Branding Insights: Why RTD Brands Need a Point of View
August 2026
The ready-to-drink category has moved beyond convenience into identity. As the shelf grows more crowded, the brands winning aren't the ones with the best liquid or the lowest price - they're the ones that look and feel like something a person would want to be seen holding.
A genuine reflection of the consumer
Drink choice has become a genuine identity signal, not a taste preference. People don't just pick a can because it's the best-tasting option on the shelf - they pick the one that says something about them. Whether the personality is free-spirited, sophisticated, or unapologetically fun (cue BuzzBallz), the can has to do that work in about half a second, standing next to twenty others.
That's why RTDs have moved so decisively past one-size-fits-all. Format, colour, name, even whether the drink comes in a can at all, are now personality choices, not just packaging decisions - because shoppers aren't just choosing a flavour, they're choosing which version of themselves shows up at the party.
The brands with something to say
The category has stopped rewarding brands that simply exist on shelf and started rewarding brands with a face. A can with no attitude is invisible no matter how good the liquid inside it is - and increasingly, a strong personality is outperforming category norms altogether, growing even where the wider alcohol market is flat or falling.
Personality beats purity
Some of this shift comes directly at the expense of brands that led with purity and neutrality - the "clean, blank-can" seltzer era. Drinkers have moved on from flavoured alcohol water toward drinks that taste - and look - like an actual point of view. Sunny's Hard Lemonade is a good example of the shift: real juice and low sugar could have been the whole pitch, but instead it's built around Sunny, an actual character with an opinionated, flavour-forward tone a neutral seltzer brand could never get away with.
Brands setting the standard
Moth has become the UK's fastest-growing canned cocktail range on the strength of the same instinct: personality over sameness. Sip Margs makes the case even more directly, positioning itself in its own marketing as "not another zero-carb, zero-flavour hard seltzer" - built on real tequila instead of malt, with bold branding to match a bolder liquid.
Liquid Death is the clearest proof of the whole thesis: non-alcoholic, and yet a seriously strong identity play in the entire category. Skull branding and a "Murder Your Thirst" slogan turned it into a lifestyle brand people opt into, not just a drink they buy - proven by a 225,000-member "Country Club" loyalty programme. BuzzBallz took the same idea further with a distinctive spherical pack that consumers can spot from across a room.
Kocktail is pushing the same instinct even further, ditching the can altogether for a 100ml glass single-serve - ice, garnish and all the ceremony a can or pouch can’t offer. Built on proper spirits like Elijah Craig Small Batch and Hepple Gin rather than neutral base alcohol, and priced under £10 to signal quality over convenience, it’s proof that personality doesn’t have to live on the label alone - it can live in the format itself.
Purposeful & Beautiful
At Studio Minerva, we hold that the strongest RTD brands treat personal style as the product itself, not a layer applied afterward. In a category this crowded, looking distinctive for a season is not enough; the brands pulling ahead are those whose identity is legible in an instant and genuinely worth opting into, built on a clear read of category, consumer and moment, executed with real purpose.
That is what we bring to every project. If you are working on something in this space, or considering it, we would love to talk -hello@studiominerva.co.uk
Explore more of our ARTICLES