Why Poppi Isn’t Really Selling Soda

More choice doesn’t always mean more demand.

In this episode of Full Fat Marketing, Leonora breaks down why Poppi became so culturally powerful, and how smart brands grow not by inventing something completely new, but by making an old category feel fresh, relevant, and easier to choose.

If your product is good but still not cutting through the noise, this episode will show you why positioning often matters far more than people think.

⭐ If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and review, it helps more founders discover the show.

And if you’re building a food, drink or hospitality brand and want help applying these strategies to your business, feel free to reach out at leonora@lrbcreative.com

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Disclaimer: Insights shared are based on Leonora’s experience with food and hospitality brands and are for educational purposes only. Results may vary.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

A lot of founders think that they need a better product to grow. And sometimes what they actually need is a better story. One of the smartest things a brand can actually do is not launch something good, it's make people see an old product in a completely different way. And Poppy did that brilliantly. Because let's be honest, Poppy is not really selling soda. It's selling a version of soda people can feel good being seen with. I mean, how many times have you actually seen scrolling on social media your favorite influencer casually drinking one on camera? It's part of almost like some ultra-put together wellness lifestyle. I see it all the time, and that only works because the brand has been positioned in a way that makes it almost feel healthy by association. Now, I'm Lenora, this is the Full Fat Marketing Podcast, where you'll hear the uncomfortable strategy truths for F and B brands that most people won't tell you, but I will. Now, on paper, Poppy should not be this interesting. It's really fizzy, it comes in a can, it lives in a category that has really been around forever. And this is not exactly some revolutionary invention, and that is what makes the brand strategy so good as well. Poppy won by reinterpreting an existing category, and that is a much easier and often much smarter game. People already love soda, they understand it, they already have an emotional memory attached to it. The problem is also comes with almost a bit of baggage, you know? It's got a lot of sugar, artificial ingredients, that almost slightly guilty feeling, and it's known to be like bad for your teeth, or over time, if you drink too much of it, can be unhealthy. And Poppy saw that tension. Now, when brands grow quickly, it's often not because they made something technically better or completely reinvented the wheel. It's because they made something feel culturally easier to choose. And Poppy absolutely did that. Even the way it presents itself, it's clever. It's really bright, it's playful, it's clean, it's modern. It almost gives it that retro, slightly nostalgic feel as well, which customers really buy into. It still gives soda energy, which is the most important part. Remember, customers are not just buying your product for what it is, they're buying what it allows them to signal as well. And Poppy really understood that. Its own brand story talks about breaking up with soda and reintroducing it in a way that feels lighter, more modern, and easier to love. It's also smart because it keeps the emotional appeal of the category while changing the meaning around it. But this is the part a lot of people miss. Because Poppy did not just get lucky with pretty cans and good timing, it actually made a few really smart marketing moves as well. And this is where the value is. Number one, it made the brand ridiculously easy to recognize. Now, this sounds simple in the long run, but it matters a lot. As I said, the cans are really bright, they're distinct, they're playful, visually obvious, the packaging is beautiful. You can spot them quickly, which is the main thing. You can see them quickly on a shelf, in a fridge, in a creator's hand, in a what I eat in a day video, in a Pilates lifestyle context, you recognize it and the brand immediately. And that matters because in crowded categories, recognition is a serious growth strategy. A lot of brands are trying to be liked, but not enough are instantly recognizable. And that's the huge difference. Because if your product travels through social media, retail, and culture, people need to be able to clock it fast. Number two, it marketed itself like a lifestyle brand, not just a health product. And this is one of the smartest things it actually did. A lot of better for you brands end up getting stuck sounding like a nutrition label. They promote things like gut health, low sugar, ingredients, benefits, prebiotics. And yes, Poppy, of course, had that angle, but it didn't lead with only that. It led with energy, aesthetics, identity, and most importantly, social relevance. And that is a really, really different game here because once a brand starts showing up in culture as something people want to be associated with, it stops behaving like a product and actually starts meaning something, right? So that is where growth gets much, much easier for the brand. And Poppy leaned exactly to that kind of visibility through culture-led marketing as well, including celebrity and creator adjacency, major sports and entertainment tie-ins, and even back-to-back Super Bowl campaigns. Now that matters because it helped the brand feel bigger than just a healthy drink and more like a modern lifestyle brand with actual social relevance. Number three, it made the product easy to fold into identity. Poppy became the kind of thing people could casually hold, put in their fridge, bring to a picnic, post in a really good routine video, keep on a desk. This was huge in terms of creators and influencers jumping on the trend as well. And that's one of the reasons it worked so well, because it didn't feel so much like gut health, it didn't feel like compromise, it didn't feel like one of those really depressing wellness products you buy once and then you forget about it. It felt more like a personality, and that is much more powerful. And number four, it sold a feeling people already wanted. They didn't ask their audience to become a completely different person by drinking their product. It just offered a cleaner, lighter, more modern version of a behavior they already enjoyed. And that is really smart brand building and builds a really solid foundation. The best marketing often doesn't create desire from scratch, it redirects desire that already exists. And the thing is, Poppy didn't have to convince people to want the soda. People already wanted soda. There was a huge market for it, just had to remove enough of the emotional friction around it to make choosing it feel easier. And that is a much better strategy than trying to educate a whole market into a brand new habit and product. And this is where the story gets really interesting. Because in March 2025, PepsiCo agreed to buy Poppy for$1.95 billion and later completed the acquisition in May 2025. Now, this is huge because Pepsi could have a hundred percent created its own version of this drink. In fact, big beverage companies do this all the time. They have the manufacturing, the distribution, the money, the retail relationship. So this really interesting question is not could Pepsi have made a prebiotic soda? Of course they could. The interesting question in this is why didn't they just build one and out-distribute everyone? And I think the answer is obvious because what Poppy built was not just a drink. It was a brand people cared about. Pepsi did not just buy liquid in a can, it bought cultural relevance, modern identity, consumer permission, emotional connection, and a brand people already felt something about. And that's something really different. It was also reported that the deal was part of PepsiCo's push deeper into healthier soda, and it also highlighted the category's growth as younger consumers increasingly shift towards wellness and lifestyle-led beverages. And honestly, I think this is one of the clearest signs of strong branding. When a giant corporation with infinite resources chooses to buy instead of build, that usually means the thing they actually wanted was not the formula, it was the consumer demand. And that is the real lesson here. A lot of founders think repositioning means becoming more complicated, but the strongest repositioning usually feels much simpler. It's cleaner, more obvious. Poppy did not ask people to learn a whole new ritual. It just made an all-one feel socially and emotionally acceptable again. And that is a really strong, commercially powerful move. And this matters way beyond drinks because whether you're building a hotel concept, a food product, a hospitality experience, there is a question here worth asking. What are you still doing that feels just a bit old now? Because this is where a lot of brands get caught out. They're trying to position themselves as premium, healthy, modern. When you actually look at how the brand shows up, it still feels like the same old category. They use the same language, the same cues, the same energy people have quietly moved on from. And that's where the real disconnect happens. Because the product might be good, but the intention might be right. But if it still feels like something people have outgrown, it becomes very easy to overlook. And that's the trap. You don't lose because you're bad. You lose because you still look like everything people stopped getting excited about. And this is exactly why Poppy worked. Because the genius is not really in the can, it's in the behavioral shift. They didn't just make soda, they made soda feel like it belonged in a more modern identity. And that is a completely different job. Because once you do that, you're not just selling a product anymore. You're giving people an obsession and permission to enjoy something that they already wanted without it clashing with who they think they are. And that is incredibly valuable. So valuable, in fact, that Pepsi didn't try to compete with it, they bought it based on what Poppy had already built. And tomorrow we're going to talk about how AI is not going to save bad marketing, if anything, is about to expose it. And that is the Full Fat version. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, you can listen to the Full Fat Marketing Podcast wherever you get your podcasts with new bite sized episodes dropping daily Monday to Friday. You can thank me later for that. Oh, and before you go, make sure to leave a review. It really helps more people find it. See you tomorrow.