A year removed from its acquisition by SYSTM Foods, REBBL is aiming to simplify its consumer messaging with refreshed packaging and a new website.
Founded in 2011, the Emeryville, California-based functional beverage brand has over the years stretched into categories ranging from keto elixirs to coffee and gut health sodas. Now slimmed down to a portfolio of 14 regular SKUs, anchored by its Protein line, REBBL’s revamped design represents the latest in a series of attempts to realign its core attributes of plant-based nutrition to a broader, mainstream audience with an easier-to-understand label emphasizing each flavor’s functionality.
“What’s the best thing we can do for our consumers? When they choose a REBBL product, what benefit are they trying to gain? How are we improving their lives?” CEO Andy Fathollahi told BevNET.
Along with the new tagline “Empower the People” printed on the top of each 12 oz bottle, the overhauled packaging (first teased at Expo West in March) includes a large-font call out on each of the six varieties: Protein, Awake, Balance, Focus, Revive and Wellness. Each label lists the specific nutrient and adaptogen content in the bottle, intended to guide consumers when scanning the beverage cold case and highlight efficacy.
As part of an “exercise in simplifying” REBBL’s story on-shelf, the company has discontinued SKUs that were “underperforming” from a velocity or margin standpoint, Fathollahi said. Prebiotic soda REBBL POP and Stacked Coffee – the brand’s most recent platform extensions – have both been slowly phased out of the portfolio over the last year in a decision made when the newly-formed SYSTM Foods – a partnership of private equity firm SYSTM Brands and longtime REBBL investor PowerPlant Partners – acquired the brand (as well as with Nestlé USA-owned Chameleon Coffee) last June.
REBBL’s products categorized as refrigerated nutritional beverages have seen dollar sales increase 11.2% in the last 52-day period ending August 31, according to Circana data.
The brand has done well in natural retailers and has seen good velocities at Target, Fathollahi said, but in an effort to reach more mainstream retail channel shoppers REBBL needed to communicate more clearly on-pack.
“We just took out the noise,” he said. “It’s a different consumer [in mainstream channels] and they don’t have the familiarity or the understanding with some of the ingredients that we’ve been championing for almost 10 years now. We’ve got to break things down to the values that resonate with that consumer.”The company has gone through a variety of packaging changes, most recently in June 2021 where it refocused around the benefits of immunity support in hopes of bringing new consumers to trial.
In its current form, REBBL counts 14 regular SKUs and three seasonal options like Spiced Pumpkin Pie and Peppermint Dark Chocolate, plus a to-be-determined summer flavor. The seasonal options are part of REBBL’s increased focus on Protein, the largest (seven SKUs) of its six product lines.
Along with protein, Fathollahi said, the rebrand intends to emphasize its value in three other trending categories of food and beverage: fiber, gut health, and mind or mood. Initially launched online, REBBL’s new two-SKU Wellness line uses calcified sea algae to promote bone and joint health. Retail expansion is expected to kick off next month.
In terms of product innovation, REBBL is also preparing to launch a convenience-oriented, multiserve “smoothie starter” product (also teased at REBBL’s Expo West booth) by the end of the year. Although the company has conducted market research and discussed an eventual move, multipacks aren’t here just yet.
Even as the brand prepares to showcase its new identity, Fathollahi’s philosophy remains steady: “Don’t do things that are out of your wheelhouse.”