Can Liquid Death Shoulder Its Way Into a Crowded 'Healthy Soda' Market via Edgy Marketing and Brand Awareness?

Liquid Death has been making headlines for some time now, selling its iconic tall boys of canned water bearing gruesome depictions of skulls alongside a cheeky tagline of "murder your thirst."

Over the course of the past few years, Liquid Death has set its sights on expanding its product offerings to include iced tea and healthy soda. In an extensive interview with Modern Retail, Marisa Bertha, chief strategy officer at Liquid Death, spoke to the company's aspirations as it appears set to compete with much larger competitors in a crowded market.

Liquid Death: Flashy CPG, Edgy Product Lines, and Premium Pricing Set Against PepsiCo's Poppi, Coca-Cola's Simply, and Olipop

Liquid Death entered the market, and continues to do so, as national competitors started zeroing in on the same segment — one thirsty for "healthier for you" or "gut-friendly" sodas, many featuring low-sugar and prebiotic features. But as Bertha indicated, the initial groundswell of support for Liquid Death gave the company license to enact its initial plan to expand beyond canned water.

“Once the fandom started — not just from consumers, but also retailers and distributors — that gave us the license to expand into flavored sparkling in 2022 and then iced tea in 2023," Bertha said.

"Of course, we’re also seeing the trends of the modern soda brands,” Bertha said. But as a practical consideration, Liquid Death is instead focused on nailing established and popular flavor profiles. “We’re not going to come to market with a niche flavor, that’s just not our core competency.”

Some of the flavored sparkling water (read: healthier soda) flavors on offer? Severed Lime, Doctor Death, Killer Cola, and Rootbeer Wrath.

According to company data, Liquid Death achieved an all-time-high of $333 million in retail sales for 2024. Whatever one thinks of the heavy metal-inspired brand marketing, it appears to have captured the interest of a substantial consumer audience.

But will that be enough to compete against much larger beverage industry players, particularly Coca-Cola and PepsiCo? PepsiCo recently announced the acquisition of prebiotic soda brand Poppi in a ~$2 billion deal, per Forbes, and Coca-Cola also stated its intention to enter the healthy soda market with the expansion of its popular Simply product lineup (via Simply Pop) to include offerings in the segment.

Liquid Death is seemingly well aware of the challenges posed by competitors: A popup ad asking "Wanna cheat on your other beverage company?" is currently pitched from the company's website, with those who enter their email being offered two free Liquid Death can coolers (and a promise of further amusing correspondence and promotional deals).

Liquid Death Faces 'Sea of Competitors' and Confusion Around its Product Versus Alcoholic Beverages

Drilling down into the proverbial elephant in the room, Modern Retail quoted Anastasia Kaliga, a nutritionist and biologist at Luvly, as saying that "in the sea of better-for-you sodas," the American consumer is confronted with a panoply of options — begging the question of what, exactly, Liquid Death can do beyond its existing marketing appeals to differentiate itself within that competitive space.

Further, Liquid Death has admitted to having to confront the perception, perhaps gestured toward by its product lineup's outward appearance and traditional tall boy format, of being an alcohol beverage.

"The whole purpose of our first Super Bowl ad this year was to show that we are not alcohol,” Bertha said. “And to show that you can drink Liquid Death day or night, no matter what your job is.”

With Liquid Death pushing its format out in more conventional six-pack 12-ounce cans at retail distributors and a 12-pack of the same sized cans on Amazon, the company appears poised to appeal to those seeking a lesser price point and bulk buying opportunities, again entering the same space and format as competitors in a significant way — although it is a new channel for Liquid Death versus Coca-Cola and PepsiCo.

Finally, Bertha spoke openly about the size difference between Liquid Death and the established multinationals it was going head-to-head against.

"We have a shoestring marketing budget relative to the beverage giants of the world," she said.

"People gravitate toward our branding, the entertainment and outsized earned media," Bertha added.