Meet The Disruptors: Brandon Perry Of Island Brands USA On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Disruptive action always seems to be frowned upon by the middle of the bell curve followers. In order to be a disruptor you need to take risks and have a very short memory when people tell you your ideas are crazy or cannot be executed.
Brandon Perry is the Co-Founder, Co-CEO, and CMO of Island Brands USA, a retail-focused beer brand with a mission to bring better, cleaner beer to the world. With nearly 20 years of experience launching and innovating businesses, Brandon has demonstrated an expert ability to grow and scale operations across finance, technology, and SaaS verticals. Since founding Island Brands with friend and co-founder Scott Hansen in 2016, Brandon has been instrumental in steering the company’s brand direction, creating an all-clean alternative to many artificial options currently crowding the market and disrupting the $116 billion domestic beer market by creating an entirely new super premium, non-craft beer vertical.
As Co-CEO and CMO of Island Brands, Brandon is responsible for overseeing the brand’s marketing strategies and spearheading all tech-related advancements. Brandon works closely with the company’s digital-forward innovations, including an app which uses machine learning to identify purchases and assign rewards points accordingly. In 2021, Island Brands became the fastest-growing super premium domestic can family in the Southeast; and, in keeping with Brandon and Scott’s original mission, boasts a line of products that are all-natural, GMO-free and contain zero fillers, zero artificial flavors, zero adjuncts.
In his spare time, Brandon enjoys travelling, live music, and vintage European car culture. He lives in Charleston with his wife and four children.
Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this career path and the creation of Island Brands USA?
In 2016, while growing my fintech company, my co-founder Scott Hansen asked if I wanted to go to Cuba to provide “race support “ for a regatta in which he was participating. While in Cuba, we decided we wanted to bring better beer options to the wonderful Island nation and its people. After assessing the geopolitical challenges (and sobering up), that’s when we noticed an opportunity in the US for a cleaner, better-for-you, super-premium beer brand family that was not only approachable but widely available throughout major retail stores. We had always been passionate about beer and wanted to create a product that could stand up to market competitors while providing a more authentic product.
So, we rolled up our sleeves and got to work designing Island Brands. We were very intentional about creating a timeless design that melded the heritage of Cuba using design components of cigar labels as well as matching the white of the can to represent the white sand beaches of Varadero Cuba. The blue on the top of the can required us to go to the can plant in Denver in order to perfectly match the majestic blue water of the Caribbean .
Tell us a little bit about the brand and what is it about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Our Island Brands USA Brand family is taking some different approaches with our go-to-market strategy. We focus on a retail-first approach and have created a new beer category that straddles between domestic mass market, factory-made beer and artisanal craft brewers.
By implementing a digital-first marketing strategy, we have built a community of enthusiastic fans. Our brand partnerships and attribution, for example, are tied to the newly-launched Island Passport Loyalty App that allows consumers to trade proof of purchases for gear and non-profit donations. Our traction is also evidenced by the fact that we have raised over $4 million using an OPO (crowdfunding) and have broken every record in the American-owned alcohol space on StartEngine for both speed and dollars raised. We have investors on the platform that are outside of our distribution footprint that are coming along for the ride and have never even tasted the beer. They love the branding, our GTM, and our David vs Goliath ability to compete with the biggest conglomerates in the world.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
We recently launched one of our new products and realized, after receiving and proofreading the cans, that there was a significant typo (our other product was listed) on the outer carton. We solved the issue by manually covering 2,500 12-packs with a fun sticker. Lesson learned to check and check again.
Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
I don’t have any specific mentors but I am a voracious reader of topics covering marketing, consumer-packaged goods, and technology strategies, by authors like Tim Ferris and Seth Godin. It has served me well.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Disruptive action always seems to be frowned upon by the middle of the bell curve followers. In order to be a disruptor you need to take risks and have a very short memory when people tell you your ideas are crazy or cannot be executed. As a beer company, we are up against a very archaic industry that has been averse to change for many, many years. Swimming upstream can be very hard and tiresome but if you have the conviction of your vision, you will be able to tune out the naysayers and press on.
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey?
1) Don’t listen to the naysayers
2) Hire people that are smarter than you
3) Take risks and don’t be afraid to fail
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next? What’s in store for Island Brands USA in the future?
We have a lot of work ahead of us when it comes to realizing our goal of making Island Brands USA a global juggernaut in the premium beer and flavored malt beverage (FMB) space. We are super excited to launch our portfolio and brand extensions in the coming year. Whether disrupting beer, hard tea, hard lemonade, or debuting our new flavored low calorie Active, we are ready to show the nation and some of our latest C-store focused FMBs — all set to launch in Q1 of 2022.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
I am a fan of the NPR podcast “How I Built This” as well as the podcast “Masters of Scale’’ hosted by Reid Hoffman of Linkedin fame. I like to hear the challenges of the startup community as well as the solutions being executed in order to move through company growth phases. There are so many similarities in growing companies that are independent of the vertical in which they operate.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
No risk, no reward. I see so many people that are very risk averse in life and business. I am a serial entrepreneur and lean towards the creative side so I think nothing of jumping into a business and taking a chance. Life is short and it should be lived on your own terms.
If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
I believe that all businesses should have a social enterprise and give-back components as part of their bylaws and mission. If every business took that approach it might move the needle. We have incorporated giving back with community-based charities that are tied to our Island Passport loyalty app. Essentially, you can earn points by uploading receipts as proof of Island Brands beer purchases and trade those points for cash donations to a charity on the platform rather than redeeming merchandise.
How can our readers follow you and Island Brands USA online?
IG @Islandcoastallager @Islandactive and personal Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-perry-0287509/ and IG @thebrandonperry
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
Meet The Disruptors: Brandon Perry Of Island Brands USA On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
