The path to creating a successful brand is rarely a straight line. It can have twists and unexpected turns along the way. It is not uncommon to see companies rebrand, reposition and pivot multiple times.
At SKU, we’ve seen plenty of examples of this. During SKU’s first cohort in 2011, personal trainers Katie Forrest and Taylor Collins had a gluten-free vegan bar called Thunderbird. During the course of the program, they started eating meat and developed a completely new brand – EPIC Provisions. In 2016, they sold that brand to General Mills for a reported $100 million.
One of the most recent examples is SKU alum Tenneyson Spirits Co., a brand that has done a 180 since it got started in 2010. I asked founder Graham Wasilition to share his journey, which saw him take his company from a seller of a rare spirit – absinthe – to a non-alcoholic spirits brand.
It began in 2010 when the beverage industry newbie saw an opportunity to capitalize on an absinthe renaissance. As long-held regulations on the manufacture and import of the storied aromatic spirit, Wasilition believed there would be a market for a quality absinthe.
He partnered with absinthe authority David Nathan-Maister, the author of the Absinthe Encyclopedia (yes, there is such a thing). At its peak, Tenneyson was sold in nine different states via eight different boutique spirits distributors. But when you only need a drop or a dash of your product to make a cocktail, it can make it difficult to make money. They shelved the absinthe business in 2015
Some people feel like absinthe tastes like nail polish remover. I don’t think that’s the reason Wasilition left the beverage industry altogether and entered the world of stain removal with Hatestains.com, but the business, with products to get rid of everything from wine to travel stains, was much more lucrative than absinthe. The company was acquired and Wasilition started looking for his next chapter. He reached out to a friend and fellow founder with a background in plant-based wellness products. They decided to combine their experience to create a plant-based alcohol alternative, hoping to take advantage of growing demand for non-alcoholic spirits.
So Tenneyson the absinthe became Tenneyson the plant-based non-alcoholic drink.
Wasilition was able to acquire the IP rights to Tenneyson absinthe and the brand’s reincarnation began with a soft launch in January. Tenneyson currently is sold online as well as in retailers specializing in non-alcoholic spirits, including Sipple in Houston and Boisson, a New York chain expanding nationwide.
Wasilition projects the brand will do more revenue this year than Tenneyson absinthe did in five years combined.
“We are really excited about our new approach and feel great about recycling the Tenneyson brand name for a new lease on life,” he told me.
I asked Wasilition for some tips for founders who want to repurpose their brand name for an entirely new product or concept:
Develop a Communication Strategy
When relaunching Tenneyson, Wasilition says he had to make a decision about how much to communicate about the pivot rather than focusing solely on the new brand. That decision, he says, will depend largely on your audience. Existing customers will be interested in the founders and their journey, while potential new customers will only be interested in the attributes of the new brand.
He says they made a choice to lean into the new brand and to tell their present story. “ “We’re not hiding the earlier version but we also don’t want to confuse our new customers,” he says.
Get Rid of Old Stock
If you’re going to be relaunching a product under the same name, you don’t want consumers to be confused. If there are retailers or distributors with old product or deadstock, it makes sense to talk about ways to remove or reclaim it. Although some outdated online listings exist for Tenneyson absinthe, Wasilition says there is no inventory.
Leverage your existing assets if possible.
Most likely, a brand will have a name, a website and a social following that can be repurposed. By using the Tenneyson name along with the website and social following, Wasilition said, it gave them a headstart when they launched as a new company. They also believed that some of their old audience would be interested in their non-alcoholic offering. “Our following was generally a crowd that was interested in quality cocktails, and we believed the new product could appeal to the same crowd.”
I asked Wasilition for an example of another company that has successfully accomplished what he’s trying to do, and he brought up a big one: Grey Goose.
When liquor baron Sidney Frank founded his importing company in the 1970s, one of his first projects was a brand of German white wine that would compete with Blue Nun. Although the wine wasn’t a success, Frank purchased the rights to the name and decided it was a better fit for a premium vodka. That vodka, which helped create the premium vodka category, was later acquired by Bacardi for more than $2 billion.
”Here’s to hoping some of Sidney Frank’s magic can find its way into Tenneyson’s future,” Wasilition says.
About Michelle Breyer
Michelle Breyer is the Chief Marketing Officer at SKU, the nation’s first CPG accelerator. She joined SKU after spending 20 years in the beauty industry.
Named one of the 50 Most Influential People in the Multicultural Market by Women’s Wear Daily in 2015, Michelle Breyer is a visionary entrepreneur who took a personal frustration over her curly hair and built it into the largest social-media platform for hair. Numerous haircare brands launched on NaturallyCurly.
The company, which grew to include an ecommerce site, a consumer insights division and an experiential marketing company, was acquired in 2018 by Essence Ventures.
Over the past two decades, Michelle has consulted with numerous beauty companies to help them develop, position and launch right products and to create the most effective communication strategies to connect with this valuable consumer.
Before launching NaturallyCurly, Breyer was a business reporter with daily newspapers in Texas and California, focusing on retail, real estate and consumer products. A year-long special project on the explosive growth of Whole Foods Markets won several state and national awards.