Case 42 — Owala · Steve Sorensen · 2020

Your best product just flopped under your best-known brand. Do you fix the marketing, give up on the category, or launch the same bottle under a name nobody has heard of?

You run a private Utah family company whose business is BlenderBottle, a protein-shake mixer sold in gyms, sports shops and big-box stores. You noticed customers using their shakers as everyday water bottles, and you have spent years designing a dedicated water bottle with a lid that solves a real complaint: it has both a hidden straw for sipping upright and a wide spout for tilting and swigging. You launched it under the BlenderBottle name, and it largely failed. Buyers did not understand why a shaker brand's bottle was for drinking water. Meanwhile the steel bottle market is crowded, with Hydro Flask and Yeti established and Stanley beginning to stir. You hold a design patent on the mouthpiece and you have retail relationships that most start-ups would envy.

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