[mattgreenrocks]

Agreed, it's rather insane to me. Basically seems like distribution trumps pretty much everything, sometimes even whether it's a viable business model.

I was grocery shopping the other day and saw Liquid Death, which is a brand of...water, but with edgy marketing? I'm told to "make things people need," and then regularly see rent-seeking companies held in great esteem, ultra-undifferentiated offerings such as Liquid Death, an API client with a monthly fee, and other things that seem to contradict the maxim of making things that people need.

[forgetfulness]

Apparently the whole deal with Liquid Water is that it's so people don't give you crap for not drinking alcohol at parties or festivals.

If they see you drinking water or soda off a normal can, people will feel self conscious and get pissy about them drinking but not you, with a flaming skull on the can, nobody bats an eye.

The target audience is actually recovering alcoholics from party crowds, and the product is pure signaling.

[mattgreenrocks]

Thanks for the insight. Actually a great approach for a rather commodity product.

[senordevnyc]

The actual quote is “make something people want”, and that’s very different.

[mattgreenrocks]

Fair. I doubt people want rent-seeking companies inserted into their transactions, but they want what's on the other side, so they just accept it.