Why Bottom-Up Thinking is Crucial in Drinks Building
(And Why Traditional Brand Building Often Fails in the Drinks Industry)
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Most brand failures aren't due to poor products or bad ideas—they stem from fundamental misunderstandings about how the drinks industry operates. Before diving into strategy and tactics, let's understand the critical realities that shape success in this unique space.
The Multi-Layered Reality: B2B2B2B2C
There is too much focus on Consumers. Yes, I said it. Unlike direct-to-consumer businesses, your brand must navigate multiple layers before reaching the consumer's glass. Each handoff—from you to distributors to venues to servers to consumers—represents both a challenge and an opportunity.
This means your carefully crafted brand story gets simplified with each transition. By the time it reaches consumers, your beautiful narrative about botanical sourcing and artisanal production methods might be reduced to "It's the one with the cucumber."
Action point: Map your entire value chain and understand what matters to each player—they all have different priorities that determine whether your product moves forward or stalls.
The Relationship Glass Ceiling
Early success often comes through personal relationships—that bartender who loves your product, the distributor who took a chance on you, the venues where you're a regular.
This works brilliantly...until it doesn't.
Relationships don't scale. When expanding beyond your home market or reaching a certain volume, you hit an inevitable ceiling where your personal network and founder charm can no longer drive growth.
Action point: Start building systems alongside relationships from day one. Document what works, create replicable frameworks, and develop training that anyone can deliver.
The Dark Social Reality
The most powerful brand influence happens invisibly—in conversations you'll never hear and recommendations you can't track. While you're posting perfectly styled content on Instagram, the real action is happening in bartender group chats, customer-server interactions, and private recommendations between friends.
These "dark social" channels drive more trial and adoption than your visible marketing efforts, yet they can't be directly controlled or measured.
Action point: Create a system that generates demand. Elements that are worth talking about when you're not in the room.
The Dust Collector Reality
Distribution without demand creates "dust collectors"—products sitting untouched on shelves and back bars. Securing distribution isn't a victory; it's just permission to prove yourself. Without pull-through, those bottles become expensive shelf decorations that damage your reputation with every day they sit untouched.
Action point: Create genuine demand before pursuing broad distribution. When consumers and trade partners actively request your product, distribution becomes a service fulfilling existing demand rather than a speculative bet on future interest.
Brands are built bottom-up.
I hope this mini-guide will help you develop the small, consistent habits you need to build your brand from the ground up.
Whenever you're ready, there are more ways I can help you:
My Digital Course: If you need help TODAY, I get it. I have a solution for you: I’ve captured the most critical aspects of building bottom-up in a 40-minute Self-paced Course: Bootstrapping a Drinks Brand: Dead-Simple Strategies to Avoid 28 Costly Mistakes.
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Does this Guide resonate with you? Have you already implemented some of the aspects discussed above? Drop a comment and start the conversation 👇