No Cookie-Cutter Formula for Launching Drinks Brands

There's something Ben Branson said during our conversation that's been rattling around in my head all week: "I don't have a process. I couldn't sell you 'here's how you develop new brands' because it's different every time and it's not a cookie cutter approach."

This struck me because here's someone who's successfully created multiple category-defining brands—Seedlip, Season, and Sylva—yet he's refreshingly honest about the impossibility of formulaic brand building.

Category Building Before Brand Building

Ben's insight about building categories before brands particularly resonated with me. When Seedlip launched in 2015, "the conversation wasn't about distillation and non-alcoholic spirits and cocktails you could make. It was really focused on telling some of the world's best bartenders, chefs, beverage managers, buyers, and retailers that there should be great choice regardless of the alcohol content."

This connects to what I discussed with Luke Hemsley from Wednesday's Domaine in Episode 099 about the twin challenges of awareness and appreciation in the alcohol-free wine category.

Both Ben and Luke understood that before building a brand, you often need to know why the category should exist.

There is no one-size-fits-all formula because you need to understand how your brand will interact within the Drinks Ecosystem. This ecosystem has many moving parts (e.g., distributors, competitors, customers, etc.), so you need a plan for how to make your brand succeed there. However, you also have to analyze the situation carefully and act accordingly.

The Power of the Three-Element Framework

What Ben does have, though, is something much more valuable than a rigid process: a simple framework that unites everything he creates.