Moving with the times: How White Claw maintains its dominance in the hard seltzer category.

The brand's meteoric rise to fame is well publicized: essentially carving out the hard seltzer category in 2019 with the Summer of White Claw.

But hard seltzer brands now face an increasingly tricky battle to hold onto their market share.

To start with, Americans are drinking less. What’s most important is that it’s young adults that are progressively less likely to use alcohol. Gallup has tracked alcohol consumption among Americans since 2001 and finds that younger adults are less likely to be classed as regular drinkers​.

In 2001-2023, 67% of younger adults (aged 18-34) said they’d had an alcoholic drink in the past seven days. The most recent poll – covering 2021 to 2023 – found this figure had dropped to 61%.

And it’s younger consumers who have traditionally driven the latest trends: whether than be the rise of craft beer in the 1990s and 2000s, the escalation of hard seltzer in 2019, or the boom of RTDs in recent years.

Hard seltzer has been reported to be on the demise. But 28% of US adults aged 21+ still say they’ll be drinking hard seltzer this summer,​ according to Civic Science. 

As for which brands they’re reaching for, there’s no surprise: in number one place it's White Claw, followed by Truly.

And it’s Gen Z adults aged 21-24 are a key driver behind the summer White Claw interest. By focusing on this demographic, hard seltzer can adapt to changing preferences and stay relevant, notes the consumer analytics platform. 

Want to stay relevant? Look at what's trending...

So how does White Claw plan to innovate to stay at the top of its game moving forward?

The secret comes in embracing its strengths - one of which is flavor expertise - then working out how to create drinks unlike any other. 

This summer’s big launch is White Claw Tequila Smash: a drink that’s been more than three years in the making and led to company to the lowlands of Jalisco, Mexico, where the company now sources Tequila from.

On the same farm, White Claw invented a way to capture a liquid with the freshest, most aromatic flavors of agave before they’re lost in the Tequila-making process: called Agua Dulce.

That helps White Claw bring out it’s key selling point – flavor expertise – blending the best tequila flavors with complementary Mexican fruits ‘in a whole new way’.

Strawberry guava (a native Mexican plant used in drinks such as aguas frescas, with the rich strawberry flavor pairing well with tequila's roasted agave notes); pineapple passion fruit (another aguas fresca favorite); mango tamarind (a fruit found in sweet and savory Mexican food); and lime prickly pear.

Unlike RTD margaritas – which often come with lots of sugar – White Claw Tequila Smash has no added sugar, and 100 calories per 12 oz can.

“Following the success of our White Claw Vodka + Soda launch last year, we seized the opportunity to bring decades of beverage research and flavor innovation to another popular spirit, Tequila," said Phil Rosse, President, Mark Anthony Brands Inc, at the time of the launch.

Tequila is clearly a winning bet for White Claw: and perhaps an inevitable move for the brand giving the trending spirit.

More inventive, however, was January’s launch of White Claw 0%.

While the drink clearly taps into the demand for low and no alcohol options, it represents a ‘radically new beverage’ in that it’s designed to combine White Claw flavors with hydrating electrolytes while replicating the complexity of alcohol.

It’s category blurring at its finest: tapping into the trend for alcohol-free drinks as well as a desire for functional beverages that offer more than just hydration.

The brand has been tight-lipped on the exact technologies it’s using, although revealed it is not a dealcoholized product: ‘After years of research and breakthroughs including development of our proprietary plant-based sweetener technology, White Claw has found a unique way to make beverages that have all the taste and complexity you expect in an alcoholic beverage, made non-alcoholic from the start, so it's not a lesser version of anything, it's more.’

Rosse said that – despite the growing number of alcohol-free options on the market – many brands fail to deliver on what consumers actually want.

"The industry is ripe for disruption as demand for flavorful, non-alcoholic drinks is on the rise, but current options like excessively sweet mocktails, bland waters, and near-beers are disconnected from what today's adult drinkers want," he said.

Sceptics have been quick to point out that a non-alcoholic hard seltzer is a… seltzer – but they also point out that’s not a bad thing.​

As with the very original White Claw, it will be the product’s branding and lifestyle positioning that makes it a success.

Keep innovating

It's early days for the 2024 launches, but Kevin Brady, Vice President of Marketing at Mark Anthony Brands, says he can see the innovations are already resonating with consumers.

"Innovation is at the center of everything we do at White Claw and this year has been filled with new offerings to better meet the needs of our consumers," he told us.

"We kicked off 2024 and Dry January with the launch of White Claw 0% Alcohol to provide a solution for consumers considering a sober curious lifestyle or just don’t feel like drinking alcohol.

"More recently, we introduced our first tequila-based offering, White Claw Tequila Smash to surprise consumers with a product that leans in on the tremendous rise in popularity of tequila.

"Both of these new offerings bring our flavor expertise to the forefront for a drinking experience you won’t find in any other beverage.

"And our continued disruptive nature is paying off in consumer response. We’ve received high praise from fans who have really embraced our new brand ethos to “Grab Life By The Claw" with our new and fan-favorite beverages this summer."