# Liquid Death curiosity packaging in boring category

> Use packaging that makes people stop and ask a question when the category normally trains them to ignore the shelf.

- Canonical HTML: https://growth.iangoh.com/growth-ideas/liquid-death-curiosity-packaging-in-boring-category/
- Source: [beveragedaily.com](https://www.beveragedaily.com/Article/2024/06/19/Liquid-Death-s-marketing-and-brand-building-strategy/)
- GrowthDex source hub: [BeverageDaily: Liquid Death on its marketing magic](/sources/beveragedaily-liquid-death-on-its-marketing-magic-beveragedaily-com/)
- Last checked: 2026-06-07T03:58:02.000Z
- Rarity: uncommon
- Budget: medium
- Channels: Brand, Retail, Word of Mouth
- Stages: packaging, curiosity gap, retail shelf, cpg differentiation


## Why this can grow

Water is one of the hardest categories to make memorable because the functional promise is almost identical across products. Liquid Death used tallboy cans, a skull, and deliberately strange language to create curiosity before the first sip. That matters because a new brand has only a few seconds in the feed or on the shelf. Curiosity buys those seconds. It also gives early customers something to repeat: “why does this water look like that?” The tactic works when the packaging is not random shock. It has to connect to a social context where the product becomes easier to hold, order, or talk about.

## Ian's take

From scaling consumer platforms across MENA and Southeast Asia, my default is to distrust growth work that only looks good in a slide. My bias is to treat this as a small market test first. Make the audience narrow, make the promise concrete, and let the first real response decide whether it deserves more work. I would run it small enough to learn quickly, then only scale the parts that real users repeat, save, reply to, or buy from. For this tactic, I would watch one clear growth signal before putting more time or budget behind it.

## Action plan

1. Define one narrow startup segment where liquid death curiosity packaging in boring category can create a measurable lift.
2. Turn the tactic into one offer, page, campaign, or workflow for the Brand and Retail channel.
3. Use the evidence from beveragedaily.com to set the first version of the message, format, and audience.
4. Launch a small test for 7 to 14 days with one success metric: one measurable growth signal.
5. Review the result, keep the winning message, remove weak variants, and turn the learning into a repeatable growth playbook.

## Source-backed example

Liquid Death packaged water in energy-drink-like tallboy cans with the Murder Your Thirst idea, making a healthy drink feel more at home in music, party, and alcohol-replacement occasions.

## Adjacent tactics in the same lane

- [Liquid Death category expansion after brand permission](/growth-ideas/liquid-death-category-expansion-after-brand-permission/) - same source, 2 shared channels
- [Liquid Death entertainment-first healthy product marketing](/growth-ideas/liquid-death-entertainment-first-healthy-product-marketing/) - same source, 1 shared channel
- [Liquid Death retail launch with broader audience stunt](/growth-ideas/liquid-death-retail-launch-with-broader-audience-stunt/) - 2 shared channels

## Read GrowthDex essays

Browse the plain-English essay index at [GrowthDex Blog](/blog/).

## Related GrowthDex essays

- [The boring product needs a story people want to repeat](/blog/the-boring-product-needs-a-story-people-want-to-repeat/) - consumer brand, cpg, brand-led growth

## Advisory

If you want help turning this into a working growth system, Ian Goh offers advisory at https://iangoh.com/advisory.