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the Joshua Schall Audio ExperienceAuthor: Joshua Schall
Welcome to the Joshua Schall Audio Experience On my podcast, youll hear episodes of my popular short-form Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) news segment "Consumed", a long-form CPG entrepreneurship interview segment "Formula For:", deeper dive segments "Deep Dish CPG", public speaking engagements, and any of my new and current thoughts that I record specifically for this audio experience! Leave a review on iTunes and let me know what you think! Language: en Genres: Business Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Science of Survival: How PRIME is Pivoting from Kids to Gyms
Friday, 13 February, 2026
I noticed a growing number of internet people (mostly without any industry knowledge) trashing the beverage brand PRIME. And I get it…people love to kick someone (or something) when they’re down, especially if it’s a highly visible (maybe even a bit controversial) consumer brand partly owned by polarizing internet celebrities. Although if you stumbled into this expecting it would be just another copy/paste overly dramatic “rise and fall of PRIME” content piece…I’m sorry to disappoint you! But if you’re into first principles thinking that produces fresh perspectives then hopefully, you’ll stick around…mostly because when these internet people simultaneously proclaimed, “PRIME serves as a modern Case Study in the volatility of hype-first business models,” they collectively forgot to mention their whole thesis was foundationally established by whichever AI model prompts scraped my old strategic commentary within my content years earlier. Nevertheless, before getting started…while I’m not going to retrace the meteoric rise of PRIME, I have the utmost respect for what it achieved in those initial two years…and no one can ever take away that PRIME not only generated over a billion dollars in annual retail sales globally faster than any CPG brand in history but impacted (influenced) the overall industry in ways that will be felt for a very long time. However, over the last two years, PRIME has faced a classic “identity trap.” While PRIME obviously achieved viral success with Gen Z and Gen Alpha, essentially becoming a status symbol…older consumers (whether parents or not) often viewed the brand as a neon-colored faddish drink made for children. Attempting to fix this (and increase buy rates among Millennials and Gen X), PRIME shifted its strategy from "hype marketing” to functional legitimacy. Though, apart from throwing the "Gatorade Blueprint" sports marketing proverbial Hail Mary, what could PRIME really have done after retail sales momentum slowed…and aggressive over-expansion left inventory bloat? When the viral novelty faded…and once-scarce bottles were found everywhere (on-promotion), it signaled to younger consumers that the brand was no longer "exclusive.” Moreover, older consumers remained critical (warranted or not) that PRIME lacked the sodium and electrolytes necessary for true rehydration purposes. So, faced with two very different challenges impacting demand…PRIME decided to tackle “product” concerns over attempting to reignite cultural virality (which is extremely complex). Last month, PRIME officially entered the RTD protein category by launching a line of ultra-filtered protein milkshakes. PRIME Protein represents maybe the last remaining product strategy impactful enough to transition the beverage brand from a youth-centric "hype" product into a legitimate player within the functional beverages category. Lastly, and this cannot be overlooked when explaining why the “doom and gloom” scenario likely never came (or didn’t come as severely) for PRIME yet. If you weren’t aware, the more hidden owners of PRIME also co-founded Alani Nu. Obviously, everyone knows by now, Celsius Holdings acquired Alani Nu for $1.8 billion last April. But while that liquidity event maybe helps assess future risk/reward considerations, it’s recognizing the culmination of that intertwined business activity that’s most helpful because when a CPG brand rockets from zero to over $1 billion in two years…then falls to around $250 million two years later, it would normally result in chapter 11 bankruptcy.
