HIP POP: From Craft Kombucha to The Best Carbonated Drink - Personal Reflection & Brand Positioning Case Study

Today marks a 1 year anniversary of my chapter at Hip Pop as Head of Marketing and I couldn’t wish for any better recognition of the past year’s work than Hip Pop being crowned the winner at the last nights Oscars in soft drinks. An actual pinch me moment.

Hip Pop Berries & Cherries Soda (which BTW launched only 1 months ago) has been awarded The Best Carbonated Drink of the year at the UK Soft Drinks Awards. Why is this significant?

Well, a year ago today, I’ve joined a super passionate team led by founders who want to do better by building a brand that reduces sugar intake through soft drinks and do it properly, the hard way - by painstaking development of drinks that are low in calories, lower in sugar and without cutting corners and adding sweeteners or artificial flavour enhancers. The drinks only have natural ingredients which support wellbeing through gut health. More importantly though, they taste absolutely banging!

As a challenger brand enthusiast, having a product with such a strong purpose to work with is a dream. Hearing consumers talking about their relationships with soft drinks and painting the picture of the industry that’s changing as well as observing brands and taste profiles starting to be very homogeneous and uninspiring which is ultimately leading to limited choice has given me the vision of the potential we have with a product like Hip Pop.

However, as the brand has grown from Emma making kombucha in her kitchen to a brewery under the arches of Manchester's central station and craft credentials at its heart, we soon realised we needed to evolve our perception and open the brand to broader audience - move past kombucha, although very important part of our brand and where it all started, and evolve Hip Pop to be seen as a true alternative to traditional soft drinks. We've set ourselves the task to shine the spotlight on the diverse range of products which have been hiding in the shadow of the successful kombucha line.

Hip Pop makes a wide range of soft drinks which are all low in calories, made natural and gut friendly - from carbonated prebiotic sodas to kombucha and even a kombucha with the addition of CBD - first and only on the UK supermarket shelves. So we started refining our brand positioning and ended up making a pretty bold change to the visual identity. All with the intention to reach those that want to be free’d from the traditional and explore a more modern take on soda, one that is a bit healthier and delights the taste buds as a permissible treat. The new look was revealed only 2 months ago and it’s been welcomed by the industry and consumers.

I’ve been overwhelmed with the response, however whenever I’d mention Hip Pop, I’d still get… yeh, that kombucha brand .. and I knew this will be a long journey before the world starts seeing the depth and breath of the range and think of the brand as a really good soft drink with a full portfolio of products.

We are on the right track though and last night was the ultimate validation - the Winner, #1, THE Best Carbonated Drink of the year. Leaving Pepsi, Fentimans and other established brands behind. This is on top of over 4,000 national grocery retail distribution points, wholesale RTM via Bidfood, Creed, LWC and Stores Supply to name few and +113% growth of our soda range online (past 2 months) while kombucha remains strong.

What a year it’s been and what a privilege for Emma & Kenny to put their trust in me to spearhead their marketing and take the brand to the next level. I’m also grateful for all the experience I’ve gained over the years in drinks which I could tap into when critical decisions needed to be made and massive thanks to the team at Robot Food for the relentless determination to give us that “feels right” creative expression of the brand which aligns with the strategy.

Finally, if you are embarking on the journey of refining your brand positioning, here are my key tips:

• Listen to consumers - existing and potential
• Understand your brand's authenticity and purpose - what is the history, rituals, wins and fails
• Keep aligning, validating and tinkering until everyone is happy - consumers, founders, inverstors
• Keep it simple

Get the feel for the new brand positioning from our founders directly 👇