First Drop: Hold Steady, Folks, and Get Big Picture

The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn is a singer and lyricist I like a great deal because he’s able to create musical short stories that unspool the lives of the people in the crowd – at a party, at a store, a concert, a shopping mall, in the car, in the mosh pit, at the hospital – as the forces around them jostle, bang, and fall against each other.

One of his greatest songs is “Stay Positive,” which to me is an ode to art motivating collective steps toward unity, encompassing a time when “true scene leaders” come together “to get big picture.” In doing so, it doesn’t deny the existence of difference, or denigrate the other scenes, it acknowledges that there’s something greater than our differences.

The route to getting that big picture? Finn howls, simply, “We gotta stay positive.”

It’s been 15 years now since “Stay Positive” debuted on the album of the same name, and it remains a powerful anthem, especially as we’re all getting jostled within the crowd.

So I’m going to spend this column pointing out some positives as we end the year, no matter how much negativity lives within the crowd.

A Net Positive:

The gradual recentering of brands around profitability, rather than blind trust that investors will provide massive growth capital at multiples that aren’t sustainable.

It’s always hard to find investors – but maybe if brands are able to focus more closely on things like unit economics they will be able to control their own destiny more than depending on cash infusions. More and more, people like Elliot Begoun are making sense to entrepreneurs who focus on slow growth until they’re ready to go fast. It’s hard – but in an age where an enormous number of small brands are looking to address small audiences, the work of finding your tribe of users has to come first.

There is a lot of pain associated with that – wondering when you can afford production runs and navigate chargebacks from distributors going to far-flung locations. The good answer is often “no” – as in, I don’t want to work with someone, distributor or retailer, who doesn’t keep track of my product, who won’t pay me in a timely manner, who will leave me to dangle.

One thing that hasn’t changed in the industry is that if you can bring customers to the store, the stores will want you, and if the stores want you, the distributors do, too. That means paying attention to your consumers – a reversal of mindset in the age of the chain buyer, for sure – but if you can deliver them to the store, the rest of the gatekeepers, those buyers and distributors and investors will swing wide.

A Positive Face in the Crowd:

Newcomers Prime and Electrolit, along with category leader offshoots like Gatorlyte, are re-wiring the hydration category in much the same way that high-test energy drinks like Celsius and BANG opened new doors in the energy drink space. And they’re rightfully pulling a lot of the attention.

But there are other feel-good stories in this category expansion, like the long-bootstrapped Revitalyte. Starting in the Minneapolis area in 2017, the team has been dogged in staying lean and picking its spots. In September, during NACS, co-founders Ryan Leonard and Andrew “A.J.” LaGoo calmly held down the fort in the Monster Energy Booth. Revitalyte is an independent brand that had an existing relationship with the beer brands comprising CANarchy when it sold to Monster last year. That means that Revitalyte will have the chance to be sold as part of the larger company’s emerging beer network, Monarchy, which will also sell Monster’s own Beast Unleashed as well as Liquid Death-fighter Tour Water. Given the energy with which Monster chases opportunities, this could be a game-changer for Revitalyte.

Meanwhile, the two founders continue to doggedly plot their way forward – they’ve got a deal with Barstool Sports for marketing visibility and their products are gaining purchase in beer, wine, and spirits channels alongside regular retail. It’s entrepreneurship at its scrappiest, and it’s fun to watch the ride.

Positive Charge:

There’s new energy going into other established categories beyond hydration and energy:

•Tea, where efforts by Just Ice Tea, Humanitea, Equitea and others continue to use this universal beverage type to change the world, while the growth of a company like Milo’s has shown that great things can come from purpose-driven leadership, even when the product is as simple as sweet tea.

•CSDs, where brands like Olipop, Poppi, and Culture Pop have harnessed consumers’ nostalgia for soda to their enthusiasm for gut health to create a product class that has broken new ground as a subcategory.

•RTD Cocktails, where creative, high-quality brands are exploding – and creating a trend that hopefully soaks up the market share leaking out of the seltzer category.

Positive Views:

There’s been an increase in terrific commercials for CPG brands of late, you just aren’t seeing most of them on TV. Tractor Beverage, Chubby Snacks, Mid-Day Squares, and of course Liquid Death continue to funnel brilliant instincts and talent through tactical video execution – making content that’s great fun to watch and a step beyond the usual Justin Timberlake Pepsi spot.

Positive Brands:

So here’s one more thing that Craig Finn writes in Stay Positive: “It’s one thing to start it with a positive jam, and it’s another thing to see it all through. And we couldn’t of even done this if it wasn’t for you.”

I agree. Thanks for reading throughout the year, and in the new year, let’s hope that, even we’re jostling each other in the crowd, we stay positive.