Arise Beverages was a business brand we developed at Vic3e.Digital. The aim was simple – to make healthy beverages mainstream.
Background
Let’s rewind to 2019! At the time, healthy products were only found in niche organic or wellness shops, hidden away in farms, local markets or deep corners of the internet. It wasn’t accessible. There was also this cliche about healthy products not tasting great.
This is what raised the question:
How could we make healthy products mainstream?
Building the Vision
We collaborated with a brand that manufactures natural beverages (ReLinde Group). The drinks in question were Kombuchas. Kombucha is a niched beverage with the potential to rid the body of toxins, and boost energy and the body’s immune system. When developed right, it tastes as great, sometimes arguably better that the off-the-shelf fizzy drinks. Woolworths in Cape Town, South Africa sells some great-tasting Kombucha, if you don’t know what it tastes like. You can also check out natural organic shops around your mall for it.
We had a goal to put healthy beverages alongside in shops where you would find the “big brands”. No more searching random forest corners for healthy and natural drinks! Over the next couple of years, we made various attempts at solving this challenge.
It didn’t happen easy. We faced a number of hurdles along the way. An interesting one was when we had the competition make an attempt to sabotage our access to bottles. On one end, it was disappointing that this “big” and “established” company would try doing that to the “smaller” guy. On the other hand, it felt like a stamp of approval that perhaps, we were doing something right.
We digitized the entire ecosystem, building a website, e-commerce shop, and payment integrations. The COVID era made online strategies even more crucial, so we developed unique content and marketing campaigns – shoutout to the dev team and designers!
Taking it Mainstream
Our target audience was the young demographic. We launched initiatives like “$lice of the Buck” where people got paid for sharing content on their WhatsApp statuses. We engaged with diverse influencers across South Africa, driving sales and brand awareness. We facilitated the engagements, from reaching out to influencers to providing digital platforms to facilitate the engagements.
How did we do?
Over a 4+ year period, the brand was grossing over five figures in gross revenue monthly. This led to a successful raise of six-figure investments, becoming attractive to investors and influencers alike. Arise Beverages became a household name, reaching people through various marketing channels and sparking critical conversations about food and beverage ingredients.
A Legacy of Change
Seeing our drinks alongside major brands on shelves was a huge victory. We not only achieved our goals but surpassed it. We witnessed our signature products sold by street vendors, hundreds of kilometres away from our core audience.
Check out the Arise Beverages Video Playlist below.
What’s Next?
At Vic3e.Digital, we want to develop more of these businesses. Taking that hustle to long-term sustainable businesses. We want to do this through a platform called Zuke.
Zuke is a platform that aims to develop 1000 businesses by the year 2030. We aim to turn more side hustles into long-term sustainable businesses. Read More below:
- App Download: Click Here
- About Zuke: Notion Link