Market growth breeds commercialization activity. This was an idiom I created many years ago to describe the reactive nature of the functional CPG industry. And it would certainly describe what has played out within the hydration and energy categories over the last 5-7 years. These functional CPG segments have both seen an explosion in market growth that drove rapid experimentation and development within an ever-expanding number of usage occasions. Additionally, consider that both the hydration and energy categories sit squarely within my “divine triad of CPG” of having strong gross margins, high frequency of use, and passionate brand communities. So, it’s hard to not be enthralled by everything…which might be partly why Market Insights Director at SPINS, Scott Dicker, and I regularly feature them in our quarterly functional CPG categorical deep dives. Beyond providing some recent categorical retail sales data snippets, we describe several driving forces impacting comparative results...including the growing “beverage identity crisis” that stems from consumers more regularly swapping between ready-to-drink and ready-to-mix form factors. But don’t worry…that’s not the only time we reference how the supplement industry is altering the strategic plans at large incumbent beverage brands. In fact, Scott and I cover some of those trending hydration and energy category storylines that are hidden below the “Big 2” market share leaders. Additionally, we explain why these “incubated within the supplement industry” brands can scale faster than any other time in business history. These are just some of the fascinating topics we chatted about in this episode...

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