For a brand to achieve longevity, it needs to be willing to reinvent itself. It’s a lesson Alex Matthews, a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Mexican soda brand De La Calle, knows all too well. In 2023, Alex had to make a change in order to continue growing De La Calle’s audience and scale to meet profitability goals.
Ahead, Alex breaks down how his beverage company underwent a strategic repositioning, and why it was a natural evolution of his brand’s journey.
De La Calle’s original positioning
“De La Calle,” which translates to “from the street” in Spanish, is a company rooted in the rich traditions and flavors of Mexico. Initially launched in 2021, De La Calle sought to bring the traditional Mexican beverage tepache—a fermented drink made from pineapple rind, usually found sold by street vendors—to the US market. Alex’s co-founder, Rafael Martin del Campo, is from Mexico City and had a family recipe that he learned to make from his grandmother, which became the basis of De La Calle.
Initially, the product was positioned as an upscale, fermented beverage, similar to kombucha. “Tepache is this fermented beverage from the streets of Mexico,” Alex explains. “It’s good for your gut, delicious, and celebrates the flavors of Mexico.”
However, the company soon realized that this positioning might be too niche for the broader US market, which was unfamiliar with tepache. De La Calle had confidence in the product, but it needed to simplify the brand’s message. “It was about making a little change that isn’t a complete revolution but crisps up the description,” Alex says.
The rebranding process
The company decided to shift from a fermented beverage to a “Mexican soda.” This new positioning aimed to unlock existing demand from both general American consumers and the growing Latino demographic in the US who were already familiar with Mexican sodas. “I think describing it as a Mexican soda unlocks a lot of that existing demand from those second- and third-generation Latinos, but also from other ethnic groups as well,” Alex says.
The company took a meticulous approach to the rebranding process, updating the packaging to make “Mexican soda” more prominent and simplifying the can’s design. Alex says one of the key questions he asks in any rebranding process is: “Is the packaging working as hard as it can for you without there being attribute overload?”