The Rock built a $4B tequila business in 1 year

Read time: 4 minutes

Hey there 👋 - it's Brian.

In today's issue, we'll talk about how stand out among the competition. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson built a ~$4B tequila brand in less than a year!

His secret to stand out among 1,500+ brands?

Storytelling.

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The Rock has a passion for tequila

The Rock is one of the most accomplished people alive.

• In 2013, he brought in more revenue than any actor in the world ($1.3B)

• Wrote a New York Times best selling autobiography - "The Rock Says"

• At 26, he was the youngest world champion wrestler

• Won a college football national championship

So naturally, his next bet? A personal passion.

The Rock has always been passionate about people. He feels sharing drinks is one of the best ways to bring people together.

He wanted to bring people together around his favorite drink: tequila. So he's making a business out of it.

It's a big bet for the Rock. He's building the business from the ground up so he has a lot to learn. What makes a good agave plant, how to distill quality tequila, distribution etc.

It's not easy, and he could fail, but he's up for the challenge.

The tequila market is hard to break in to

Tequila is only made in Jalisco, Mexico so you'd think there's only room for a few brands.

Nope. There's over 1,500.

Luckily, he has a powerful personal brand as an advantage to help him break into the market. 15 celebrities have tried to use their brand name to make tequila, but only George Clooney had success when he sold Casamigos for $1.3B in 2017.

So what makes Teremana different from the 15 other celebrity tequilas?

The Rock's emphasis on storytelling.

Teremana tells a story about the people

People are emotionally persuaded to buy, then they back up their emotional decision with logic.

Stories help package the emotional journey in a way customers can easily understand. The business that tells a strong story that emotionally persuades the customer to buy will win. The Rock takes full advantage.

From the beginning, he's made Teremana "the People's tequila." That desire to bring people together filters through every part of the business:

Aspiration:

Execution: High-quality production (so everyone wants to share the great taste) and low price (so everyone can afford it).

This makes the tequila wanted by the people, and accessible.

Marketing: The Rock goes on Instagram Live every Tuesday so you can drink Teremana together with him and people around the world. He calls it Teremana Tuesdays.

Makes you feel like you're sharing a drink with him and millions around the world.

The result? Teremana broke sales records

Teremana launched in 2020 and has since sold over 600,000 cases.

To put that in context, when George Clooney sold Casamigos in 2017, they sold 170,000 cases.

Teremana broke the record for most cases sold in one year (300,000) and is on track to join only 6 other tequilas selling over 1 million cases.

How to build a brand around your customer story like the Rock

To get more customers, you need a strong position (Twitter thread: how to know if your positioning needs improvement) and to craft a story around that position.

Let's craft that story together:

1) Write down who your target customer is

If we're going to persuade the customer that we understand their pain and are the best solution to their problem, we need to understand them better than anyone else. That include their:

• Demographics (Twitter thread: how to identify customer demographics to focus on)

• Pain points (Newsletter: how to identify customer pain points - better than anyone)

• Goals (HBR article: understand jobs to be done)

Let's use Teremana as an example:

Target Demographics:Household income: $50k - 100kNote: the Rock targets a far broader audience than most businesses should. His personal brand lets him pull this off. The majority of businesses need to target an uncomfortably specific customer type.

Pain:Quality tequila is too expensive. If we try to get family and friends together, we're either breaking the bank or stuck with poor tasting tequila (that burns your throat!)

Goals:We want a taste our family and friends can enjoy, a price point that we can buy more frequently, and a drink that loosens everyone up so we can have a good time together!

2) Write your brand's story (how the customer is in pain and you're the help)

This story is about the customer.

Make them the hero, their problem is the "villain" and you are the guide who will give them a plan to overcome their pain.

Here are the 7 steps you need to build your story:

3) Tell this story in your marketing

Most ads won't tell the entire story (all 7 steps together), but rather focus on a few steps. Some examples:

• Personify the villains and throw rocks at them

• Target your hero's pain in your marketing

• Make yourself the guide and give them a plan

• Help customers envision how horrible their pain will be if they don't follow your plan

• Help them imagine how incredible their life will be with your plan succeeds

Teremana's ads focus on two messages:1) High-quality product2) Shared with all kinds of people around the world

Ready to grow your business?

That should be enough to start building your brand's story and get more customers to buy!

If you want help, reply to this email with "I'd love help with my growth" and I'll point you to resources to help.

I read every email and will answer your questions in future content.

See you again next week!

Brian

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