Martha Stewart, $400K Fighter Jets, and Comedy Writers: How Liquid Death Wins at Anti-Marketing, According to Liquid Death's VP

When considering who to learn from in the marketing space, one brand stands out: Liquid Death.

They’ve mastered the art of turning healthy beverages into a sought-after brand, making them ideal marketing mentors.

But they’ve done more than reinvent water — in many ways, they’ve reinvented marketing, as well.

I spoke with Greg Fass, Liquid Death’s VP of Marketing, to learn how he’s cultivated an anti-marketing approach, why some of his favorite campaigns involve Tony Hawk and Martha Stewart, and his belief that Liquid Death’s success comes down to understanding people aren’t “brainless consumers of products”.

How Liquid Death Wins at Anti-Marketing — And What You Can Learn from Them

1. Don’t overcomplicate your target audience.

Most target personas are awfully specific: “Marketing Melvin likes long walks on the beach, reading true-crime thrillers, watching videos on TikTok, and is interested in budget-friendly ways to grow his e-commerce startup.”

And there’s power in identifying a few key characteristics of your buyer – but it’s also inherently limiting.

Fass believes there are plenty of reasons why someone might connect with your brand.

For instance, Fass believes his target audience could be any of the following:

Someone who likes entertainment and humor
Someone who appreciates the sustainability angle (i.e. “bringing death to plastic”)
Someone who acknowledges that Liquid Death is the reason their child is finally excited to drink water
A sober-curious individual who wants to have a fun-looking drink while at a party
People who like skulls

I’ll add one just for fun: Thirsty people.

Granted, water arguably has the biggest demographic of any product out there. But his point still holds true: Get too hyper-focused on building up your ‘target persona’ and you could be missing out on all the different reasons someone might connect with your brand first – and your product second.

2. People aren’t brainless consumers.

Here’s a fun fact: At Liquid Death, they don’t use the word consumer. Ever.

Instead, they have a team called “human insights”.

Fass is proud to work against the mindset that people are just “brainless consumers” whose sole purpose on Earth is to consume products. (Yep – that’s a direct quote.)

Instead, he says, “At Liquid Death, I’m proud that we think of our audiences as people. And when you think of them as humans, you understand they’ll get a piece of copy that isn’t straightforward, or jokes other brands are afraid to make. They’re intelligent, and have a sense of humor.”

It’s a philosophy that has served them well. Just consider the commercial where Martha Stewart is a serial killer chopping off hands to make candles — not exactly something that would go over well in a standard marketing pitch.

Liquid Death has done more than reinvent the better-for-you beverage category — they’ve reinvented marketing, as well.

Embracing their anti-marketing approach can help you discover fresh and novel ways of connecting better with, well, other humans.