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Flavor Is the Future, and the Future Is Now

With their lean and ever-evolving portfolio of seltzers, RTDs, and FMBs, Mark Anthony Brands is keeping stride with consumer preferences – riding the highs and adapting to the lows.

By: Jerard Fagerberg

At 8% ABV, White Claw Surge embodies MAB’s commitment to building White Claw into a brand that meets consumers’ evolving tastes.

Flavor isn’t merely an aspect of a beverage… It’s not just an adjective on the label… Flavor is now an entire category.

This transformation was spearheaded by decades of research and experimentation conducted by Mark Anthony Brands (MAB), the family-owned beverage company responsible for Mike’s Hard Lemonade, Cayman Jack, MXD, and most notably, White Claw. In 2018, MAB analyzed consumer drinking trends and discovered that flavor is a driving factor in beverage selection.

“We are very bullish that flavor is not only here to stay, but it’s the future,” said Dan Wandel, Senior Director of Insights for MAB, during a 2023 conference. “That’s where the consumer has been going for many years.” The flavor “category” consists of hard seltzers, FMBs, spirits-based RTDs, and wine-based RTDs. As experienced by consumers, it is the kaleidoscope of taste sensations they may choose from.

Flavor now accounts for 12.8% of bev-alc offerings and $13.8 billion in sales, according to Nielsen IQ. Wandel expects the category to reach 500 million cases and $30 billion in value over the next two years, outpacing the growth of traditional beer, wine, and spirits, which is why MAB became a leader in flavor. For Kevin Brady, MAB’s VP of Marketing, the future Wandel speaks of is here – and it’s where MAB thrives.

“Flavor is the no. 1 purchase driver,” Brady says. “By 2028, we believe flavor will surpass mainstream beer to hold the #1 spot in U.S. beverages, with a $22 billion valuation.”

Moving Away from “Home” Base

On the beverage-alcohol insight podcast Sightlines, hosts Bryan Roth and Kate Bernot have a joke that “no one cares about your base fermentable.”

Though said in jest, the hosts have hit on a truth that resonates with consumers. There is so much to drink on the shelves that the average drinker can’t be bothered to differentiate between FMBs, whether they be malt, wine, or spirit based. What motivates shoppers is innovation.

“People are becoming more aware and trying to be more proactive in the way they think about alcohol consumption,” Roth says. “And flavor provides drinkers a new level of excitement.”

MAB has been stoking that excitement via a program they dub “Taste the Difference.” More than a marketing slogan, this brand ethos brings what Brady calls “a unique combination of foresight and insight” to elevate their products beyond the competition. MAB has over 100 years of combined experience on their innovation team, and while it’s not accurate to say that they don’t care about base fermentables, they prioritize how the foundation of their products can delight consumers.

“You can’t always expect consumers to tell you what’s missing in their lives,” Brady says. “Our innovation team draws flavor inspiration from a wide range of sources: what’s hot on culinary and bar menus locally and globally, cuisines and ingredients that are trending on social media, as well as what’s happening in other categories in food and beverage.”

Cayman Jack has embraced cuisine and mixology as sources of inspiration for its growing portfolio of flavors.

MAB’s Cayman Jack brand has been a proving ground for “taste the difference.” While the brand’s margaritas are selling well, MAB has crafted cocktail-inspired Paloma, Cuban Mojito, and Moscow Mule varieties that let’s these products play in new, but familiar territory. The Sweet Heat Variety Pack adds a savory layer of grilled pineapple and spicy lime to the standard margarita, making it feel more like something ordered at a high-end bar. The bump in flavor was driving Cayman Jack towards 11.5 million cases in 2024, the strongest velocity rate of any top 10 FMB.

“That is responding to consumers,” Roth says. “It adds a layer of sophistication that just makes it feel more special.”

Big ABV, Big Sales

Consumers want premium, and they want cocktail influences, and that’s led the flavor category towards larger servings of booze. White Claw Surge was a big bet when MAB launched the 8% ABV line in 2021, but now, the high-ABV malt beverage segment has surpassed the entire hard seltzer segment in value, achieving $218 million in growth. MAB has a 21% share in this category, with Surge leading the way.

MAB’s VP of Marketing Kevin Brady says that drinks like Mike’s HARDER give consumers a high-ABV beverage that’s “accessible wherever they may shop.”

“People are becoming more aware and trying to be more proactive in the way they think about alcohol consumption,” Roth says. “Consumers know you can drink one thing now, and that helps you not feel bloated, and you’ve moderated the amount of alcohol that you’re drinking.”

Beyond Surge, MAB has expanded to truly own the high-ABV C-store shopper. RTD brand MXD has been a stalwart in this space since 2018 and this year, MAB will launch a 10% ABV variant of Cayman Jack called Cayman Jack-ed and they recently switched Mike’s HARDER Half & Half to a non-carbonated formula.

“Our innovation team is hyper-focused on bringing new depth of flavor to every beverage we make, whether it’s a higher-ABV drink for amped up or more sophisticated occasions, or bringing complex taste and flavor to non-alcoholic drinks,” Brady says. “It’s why we have found sustained success in C-stores and small formats, because consumers know and trust our portfolio.”

White Claw Stays Sharp

A half-decade after its heyday, hard seltzer hardly feels like an innovation anymore. The hard seltzer market has contracted 11% in the past year, and competitors have churned into and out of the space, every year. But White Claw has continued to find white space in the category, which racked up $3.6 billion in retail sales in the last year. White Claw accounted for 65% of those sales.

“An industry talks about moving past hard seltzer,” Roth wrote recently, “but consumers don’t.”

Today, seltzers sell as much as spirit-based and wine-based RTDs combined. Seltzer – White Claw specifically – has come a long way since its pre-pandemic heights. Gone are the halcyon days of standard-issue flavors like cherry and mango. Seltzer has branched off into hard lemonade, hard tea, FMBs, and canned cocktails, and drinkers now expect more differentiation than ever.

White Claws’ adventures away from malt-based seltzer have been quite successful. The company first branched out in 2021, launching hard teas, then years later, lemonade and the beachy Surf line. But, it all came full circle in January with White Claw 0% Alcohol.

This is MAB’s winning gambit played out with its most prominent brand. A full spectrum of offerings for every kind of drinker, all under one brand umbrella. If flavor is truly ready to become a top-selling category, it will be with brands that consumers trust, and no brand is better positioned to prove the staying power of flavor than White Claw.

“White Claw’s willingness to let flavor lead the way is important,” Roth says. “The willingness to play in new spaces or retire brands is what’s really capturing attention – and incremental sales.”

About the Author: Jerard Fagerberg is a freelance drinks writer and product manager based in Kittery, Maine. His name is not Jared, but lotsa folks get that wrong.

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