As someone who’s spent quite a few years watching once-promising “new-age” categories like iced tea and bottled water devolve into price-driven, innovation-starved commodities as they’ve gone mainstream, the energy segment has been nothing less than a marvel. To my eyes, the main reason that has been the case has been that the most vital category leaders like Red Bull, Monster and Celsius have continued to operate independently, free of the constraints and inertia of the so-called strategics. True, some of them have aligned themselves with global beverage giants, as Monster has with Coca-Cola, Celsius has with PepsiCo, C4 has with Keurig Dr Pepper and Ghost has with Anheuser-Busch.
But crucially, they operate independently, making their own decisions on innovation, marketing and pricing. Yes, they need to align their strategies with those of their strategic partners, with the tradeoffs and frustrations that doubtless entails on both sides. But it makes for a healthy creative tension that keeps both sides honest, not the stultifying stasis that would occur were they to be absorbed into the corporate maws of those bureaucracies.
So the segment keeps motoring forward, evolving new sub-categories, such as naturally formulated “clean energy” players and focus-enhancing entries, while maintaining its premium pricing. Is that golden era coming to an end? That’s been the fear lately among some industry watchers who’ve seen overall growth stall in recent months. Among .