If you had a VP gig at a luxury brand like LVMH, would you give it all up to sell clear whiskey in a can?
Would you leave again, to sell luxury weed?
Or again, to sell sparkling soju? (wtf even is that?)
Hello Soju CEO Elisabeth Baron did all that — and turns out, there’s a theme connecting it all together, and a business lesson I didn’t expect to find at the bottom of the glass on today’s Thought Liters. (watch below)
A peculiar job jump
Elisabeth did 6 years at Diageo. Nearly 10 at LVMH. Hell, she started her career working the Pepsi account on the agency side. Why all the weird brands afterward, then?
The answer lies in the same reason you may look longingly at your side hustle, and the same reason I jumped into this show: she wanted to try something new, and build it from scratch. Not so weird.
Hello Soju is her newest thing: sparkling soju in a can.
Not to say there was nothing new for her in legacy luxury, either — she was one of the few women VPs at the company. She was one of the first Americans selected for the Maison team in Paris. But in addition to new challenges, she stayed stateside to be closer to her father as his health declined (I get that), which opened up different opportunities.
Goodbye Legacy, Hello…Soju?
After LVMH, Elisabeth moved to lead brand at Stillhouse (that’s the clear whiskey in a can), then Canndescent (that’s the luxury weed), and then Starward (Australian whisky) before landing in her current role: CEO of Hello Soju.
By the way, before we move on: what in the hell is soju, anyway?
The fact I even had to ask that question is the reason Elisabeth joined the brand.
Hello Soju combines the Korean spirit with the growing RTD cocktail trend in the US.
Soju, a Korean rice-based liquor, is the world’s #1 selling spirit by volume. It’s literally the most consumed spirit on the planet…and we barely know what it is in America.
But that might change sooner than you think. Korean culture is rapidly popularizing stateside. K-pop dominates the charts, especially with younger consumers. The US imports more K-beauty than anywhere else on Earth. More people are learning the language. It stands to reason that soju, a staple of restaurants and convenience alike in Korea, could follow that same path.
Simultaneously, the ready-to-drink cocktail trend has been on an upswing in the US since White Claw’s first seltzer surge in 2018. Spirit-based RTDs have quickly followed — and now, Elisabeth is entering the market with her soju-infused, 7% sparkling spin. (Worth noting that they also have a flagship soju as well, which is the more typical liquor you’d expect to see in the East.)
The convergence of trends is where Elisabeth sees the opportunity, and it’s why she’s devoting this chapter of her career to it.
What Can We Learn from Elisabeth?
Elisabeth is bringing together communities into what she calls “K-Cal culture” — combining Korean tradition with California soul. To do that, she’s embedding Hello Soju anywhere she can where K-culture appears in Cali. Festivals, events, the arts — she’s simply meeting the consumer where they’re at, and combining an atmosphere of general discovery with a specific new experience to ease the learning and conversion curves.
And, in that, there’s a business lesson:
There’s big opportunity in “demystifying” to new audiences.
These days, Elisabeth is going hard after “zillennials,” who reportedly crave discovering new experiences. But her career jumps are all marked with demystifying products and categories to new audiences:
Clear whiskey in a can: Obvious explanation required for that, no matter who you are. Opportunity.
Luxury weed: Cannabis is massive, and steeped in heritage, but it’s only been legalized recreationally since 2012. Opportunity.
Australian whisky: Sales down under are dominated by imports. Time for a homegrown takeover. Opportunity.
Soju (and sparkling, at that): Open up the West to a worldwide sensation. Probably the biggest opportunity on the list.
Plus: Elisabeth is creating a new category (soju RTD) and a brand at the same time. So, double points.
To me, the lesson is fairly straightforward: if you can successfully demystify something, anything, to your customers — you reduce your competitive set, and create a better shot to win. It doesn’t have to come from a foreign place, and it needn’t follow trends (though that helps).
Time will tell if soju has a bigger place in the US. In fact, Hello Soju hasn’t even made its way across the country yet (it’s mostly in CA for now). But having tried a flight of it myself on this show (plus a Hello Soju Bomb)…damn, it’s so good.
The Hello Soju Bomb: their flagship spirit, dropped into its RTD variant. Dangerous.
Thanks again to the team at Hello Soju for joining the show while I was out in LA. I do hope you guys get distribution in PA soon!
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Adam
