When This Energy Drink Changed Its Packaging, Sales Skyrocketed to $40 Million. Here's Why It Worked. Hiball learned an important lesson: "Know what you are, and what your differentiation is."

How much does your packaging matter?

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

But before Hiball's 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 ideas they once thought were sacred.

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

Here's what happened.

Why Hiball was served in glass

At first, it was a practical decision: "We were trying to get on cocktail menus," says Dan Craytor, who at the time was Hiball's VP of business development.

The brand launched in 2005, just as people were drinking a lot of Red Bull vodkas. Hiball founder Todd Berardi saw an opportunity to elevate that — creating a higher-quality energy drink with no sugar or sweeteners, which 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 just too difficult to get stocked in bars and restaurants. Hiball needed to pivot and started sampling in independent grocery stores. That's when it began connecting with fitness-minded female consumers. "You'd hear the same thing," Craytor says. "It was like, 'Wow, this is like a Perrier with energy. This is amazing. I love sparkling water."

Hiball saw opportunity. It rolled out different flavors and pursued retail.

By this time, grocery shelves were stocked 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 the glass helped them do it.

"We were like, we'll never give up on glass.," Craytor says. "Hiball is premium. It tastes better. People can see it, because the glass is clear. We were just completely determined to exist in glass through the duration of the company."

Why Hiball changed its mind

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

But as its distribution increased, so did its problems. People would knock over displays of Hiball, and its glass bottles would explode everywhere. Its glass supplier started raising prices. Shipping costs kept going up.

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

The response was quick: Yes!

"There was definitely some soul searching," Craytor admits. "Like, we really had to sit there and go: What if? What if we were in a can? Because we'd been so anti-can."

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

What happened when they switched

"Sales went through the roof," Craytor says. Because as it turns out, the glass bottle had been holding consumers back.

People associate energy drinks with cans. It's a quick signal, the way you expect sugary cereal to be in boxes. So when people saw Hiball's glass bottles, they often weren't sure what the drink was.

Once Hiball was in a can too, that confusion went away — and the marketplace opened up.

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

By 2017, Hiball's sales had hit $40 million. Then it was acquired by Anheuser-Busch InBev.

The greatest lesson of all

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

So, what should founders do? His answer: Make sure you know what really matters.

"Every brand that's positioned for success is going to have first principles," says Craytor, who today is the chief customer officer for RxSugar. "If you can identify what those first principles are, use that as your guiding light."

In Hiball's case, its first principle wasn't a glass bottle. It was to make a premium energy drink with no sugar or sweeteners. The packaging just needed to explain the brand — and the founders needed to be open to whatever solution worked.

"Know what you are, and what your differentiation is," he says. "Then you just need to find a way to amplify."