and more specific in their role, allowing them to thrive even with a relatively small consumer base. While sales figures may not compare to the established giants, these natural products are growing rapidly at more than 11 percent annually, and they’re quickly becoming part of the mainstream.
But for every success story, many more brands will fail. In this video, Henkel also defines the qualities of successful disruptor brands, and speaks to how a company can better appeal to new generations.
“Brands do emerge from these highly competitive places and still drive growth and break through as disruptors,” he said.