Grown Drinks
Growing a drinks brand
Have you ever been ‘out for drinks’ but just didn’t want the headache the next day? In 2021 owner of Grown Drinks Christopher Croissant had the idea to launch a range of low alcohol, low calorie drinks to appeal to a more grown-up, sophisticated crowd who thought exactly this. Working with myself, an artist from New York and a winemaker in Kent we set to work launching a brand new product.
What was discovered
Christopher had already started some market and competitor research that revealed the rising trend in canned ready-to-drink products that were being sold directly to the customer via an online website, accelerated further by the pandemic and new shopping habits. Surprisingly there were hardly any great tasting low alcohol drinks. There were wines in-a-can and higher alcohol mixed spirits in-a-can and zero alcohol drinks, but not low alcohol in the 4% abv range. This seemed to be a clear gap in the market that we were keen to exploit.
What was designed
Christopher worked with an established winemaker in Kent experimenting with flavours and got unlabelled demo drinks in peoples hands very quickly for feedback. Meanwhile I began work on the can design in Figma. We experimented with different can formats, 250ml slim, 330ml stubbies and 330ml sleek cans, to see which people preferred. We also worked with New York based artists Craig & Karl to produce bespoke artwork that represented the flavours in Grown. We produced a pilot product with two flavours and shipped it to customers with Shopify and asked buyers to provide feedback online with an unmoderated survey. This pilot revealed that we should change the product description to a Seltzer due to its ingredients and that also one of the main reasons to buy was the low calories! The product updates were incredibly well received and straight away Grown got a five-star review from a senior buyer at Abel & Cole who also commented that the design puts Grown in the best possible position to gain a foothold in this hugely competitive category.
What problem this solved
Early feedback from buyers at Abel & Cole, Daylesford, and Laithwaites have confirmed that the product is hugely impactful and has wide appeal with potential customers offering them a product that simply wasn’t available before. The product is so original it almost defines its own category but also has category crossover with spritzers, seltzers, cider, wine and prosecco.
What impact this had
One month after securing a wholesale licence Grown had their first retail listing, helping to drive crucial growth and increased brand awareness.
Two brand new products were launched simultaneously, available to buy in single or mixed packs. More flavours are planned for the second half of the year.
Both flavours received 5-star reviews from food and drink critics including established organic food and drink maker Abel & Cole.