449In recent years, with a significant increase in health awareness, more and more people have begun to pay attention to their sugar intake in their diets, gradually reducing their consumption of high-sugar soda beverages. They are more inclined to choose healthy drinks that are low in sugar, sugar-free, or rich in natural ingredients to meet their hydration needs while maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
This shift not only reflects people's pursuit of health, but also promotes the diversified development of the beverage market. More importantly, it has directly created an opportunity for the development of a brand focused on healthy sparkling drinks, and that isOlipop.
Focusing on Healthy Low Sugar, Successfully Entering the Market
Although the sparkling beverage market is already quite crowded, for consumers who still crave soda, there are not many truly high-quality options available.
Therefore, when Olipop launchedeach can containing 9g of fiber, 30 calories, 2–3g of sugar,focusing on low sugar, health,and rich in prebiotics and plant fiber sparkling drinks, it quickly attracted the attention of many consumers, especially those who have long consumed carbonated drinks but aspire to a healthy lifestyle.
Rising from Failure: The Rebirth of the Olipop Brand
In fact, Olipop was not the first brand co-created by founders Ben Goodwin and David Lester. As early as 2013, they jointly founded the probiotic soda company Obi. Unfortunately, this entrepreneurial journey did not last long, and in 2016, they chose to sell the poorly managed Obi.
Failure did not discourage these two entrepreneurs. In 2018, Goodwin devoted himself to developing a new formula for Olipop, adding plant fiber and prebiotics to sparkling drinks to create sodas that promote gut health. To give the brand a unique name, they combined the words "oli" (oligosaccharide) and "pop," and thus, the creative brand name "Olipop" was born.
Carefully Designed Packaging Enhances Brand Recognition
Olipop's packaging design style is extremely simple and fresh, using a series of bright colors such as blue, pink, and green, paired with different product flavors, making Olipop more visually appealing. The brand logo is presented simply on the packaging, further enhancing brand recognition.
At the same time, the product packaging clearly marks information such as low sugar, low calories, and rich in prebiotics and plant fiber, and cleverly incorporates visual elements such as fruits, leaves, and plants that symbolize natural ingredients, making it clear at a glance. These help consumers better understand the natural ingredients in the product and their health value.
Professional R&D Team Promotes Sustainable Brand Development
After the brand was born, in order to continue its development, Olipop successfully formed a professional R&D team through close cooperation with leading human gut microbiome researchers. They are committed to applying the latest scientific discoveries and research results to Olipop's product development.
In sharp contrast to other high-sugar sodas on the market, Olipop insists on not adding high-fructose corn syrup or any artificial colors or flavors, strictly controlling the sugar content in each can's formula to between 2–5g. At the same time, Olipop cleverly combines plant fiber and prebiotics, making its products not only satisfying in taste but also helpful in promoting gut health.
These unique R&D concepts and product features are also one of the reasons why Olipop is priced slightly higher than traditional sodas, laying a solid foundation for its continued development in the market.
Leveraging TikTok Influencers, Olipop Receives Enthusiastic Market Response
In 2020, the outbreak of the pandemic brought Olipop the challenge of shifting from physical stores to online sales. To address this, they no longer limited themselves to traditional in-store activities and promotions, and in 2021 began to focus their marketing efforts on social media platforms, especially TikTok.
By investing heavily in creative advertising on TikTok and establishing close partnerships with influencers to jointly plan and produce high-quality, entertaining video content, Olipop further expanded its brand awareness and attracted more attention from young consumers.
For example, Olipop carefully selected two influencers on TikTok, @saramcrane and @dianarondi. Although they do not have a huge number of followers on the platform, Olipop's marketing manager Steven Vigilante greatly appreciates the authenticity and creativity of their content.
Image source: TikTok
These two creators actively participated in most of Olipop's TikTok video production, through official announcements of new product flavors, sharing unique product recipes, and situational comedies in various innovative forms. In just six months, they successfully helped Olipop's follower count soar from 1,000 to 34,000, demonstrating excellent promotional results.
Image source: TikTok
Official Account + Brand Hashtags Achieve a Win-Win
TikTok has indeed brought significant improvements to Olipop's brand awareness and product sales. Today, Olipop's official account @drinkolipop on TikTok is about to surpass 300,000 followers, with 1.8 million likes. At the same time, the brand hashtags #olipop and #drinkolipop have received nearly 200 million and 60.6 million views respectively.
Image source: TikTok
Establishing an Overseas Independent Site: Creating a New Chapter for the Brand
To further expand into overseas markets, Olipop not only focuses on product innovation and quality, but also actively established its own overseas independent site. The site uses comfortable color schemes, allowing people to immediately feel the brand's vitality and friendliness.
Olipop Overseas Independent Site
Upon entering the site, users can see many obvious and effective messages, such as ‘Join our family, you’re sure to find a flavor you love.’ This not only conveys the brand’s enthusiastic invitation to users, but also showcases its rich variety of product flavors.
Olipop Overseas Independent Site
At the same time, the message ‘Subscribe and save on every order—your wallet will thank you’ cleverly communicates the convenience and affordability of the subscription service to users. The promise that ‘every order saves 15%, and orders can be swapped, skipped, or canceled at any time’ further enhances users’ trust and reliance on the brand, making the path to overseas market expansion even more solid and powerful!
Unlimited Potential, A Promising Future!
With a variety of innovative flavors, eye-catching packaging design, a brand positioning focused on low-sugar health, and precise marketing on TikTok, Olipop has successfully resonated strongly with consumers by accurately grasping the consumption psychology of young people, allowing Olipop to stand out in the fiercely competitive food and beverage market.
Today, Olipop has achieved an impressive monthly revenue of $20 million, and in 2023, annual sales soared to $200 million, demonstrating its strong market potential and growth momentum!
We look forward to more brands deeply studying and learning from Olipop’s overseas expansion experience, combining their own characteristics and advantages to formulate more precise and effective strategies for going global.
