Embracing New Trends to Grow a Brand

Image: Makers Mark paper straws

​Corporate Challenge: Discovering ways to optimize new trends.

Ironbound Strategy: Market spaces are constantly changing.  Avoid brand stagnation by constantly creating value for customers, employees, and society.

Ironbound Action:  Kentucky based Makers Mark became one of the first brands to put their logo on paper straws.  Millennials have been seeking solutions to the 390 million plastic straws used daily in the United States, and placed pressure on companies to stop using them.  The old-fashioned paper straw (patented in 1888) has seen stellar growth as companies like the Walt Disney Company committed to ending their use of plastic straws by 2020.  Changing market spaces create opportunities for brands to attract new customers.  Brands that leverage environmental trends are viewed favorably by millennials, the incoming largest consumer demographic.
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​* In 2007 a handful of environmentalists created Aardvark Straws, to make sustainable ‘Made In USA’ paper straws.  By 2016, their manufacturing facility was overwhelmed with orders and was subsequently bought out by Wellspring Capital to scale their facility and meet market demands.
 
** Companies such as Starbucks and McDonalds, as well as hospital systems nationwide have plans to transition from plastic straws to paper straws.  The paper straw market is expected to experience year-over-year exponential growth for the next decade.