#20 - On water
This is the story I presented at last night's interesting conversation session. The topic was water.
On Water
I want to tell you a story about someone that has had a major impact on my life, and my happiness, but not in the way that you think.
Joseph Priestly
In 1775, Joseph Priestly, an English clergyman and scientist, discovered Oxygen. He did this through a very innovative experiment where he put mice in glass jars, and then looked at how long they could stay alive in the glass jars, with either normal air or gases produced by various chemical reactions. In this way, he found that heating mercury oxide would allow a mouse to live for 3x as long as a mouse breathing “normal air”.
But 8 years before he discovered Oxygen or was even interested in investigating gases, Joseph Priestly moved next to a brewery. In this brewery, the brewing vats would have a layer of 8-10 inches of carbon dioxide (or "fixed air" as it was then known) above the liquid surface. People would play little games with this "fixed air" including putting lit candles into the gas (which would extinguish them) and also suspending mice in the gas (which would kill them).
Given this unique and convenient opportunity, Joseph got to work. One of the things he did was to suspend a dish of water in this gas. When he tasted the water the next day, he found that some of the “fixed air” had gone into the water and that it had a pleasant sparkling taste that was as good as the best mineral waters of the day. He also found that he could replicate this process by taking two glasses and pouring water from one glass to another, while holding them in the gas. By doing so, Priestly had invented carbonated water.
Given Priestly’s scientific focus, he published a paper detailing his work, including that it might be an effective cure for scurvy, and moved on to bigger and better things.
Carbonated water takes off
After Priestly's discovery, a number of sparkling water producers emerged around the UK and Europe. Given the popularity of carbonated water and the belief that people had in it’s medicinal properties, these producers saw the commercial potential of Priestly's discovery. However, they couldn't produce carbonated water at scale and were limited to their local geography.
This all changed in 1783 when a Swiss jeweller called JJ Schweppes started a factory in Geneva that could produce commercial quantities of carbonated water. He soon expanded to London and the rest of the UK where his business took off. The Schweppes company received a royal warrant in 1836 and was selected as the official drink of the Great Exhibition of 1851. Schweppes revolutionised the fizzy drink industry, inventing Fizzy Lemonade in 1835 and Tonic Water in 1870 (by introducing quinine to sparkling water - which also led to the invention of the Gin and Tonic when British soldiers mixed in gin and lime to mask the bitter taste).
In the end, Schweppes became rich from his invention, while Priestly received nothing and was forced into exile in America because of his religious views.
A Midwestern brand becomes an icon
Now let's fast forward to the 21st century.
A few years ago, another company saw an opportunity to win through sparkling water. In 1981 Wisconsin, a relatively dull brand of sparkling water was created. By the early 2000s, the brand had passed on to a new owner, who wanted to revitalise what they had.
With a limited budget, they set out to try something different. And in doing so, they created the icon that is La Croix.
So how did La Croix go from being a fairly standard Midwestern brand to the millennial icon that it is today.
Firstly, they developed a can that was similar in shape and style to other diet sodas. La Croix had seen that soda demand was declining, and that La Croix was the perfectly positioned product to capture this demand as people switched from sweetened to unsweetened drinks. In marketing strategy, we are taught that the second entrant into a market needs to replicate the original frame of reference product as closely as possible, so that customers feel comfortable with jumping ship. La Croix did this perfectly.
To appeal to millennials, La Croix significantly increased the number of flavours and continue to do so to this day. Given the limited marketing budget that La Croix had, they focused on marketing with wellness influencers and other Instagrammers. LA Croix also sent their products to to writer's rooms so that the people who influenced our culture had La Croix at the top of their mind.
By doing so, National Beverage took an old brand and transformed it into the millennial obsession that it is today. For those of you who share classes with me, you know that I love La Croix. I go through 4-5 cans a day and couldn't imagine life without it.
The moral
Before I started writing this story, I didn't plan to have any learnings or lessons come out of it. But by the time I finished writing, something clearly stood out to me that I thought was very relevant and important.
Many of you will be pursuing careers in technology and entrepreneurship after your MBAs. During this time, you are going to meet brilliant people who have come up with amazing inventions and ideas and you are going to work with them. And at times, you might question the value that you could add to these people and their ideas.
However, if you ever doubt yourself, just think back to this story and Joseph Priestly. A lot of the value of a new invention comes from the business structures and strategy that you apply to it. Coming up with a great idea is not good enough, you have to take it to market in a smart way.
Carbonated water didn’t take off until Schweppes, La Croix didn’t take off until they changed their marketing strategy, even the iPod didn’t take off until they allowed iTunes on windows.
So never forget about the value that you can create for others by applying the things your learn over your next two years at Kellogg.