Having spent the past seven years staking its territory online, New Mexico-based Caveman Coffee is on the hunt for new consumers through a retail expansion and new innovations rolling out this year.
Founded in 2013 by CEO Lacie Mackey, a former fitness trainer, and actors and MMA fighters Tait Fletcher and Keith Jardine, Caveman produces a variety of coffee and tea products, including MCT oil-infused lattes. According to Mackey, the brand was founded during the peak of the paleo diet trend and promoted a dairy-free alternative to the rising demand for high fat butter coffee products.
Today, Caveman produces both bagged coffee beans and ready-to-drink products, including a black nitro cold brew coffee, an MCT oil-infused vanilla latte and a sparkling hibiscus cold brew tea. Each RTD product retails for $40 per 12-pack of 11.5 oz. cans. Additionally, the brand sells MCT oil and cacao butter which can be mixed with its ready-to-drink or brewed products.
“At first it was kind of just this side project that we thought would be fun,” Mackey said. “We built our own website and listed some products on there and found a co-packer in Albuquerque that was willing to play with our weird oil…We really built this brand by bootstrapping it from scratch in a series of lucky events, and by having a really good product.”
Though historically the company has had a limited regional retail presence, last year Caveman began expanding its footprint in brick-and-mortar accounts and is currently available in HyVee, La Montanita Food Co-op and Lassens stores in the Southwest.
Caveman primarily built its audience online by focusing on active lifestyle consumers. According to Mackey, she and her co-founders have tailored the brand around their own community of Crossfitters, athletes and UFC and MMA fans, as well as paleo and ketogenic diet followers. The founding teams’ own history within those spaces, she added, has given the brand an authentic credibility that has helped it cultivate a growing base of repeat customers.
Operating with a limited marketing budget, Mackey said the brand has largely attracted consumers through digital ads and celebrity endorsements, which were gained early on by sending free cases of coffee to influencers. Among the early adopters of Caveman were podcasters Joe Rogan and Jason Ellis, both of whom have worked in UFC. Rogan’s show The Joe Rogan Experience consistently ranks as one of the most listened to podcasts in the U.S. In addition to Rogan and Ellis, athletes like surfer Nick Lamb have had a significant impact in driving sales, she noted.
“The Joe Rogan effect is huge for us,” Mackey said. “He’s highly influential, highly respected and his opinion matters because he talks about things that he really believes in, and he’s not a sell out. So for a brand to get mentioned by somebody like that is so important and it really helped shape who was looking at us.”
Though Caveman’s consumer base has indexed about 90% male for several years, Mackey said the brand is now working to expand its reach with women. Currently, the brand’s base is roughly 70% male in the 25 to 45 age range; however Caveman’s popularity among women has increased over time.
“What we know about our male consumers is they listen to podcasts, are interested in action sports, they’re interested in conspiracy theories … and in biohacking. They’re interested in paleo and keto nutrition, performance based stuff,” she said. “But as we’ve been around a little bit longer and as the female side grows, we’ve brought in women who are interested in nutrition and functional fitness. They might even be interested in things like home birth and the more natural side of being a woman. They’re often career women or athletes.”
To supplement its small marketing spend, Caveman has also turned to content creation to expand its brand platform, launching its own lifestyle podcast, Pirate Life Radio, hosted by Fletcher. In addition to marketing, the show covers topics including nutrition, fitness, aspirational stories and some politics, though Mackey notes the brand is careful not to become divisive. Caveman has also activated at events such as Spartan Race, she said, and is looking to grow its experiential marketing arm in the future.
Last year, Caveman closed a small friends and family round, but is looking to raise $1 to $1.5 million in the next year to fund its distribution expansion and increase production, Mackey said. It will also continue to roll out new functional beverage products in the coming months, with a focus on expanding its tea line.
“We are moving into what I would call ‘super-functional’ beverages,” she said. “We want to use superfoods and ingredients that will really stimulate you on-the-go, but we also want to include some recovery stuff and things that are going to help for a more balanced lifestyle.”