Repositioning itself as a functional offering, better-for-you soda maker Sipp has discontinued its entire portfolio and relaunched with a new line of seltzers made with antioxidant-rich ingredient camu camu.
The rebranded Sipp products went on sale this month on Amazon and will roll out to retailers in the Tri-State area next year. The line includes three flavors; Berry Mint Condition, Sweet Ruby Riot and Vanilla Spice & Everything Nice. Each drink contains camu camu, organic caffeine from green coffee beans and is lightly sweetened with organic agave syrup. The line retails for $25 per 12-pack of 12 oz. cans.
The launch is the second rebrand in as many years for Sipp, which in January 2019 introduced new packaging and product lines intended to tap into the growing market for sparkling waters and low-calorie soft drinks.
The company has also seen several leadership shake ups in recent years, including the departure of founder Beth Wilson-Parentice in 2018. In October, Sipp’s controlling partners brought on former TCHO Ventures CFO Ben Fineberg as CEO and former TaskRabbit VP of marketing Robert Willey as CMO to oversee a brand overhaul. Fineberg and Willey also previously worked together at cleaning supplies brand Method Products and, though they’ve each carved out careers in the CPG industry, both are new to the beverage space.
“The company had gone through some periods of experimentation,” Fineberg said. “There was a lot of addition of flavors, adding SKUs, adding some product lines but not really driving home the point of view. So, frankly, that experiment did not work and what the company and the investors wanted to do was bring on a team of people with fresh eyes, and that’s what we brought to the table.”
Fineberg said that Sipp had previously attempted to go “a mile wide and an inch deep” with a nationwide distribution strategy and too many individual products that were striving “to be everything to everybody.” Earlier this year, the company opted to discontinue everything and start from scratch — shutting down production of the previous products and cancelling all existing customer accounts. As well, the brand is now working with a scaled down team of four full-time employees.
“The bones of the formula, the bones of the company, were there,” Fineberg said. “What the company has always done a great job of doing was putting together products that tasted good and that were balanced with unique flavors. But what it lacked was something more.”
Targeting the rising trend for functional, better-for-you CSDs, Fineberg said his team identified camu camu — an Amazonian fruit noted for its high Vitamin C and antioxidants — as a hero ingredient to develop new products around. He said the fruit has recently seen increased use in beauty and personal care products, but has rarely been used in beverages due to its sour and tart taste.
The drink is also being repositioned as a “seltzer,” rather than a soda. Fineberg noted the term has grown in popularity thanks to the growth of the hard seltzer category and suggested that Sipp may be able build on that trend by positioning itself as a premium, “soft” alternative to brands like White Claw.
While the brand will only be available online through the end of the year, Fineberg said Sipp will focus on rolling out into East Coast retail accounts in 2021 beginning with urban independent accounts in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. before expanding to Boston and New York sometime later. He said the brand will seek to add DSD distribution houses to service these markets and does not plan to immediately go after the natural channel chain accounts the brand previously focused on.
Sipp is currently tapping digital and social media marketing campaigns to drive online sales, but Fineberg expects the brand will shift tactics towards outdoor field marketing once it launches in retail. As the brand seeks to re-familiarize consumers with the Sipp brand while also introducing them to camu camu, he noted the goal is to keep messaging as simple as it can be.
“I think the CSD category is very confusing right now,” he said. “There’s just so much out there, you have a lot of CBD, gut health, probiotic, and antioxidant drinks — it’s very, very noisy. So our approach has been not to overcomplicate things…. Where it all goes, I can’t tell you. But functionality is not a trend that’s going away.”