Liquid Death (A): Breaking out of the Red Ocean of Bottled Water

In 2019, the U.S. bottled water market looked like one of the least attractive places to launch a start up. It was crowded with countless small brands and private label offerings, dominated by global giants, and highly commoditised, with many products appearing interchangeable and consumers choosing largely on price. Yet Mike Cessario saw opportunity and launched Liquid Death.
Using tall aluminium cans, dark humour, provocative campaigns that satirised traditional marketing conventions, and viral partnerships, the company broke away from industry norms while also appealing to growing environmental concerns over plastic waste. Rapid growth, major retail expansion, strong social media engagement, and a unicorn level valuation followed.
But as Liquid Death became more mainstream and reportedly explored a potential IPO, a new question emerged: could the company continue to scale without losing the distinctiveness and authenticity that had fuelled its rise?

- Analyse how firms can reconstruct market boundaries and unlock new demand by looking across alternative perspectives. The example of Liquid Death illustrates how companies can rethink industry assumptions and break out of their red oceans.
- Understand how blue ocean strategy helps reduce the risks of market creation through systematic, evidence generating processes rather than intuition driven approaches. Liquid Death provides an example of how firms can reduce uncertainty, build traction, and generate visibility before scaling.
- Explore how firms can overcome cognitive, resource, motivational, and political hurdles to successfully execute a new strategy. The case reveals the actions taken by Liquid Death to overcome each hurdle and successfully execute its strategy.
- Using the example of Liquid Death, examine how firms can challenge and redefine an industry’s strategic logic by eliminating and reducing factors long taken for granted while raising and creating new sources of buyer value.
- Analyse how firms can unlock new demand by looking beyond existing customers and identifying commonalities across the Three Tiers of Noncustomers. The example of Liquid Death illustrates how companies can expand the appeal of a product category beyond traditional consumers.
- Understand that imitating only part of a strategy does not give a company a strategy. The example of Liquid Death illustrates how competitors may be able to imitate visible strategic elements while struggling to replicate the broader strategy.