In this week’s podcast, we sit down with John Denny, the former VP of Marketing: Media & eCommerce at Bai from 2013 to 2017, where he worked on one of the fastest growing beverage brands in the US. Over the course of four years, John grew Bai from a small niche product to the number one beverage brand sold on Amazon.
Featuring powerful ingredients like coffeefruit and white tea extract, and boasting great taste in exotic flavors with zero artificial sweeteners, Bai drinks have become major players in the healthier-for-you product category.
Bai was named to the Forbes list of America’s Most Promising Companies in 2015, ranking 13th among the top 100. In 2017, Bai was acquired by Dr Pepper Snapple Group in one of the largest CPG acquisitions of that year, at a whopping $1.7 billion dollars.
Today, John Denny is the VP of eCommerce & Digital Marketing at CAVU Venture Partners, a consumer-focused investment firm, where he partners with portfolio companies to build high growth brands primed to disrupt the CPG space.
In our conversation with Denny, he shares his broad marketing expertise — about what it’s like being a challenger brand, how consumers today are discovering new products, and why it’s become critical for businesses to meet Gen Z expectations:
“If they’re retargeted with an ad for something that they’ve already purchased, they’re frustrated because they say: The data should know I already purchased this. So it’s a real struggle. I think there’s going to be some regulation in the marketplace. I think ultimately brands and retailers have to use more data. They have to do more personalization if they’re going to move forward and compete.” — John Denny
Listen to the full podcast here:
