For the first time in its eight years on the market, Bizzy Cold Brew is changing its look with new branding that emphasizes the company’s sustainability achievements and speaks clearly to its consumer base about the value proposition of the brand.
The company unveiled the new labeling on Wednesday, keeping its multiserve 48 oz. bottle size but changing to a new bottle shape, color palette, updated copy and a redesigned logo font that “better articulates what our true points of difference are to the consumer,” said founder and CEO Alex French.
The brand refresh has been three years in the making, French said, ever since the company “nailed its RTD format” in early 2020. Bizzy discontinued its 2 oz. cold brew shots in 2019 to focus on the multi-serve RTD.
Telling Bizzy’s sustainability story has always been important to the branding. To better communicate this focus to the consumer, Bizzy now prominently displays on the label that the bottle is made from 100% recycled plastic. In addition, the company recycles and repurposes 100% of its burlap coffee bean sacks, and utilizes after-burner technology in its production facility to eliminate airborne emissions from roasting.
Bizzy’s logo font also opts for a more stylized script versus its original blocked lettering, giving “motion,” or Bizzy-ness, to the brand, French noted.
“It really looked old,” the CEO said of Bizzy’s previous iteration. “Old school is the wrong word but it was targeted towards a millennial in 2015 and the world has changed.”
The refresh – for now is limited to RTDs but expected to take effect on Bizzy’s grounds and brew bag products in coming months – is meant to target a slightly younger consumer who is shopping for RTD cold brew at the opening price point of premium, French said. Bizzy did some consumer insights to learn where the brand could communicate better with its consumers and realized that emphasizing its craft-brewed, high caffeine credentials was important to its customer base.
“There’s a little nod to an era when quality was the rule and not the exception,” French said when describing why they chose the new design. “The category is kind of sleepy and boring. So we wanted to bring a little bit of life to it. We wanted to look different.”
Some might disagree with French’s categorization of the category, but no one is disputing the level of competition. As cold brew has grown, brands are finding a need to stand out with new flavors, functional ingredients or celebrity-backed partnerships like Snoop Dogg’s Indo brand or SToK’s deal with Ryan Reynolds’ and Rob McElhenney’s Welsh soccer (football) club Wrexham A.F.C.
The makeover is being funded in part out of a $7.1 million round led by venture capital firm Sidekick Partners in February 2021. Some of that was earmarked for a brand refresh while the rest was used to fund business expansion like bringing its RTD products to more retail locations and increasing its production scale.
Bizzy’s portfolio is growing in different channels: The brand sells its cold brew coffee grounds DTC and on Amazon where it is the ecommerce company’s number 1 seller in the category. Meanwhile, it went national with its RTDs with NCG Distributors last year and has gained traction in both conventional and natural grocery channels. French hopes the brand can get into Whole Foods Market locations soon where he is optimistic the brand’s new packaging will aim to draw in Gen Z shoppers who have less disposable income but want a premium, craft cold brew product.
Bizzy’s new look was bred out of a need to optimize the brand’s product market fit as opposed to it requiring a reboot, French said.
“We’re looking to really build a foundation for the next 10 years and so this was that step forward,” he said.