How important is your packaging?

Consider this: Hiball Energy it used to be sold in glass bottles and the company grew slowly. It then switched to aluminum cans and sales exploded – reaching $40 million in annual revenue and then being acquired by one of the world's largest alcohol brands.

But before the Hiball team could change its packaging, they first had to do something even more important: They had to challenge their most fundamental assumptions about their brand—and abandon the ideas they once thought were sacred.

that it is the hardest job of all. And if you can do it, you're on your way to growth.

Here's what happened.

Why Hiball was served in the glass

At first, it was a practical decision: “We were trying to get into cocktail menus,” he says Dan Craytorwho at the time was Hiball's VP of business development.

The brand was launched in 2005, just when people were drinking a lot of Red Bull vodka. Hiball founder Todd Berardi saw an opportunity to elevate this—creating a higher-quality energy drink without sugar or sweeteners that people could mix with a variety of alcohols. Mixers were often sold in squat glass bottles, so Hiball did the same.

This turned out to be a bad strategy; it was very difficult to stock up in bars and restaurants. Hiball needed to pivot and began sampling at independent grocery stores. That's when it started to connect with fitness-minded female consumers. “You'll hear the same thing,” Craytor says. “It was like, 'Wow, this is like a Perrier with energy.' This is amazing. I like sparkling water.”

Hiball saw the opportunity. It distributed various flavors and pursued retail.

At this time, grocery shelves were filled with energy drinks – and they were all in tall aluminum cans, like Red Bull or Monster. Hiball wanted to be seen as different from those brands and glass helped them do that.

“We were like, we're never going to give up glass,” Craytor says. “Hiball is premium. It tastes better. People can see that because the glass is clear. We were fully committed to existing in glass for the duration of the company.”

Why did Hiball change his mind

Hiball started to pick up steam. It was stocked at Safeway, then Whole Foods, then Kroger.

But as its distribution grew, so did the problems. People would knock over Hiball's displays and his glass bottles would explode everywhere. Her glass supplier started raising prices. Shipping costs continued to rise.

Hiball's founders still loved their glass bottles and felt it was the core of the brand's identity. But as a test, the founders started asking some of their vendors: Hey, would you be interested in canned Hiball?

The answer was quick: Yes!

“There was definitely some soul searching,” Craytor admits. “We really need to sit there and go: What if? What if we were in a can? Because we had been so anti-Kane.”

But the market seemed to support the cans. So they tried it and…

What happened when they switched

“Sales went through the roof,” says Craytor. Because as it turns out, the glass bottle had deterred consumers.

People associate energy drinks with cans. It's a quick cue, as you'd expect sugary cereal to be in the box. So when people saw Hiball's glass bottles, they were often not sure what the drink was.

Once Hiball was also in a can, that confusion went away – and the market opened up.

Convenience stores were suddenly interested. They never wanted to stock Hiball's glass bottles, but now they were inviting Hiball — which was a big deal because convenience is a big sales channel for energy drinks. “Then we just got more brand presence on the shelf,” Craytor says. “So think about a soft drink at Whole Foods. That's a lot of exposure.”

By 2017, Hiball's sales had reached $40 million. then was won by Anheuser-Busch InBev.

The biggest lesson of all

When Craytor looks at this now, he sees the irony: He thought the glass bottles made Hiball special—but instead, the glass bottles held the company back.

It's a common founder mistake, he said: When you have a vision for your brand, it's hard to question whether that vision is accurate.

So what should founders do? His answer: Make sure you know what really the issues.

“Any brand that's positioned for success will have first principles,” says Craytor, who today is chief client officer for RxSugar. “If you can identify what those first principles are, use that as your guiding light.”

In Hiball's case, his first principle was not a glass bottle. It was to make a premium energy drink without sugar or sweeteners. The packaging simply had to explain the brand – and the founders had to be open to whatever solution worked.

“Know what you are and what your difference is,” he says. “Then you just have to find a way to reinforce.”

To hear more about Hiball's story, listen to Dan Craytor's interview on the Entrepreneurs Problem Solvers podcast.