Why corporations stifle innovation. Fever-Tree.

  By Gonzalo López Martí  – Creative director, etc / LMMiami.com

  • It is no secret that innovating from within can be extremely hard, if not impossible, at large corporations.
  • Part of the reason is that most large companies have a single minded, volume-based, low margin business model: make industrial amounts of one thing and one thing alone, inundate the market with it.
  • In certain organizations, moreover, innovating is frowned upon.
  • It is regarded as shameless self-promotion.
  • Are you trying to stand out?
  • Are you angling for a corner office?
  • You’re not thinking of cutting in line, are you?
  • The etiquette of the totem pole has unwritten rules akin to zealotry.
  • Add to the equation that it is close to impossible to know who’s responsible for what at large organizations.
  • Who should be given a fat bonus?
  • Whose head should roll?
  • Why are sales up this quarter?
  • Seasonality, happenstance, business acumen, inertia?
  • Who knows.
  • Promotions and bonuses are rarely granted on merit.
  • It is all about politics.
  • Given this reality, large companies are usually destined to shopping around for tried & true turnkey innovation outside of their confines.
  • And to pay a handsome premium for it.
  • Enter Fever-Tree Premium Tonic Water.
  • Let me give you a little context.
  • Gin & tonics are all the rage.
  • Again.
  • It was a matter of time until the trailblazers of sophisto mixology brought them back from the limbo of passé cocktails.
  • However, as is usually the case with fashion comebacks, the latest conventional wisdom of snobbery came with a twist (no pun intended): it is not the gin but the tonic water what really matters.
  • The latest star of tonic waters?
  • You guessed it: Fever-Tree.
  • The king of the category.
  • Or should I say the queen.
  • A UK-based startup, barely 12 years old.
  • Publicly traded in the London Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol FEVR its share price jumped from roughly £1.8 in January of 2015 to close to £40 last month.
  • The kind of multiple that would make Silicon Valley con artists wet their undies.
  • To judge by its meteoric growth and marketing wizardry, it is a matter of time until it is sold to one of the big players in the liquor or soft drinks industries.
  • Wait.
  • The name Fever-Tree is kinda odd, ain’t it?
  • There’s an explanation: tonic water, aka quinine water, was and in some cases still is made from the bark of the quina tree.
  • A species originally found in Perú and, to a lesser extent, adjacent countries of the Andean region.
  • Back in the day, the quina tree’s bark was supposed to have shamanic medicinal properties.
  • Hence the brand name.
  • Anyhoo.
  • My point is: this is the kind of success story that would’ve NEVER happened within the walls -physical or otherwise- of a large global corporation.
  • Premium tonic water?
  • Expensive Schweppes?
  • Fancy Canada Dry?
  • Get out.
  • And the name.
  • A sitting duck for the legal eagles, assorted marketing naysayers, devil’s advocates and other usual suspects.
  • Can you imagine the look on the face of a legal department benchwarmer or a market research charlatan if someone went to them with the idea of launching a brand under the name Fever fucking Tree?
  • Are you implying that this product infects people with some sort of tropical disease?
  • Or, conversely, are you trying to say that it carries medicinal properties?
  • Class actions suits!
  • Hand  wringing.
  • Hyperventilation.
  • Fever pitch.
  • Meltdown.
  • Whatever it takes to justify your salary as a midlevel corporate drifter.

 

 

Skip to content