Jordan Buckner (00:00)
Today's guest is Marc Doggett, who's the CEO of Coco5 an athlete-owned hydration brand backed by NBA legends and stars, including Charles Barkley, Devin Booker, D'Angelo Russell. Marc has spent nearly two decades helping build some of the biggest names in sports nutrition and functional beverage, including Liquid IV, Glambia Performance Nutrition. In this episode, I want to invite him on to discuss what it takes to build and scale.

a beverage brand in today's market, why Coco5 is expanding beyond traditional grocery into new channels and lessons from launching the first new flavor in fifteen years and the whole story. So there's a lot to to get into here, Marc, but welcome to the show today.

Marc Doggett (00:39)
Thanks for having me, Jordan. Excited to be here.

Jordan Buckner (00:41)
Of course, of course. So, you know, I've known Coco5 for a long time now. The brand actually started up when I was launching my brand TeaSquares back in the day. And so I kind of saw the brand kind of coming up in Chicago and expanding out from there. But for those who don't know, I'd love for you to just share a little bit about like the story behind the brand and what made you believe in coming onto this brand.

Marc Doggett (01:03)
Yeah, you know, Coco5 is a special brand in the category in itself. just by the way we've got started. The brand was actually a fill in for a local hockey team here in Chicago and they were all using another source of hydration formula and they didn't really like the taste of, you know, the product that they were currently using.

so the head trainer had introduced them to coconut water as it being a a great form of hydration. and they definitely didn't like the taste of coconut water by itself, so it was not a favor of the team. so our founders, Scott Sandler and team had actually formulated Coco5 to still give the deliver the same amount of electrolytes that team would need, to perform well, but it hit on taste. and from there

the brand in itself just exploded in the marketplace in terms of growth into the local market within in the Chicagoland area. The product in itself is, like I said before, is an amazing product. It uses 26% coconut water in the formulation to deliver the five electrolytes, five key electrolytes, hence the name Coco 5. so it delivers the five key electrolytes. But the biggest thing is it delivers on taste as well. So you're not getting your everyday coconut water, which is fine.

but you're you're still getting the the hydration benefits and getting a refreshing drink at the same time.

Jordan Buckner (02:15)
Yeah, I mean I think that's key. And you know, as you well know, building a sports nutrition beverage in the market is exciting but also really challenging, right? Just like you can pee against some really big names out there. But you've helped scale brands like Liquid IV and Glambia performance nutrition. So I'm curious, what are the biggest differences that you've experienced kind of building a beverage brand today versus five or even ten years ago?

Marc Doggett (02:39)
You know, that's a great question. And for those who are listening, it is a much different market than it was five, ten years ago. the consumer five, ten years ago, was a little bit more forgiving, in terms of what they're putting into their bodies, in terms of natural ingredients. If it had natural ingredients in it, great. some of them weren't really the willing to pay a premium for natural ingredients. so we were able to skirt around that a bit. but I think you know what still remains in

The space today that was there then was the integrity, right? And consumers were big on integrity, being able to read labels and make sure that they could pronounce the ingredients that were in their bodies that were that they were putting into their bodies.

level that out and found the right formula, it really you know, those brands really had an opportunity to take off versus today, where the consumer is a bit more educated about what they're putting into their bodies. and are looking for those brands that have the premium ingredients in them and the integrity which we talked which I just talked about that was there 10 years ago is even more magnified now because you know so you can read about these ingredients on social media and you can you know hear about them on a

news segment every day and you know it's at the forefront of our government as well in terms of making sure that you know some better for you items are in the marketplace to date. So I think that consumers and children alike, where 10 years ago you probably had the average youth person that was consuming products and really cared about that was probably, you know, 20 to 20 21 years old and above. Now they're starting younger where you got a lot of kids that are you know 12, 13 years old that are into youth sports that are

cognizant about what they're putting in their bodies.

Jordan Buckner (04:10)
Yeah, you know,

that's always really interesting too, because right, on one hand, sometimes it's the parents driving like, Hey, what is it that you're drinking? What are my kids drinking? But at the same time

Kids are getting more educated on the actual ingredients, nutrition, and questioning what's in there. And you know, taste is always one of the number one factors that's gonna get someone to come back and purchase again, right? You could have the healthiest product, but if it doesn't taste good, then no one's gonna actually come back or want to drink it. And so I'm kinda tears, right? Because the drink has to span this wide audience of the top professional athletes, but then also

you know, maybe young those young kids who are aspiring athletes as well. How do you kind of think about the formula, tastes and all that to appeal to those groups?

Marc Doggett (04:52)
Yeah.

Well, you know, I think the most important thing is for kids to do it right. and doing it right is, you know, always make sure that, you know, the what you're putting into your body is the right thing for you. So check with mom, check with dad, make sure that the that it's the doctor as well and make sure that it's suitable for you. our product is in a natural state, so we're we're confident in that. I think that most of the consumers in today's marketplace are just wanting to find a brand that is that they can be comfortable with.

And I think you know, for us, it's making sure that the ingredients in itself are things that we would consume. We go through a series of tournament testing when launching new flavors and making sure that the consumer will resonate with the products that we're putting into the marketplace as well. And then we're always, you know, looking to find new areas in which we we're starting to see a younger market trend towards. So, you know, that's very important to us because those 12, 13,

14, 15 year olds will someday be 21-year-old adults making decisions for you know not only themselves but for their parents as well. what we find though, which is interesting, Jordan, is that 70% of our consumer base is female. And you know, there's there's reasons to believe why that is. but you know, we're we know that you know, in a grocery store setting, that mom does most of the shopping, and we know that if choose

Mom chooses Coco5 because she believes in the brand, then it helps with the family usage occasion of the product as well. So as much as we'd love to give the credit to some of the younger generation in terms of making decisions, it's really mom that's making sure that the better for you products are in the household and in lunch boxes and in playgrounds at schools.

Jordan Buckner (06:29)
Yeah, no, I think that's definitely key. And so, you know, Marc, I'm always curious, right? Like you when you joined the brand, like what's excited you about coming on to this product, growing it, and how have you started to put your own personal kind of take on where the brand should go?

Marc Doggett (06:46)
You know, y you mentioned earlier about our ownership group and who they were and

you know, y I'd be lying to you if I didn't say that, you know, that was an attraction, you know, in terms of, you know, how do you get into this brand, right, that has all this great star power. but once I picked up the bottle and I tried the product and I was able to look at the ingredient profile in it, that became an by the way, right? you know, you're looking at a product in itself that has brand and label integrity. And that doesn't happen much you know, in a space. Well you'll have some brands that will say

That they have you know natural integrity inside their product, and then there's some little outliers and some sneakers inside of there as well. I think the accreditation from the American Cancer Society was another driving factor for me as well. Because they don't just give anybody an accreditation in terms of put letting letting your their logos live on the side of your bottle. that meant that there was some really heavy research inside of the brand itself. so that drew me to

Into the brand. The contents inside the bottle, the celebrity ownership group, the more importantly, the accreditation from the American Cancer Society were the things that really drew me in. And so when I was able to come into the organization, it really became an opportunity for us to get the brand out into as many miles as we possibly could. And that was the focal point for us.

So

the the easiest thing to say is let's go scale the brand as quick as we possibly can. Right. And dumping into as many stores

Jordan Buckner (08:08)
Yeah, yeah.

Marc Doggett (08:11)
as we can, as many doors as we can. But that wasn't the right strategy for us. The right strategy for us was to use the celebrity ownership that we had in a manner which nobody ever has. And we kicked off in February, started with the organization in January, kicked off in February with a huge

celebration during All Star Weekend, maybe a All Star Weekend, in LA, with our partnership with the with the Hyatt hotel chain at the Andaz Hotel. And that was really our launching pad to get consumers to try the product, boost social media engagement. we had activations, we had street teams out, we were passing out product, we were driving around in the in our rap van. and then that spread around many different cities around the country as we continue

to just try to build more brand awareness and really get consumers to try the product.

Jordan Buckner (08:58)
Yeah, I mean I think that

that sounds like a lot of fun. You really like launch it and do all that,

Marc Doggett (09:01)
Yeah.

Jordan Buckner (09:03)
as a way of like getting on into the world. you know, with the brand kind of been around for a while, when you came out, like what were some of the biggest potential challenges or obstacles the bank brand was facing and how are you taking about kind of solving that?

Marc Doggett (09:16)
Yeah, you know, the brand in itself, just like every brand, you know, you'll hear, you know, our our chairman, Mr. Jim Reynolds say quite a bit that, you know, when you're starting out you lose money, right? And there's a lot of money that you're losing inside of an organization because you're trying to get branding right and you're trying to get, you know, your packaging right and you know, there are a lot of failures that you'll have inside of the retail space as well, right? If you're trying to scale against

you know, a sea of sameness, if you will, in terms of the hydration formulas and sort of hydration sets. and I think that was one of the challenges that we had faced that we were facing was hey, there were some headwinds and some adversity around some of the losses that we had prior to the organization coming prior to the the executive team coming into the organization. How we were able to solve for that is we went out and got a team and an executive team that had you know combined 120

Years of experience in building beverage brands. And I think that's what it really takes in order to have that type of success, is making sure you surround yourself with the right people that come with relationships as well. So I think that was one of the biggest things that we had to solve for was how do we compare ourselves to the past and remember the graveyard, but move forward, right? In terms of you know, having the new leadership team in place and utilizing relationships to not only talk about

this great brand, this great formula, but this great ownership group as well.

Jordan Buckner (10:38)
You mentioned taking a path of, you know, growing the brand in different distribution channels beyond grocery even. So, you know, tell to me about the strategy around expanding Coco5 into other channels like hospitals, travel, hotels, maybe specialty wellness retailers. You know, what kind of opportunities do those channels create for you?

Marc Doggett (10:56)
Yeah, you know, one of the things that we recognize and just being in the space for as long as I have is that, you know, hydration doesn't stop at the gym, right? And and most individuals when you look at a hydration formula you think you have to have some type of workout in order to to be dehydrated. But in fact, you know, in some cases, you know, in the Chicagoland area where you're more dehydrated in the wintertime than you are in the summertime. but we knew that there was different uses occasions that that the product would offer.

And so, you know, some of our partnerships with on premise inside of hotels offer just that for those individuals who were vacationing in the sun and you know needed more hydration. And for those individuals that were traveling through airports, we were are fortunate enough to have partnerships inside of 14 different airports to date, you know, where we offer our hydration product inside of it. and then there are hospitals and opportunities there, right? Where we're currently working back with a big

partner of ours to look at inpatient care inside of hospitals when you think food first opportunities inside of hospitals. so you know there there's a many different opportunities is for you know where this particular product or Coco5 could be used and we want to make sure we that we're hitting on all angles there.

Jordan Buckner (12:05)
Yeah, I think that's exciting. And I think yeah, one of the new retailer partnerships you just launched with and launching with is Costco, right? You just wrapped up with Roach Show and you're going to be launching within Midwest Costco region, which is extremely exciting. tell me about how that all came together.

Marc Doggett (12:20)
Yeah, you know, that's a dream, right? Is you know, for brands, you know, you

Costco's kind of the Mecca, right? And you kind of want to get there. you know, but you want to be careful in terms of how you get there, right? and you know, when we came on on board here, this executive leadership team had a ton of experience in working directly with Costco. but we knew that we had to prove it first. so we proved out our model through road shows at Costco. the consumer absolutely loved the product during our road shows. We did we did five.

five of and that's a lot of road shows to do. For those who don't know what a road show is, you're picking up and you're moving from city to city you know to get consumers to purchase the product inside of Costco.

Jordan Buckner (13:00)
Those are long days, you're like talking

the whole time.

Marc Doggett (13:03)
Yeah

the whole time you're talking and we had an amazing team that did an amazing job inside of those road shows. and because of that, we were able to land into a hundred and twelve Midwest stores inside of the Costco ecosystem, with the with opportunities to expand in other regions. So Southeast and LA and San Diego are and Northwest are all at the top of mind for us right now. So it's an amazing opportunity for us as a brand.

Jordan Buckner (13:28)
Yeah, I mean that's exciting 'cause I think, right, like Costco, one, you're moving volume, but two, you can reach a lot of consumers and become part of that habitual purchase, right? So someone's what pack size are you selling in Costco?

Marc Doggett (13:39)
Yeah, so we're doing a variety pack size and it'll be an 18 pack. and you know it will feature our new grape flavor, which we're we're very excited about. so it'll be available July 6th is when product will start to ship into stores.

Jordan Buckner (13:52)
Yeah, right. And then when you're putting a eighteen count case in someone's home, either that's someone drinking Coco5 every day or family of however many people drinking it throughout the week, and that purchase consumption, right, it just drives that behavior change, where it's great if someone picks up one bottle.

But if they pick up eighteen, most of them they're gonna go through eighteen and sometimes,

Marc Doggett (14:12)
Yeah.

Jordan Buckner (14:13)
especially in this space, right, it's the habit of doing something every day that really drives that behavior adoption. So I think it's you know, beyond just the initial volume, you're creating, you know, loyal customers and fans just through the the drinking occasion.

Marc Doggett (14:27)
Absolutely. Yeah. And you get an opportunity to really

become part of the trusted family of Costco, right? I mean consumers trust Costco. and we're a trusted partner and trusted brand inside of inside of Costco. So we're really excited about that opportunity. And you know, you know, for what it's worth, I mean like it's like I told you earlier, one of the things that really drew me to the brand was an opportunity that they had with the American Cancer Society. And a nickel of every bottle that's pursued goes back towards cancer research. So not only do you get a better for you opportunity inside of Costco, you get an

So I'm really, really proud and excited for for that opportunity inside a club.

Jordan Buckner (15:03)
Yeah, I

think that's really exciting. Yeah, one thing I'm always curious about is that athlete back brands are kind of growing everywhere today, just celebrity back brands as well. For you and the team, how do you think about leveraging the partnership with some of the athlete owners in a way that creates long term value beyond just, you know, initial headlines?

Marc Doggett (15:24)
Yeah, you know, that's a great question and it's funny you say that, right? Because

There are a lot of brands in the marketplace that are athlete backed or endorsed. Our product is athlete owned, right? So these are actually owners of the brand. So there Charles Barkley will appear, you know, you know, and make sure that he is talking about the brand. And we were was just at an event in DC with Michael Wilbon where, you know, he was actually standing at the booth with us and and working and Derek Rose is involved and doing some of these Rose shows in which we're doing and getting on there and shaking hands.

And talking through and talking about the product. So it's a little different when you're when you have an ownership group. Even a Richard Dennon Otis Wilson here in Chicago. They're always out and about. But it's a little different when you have a group that owns the brand and loves the brand and willing to work hard for the brand versus just sitting in the photo shooting, taking some photos and saying drink this particular formula. So we've used them, they've used us to.

We've used them and

Jordan Buckner (16:21)
He

Marc Doggett (16:21)
the in and the matter in which we've used them has been just help us to get out and talk about the brand that they love so much.

Jordan Buckner (16:28)
Yeah, I mean I think that does make a big difference, especially when it's a product that they themselves can drink that's aligned with who they are and what they do, right? Like if you have a celebrity brand where someone might own something but they don't use the product or it doesn't really make sense of what they do, it's not gonna lead to as much, you know, sense for the consumer. But if it's like, hey, these are athletes who are investing in this product that they themselves

consume drink for their own performance, you know, something that they're putting their you know, their weight behind because they actually believe in how it affects them.

Marc Doggett (16:59)
Absolutely. I mean Devin Booker has a refrigerator in in his basketball court full of Coco5. We deliver there quite a bit. And Charles Barkley is, you know, always drinking Coco5. They're inside of that mug it's is not coffee, it's Coco5 inside of that mug. And D'Angelo Russell is constantly I don't know if you've seen his clips on ESPN, but he'll come on and remove the other beverage off the podium and put Coco5 in and Charles Barkley

And Devin Booker will have some Coco5 banter back and forth on national television around, hey, make sure you get your Coco5 after your game, you know. So it is cool to have that ownership group that believes and actually does consume the product on a daily basis.

Jordan Buckner (17:40)
Yeah, that makes a big difference. So looking ahead, what do you believe is gonna separate Coco5 from the other other kind of beverage brands over the next, you know, five years as you continue to get that retail success?

Marc Doggett (17:54)
Yeah. innovation. Innovation gonna be the key for growth, right? And innovation with integrity.

and continue to use you know natural ingredients from natural sources and and i think we you know when we started with the organization our innovation pipeline was non-existent but because you bring that much experience with an executive leadership team innovation pipeline has grown to five years right so now we're looking at a three to five year outlet outlook in terms of what's next and you know we're excited about new flavor systems we're excited about you know new opportunities

With added ingredients and cognitive benefits. You know, there's opportunities there for us. And then just continue to expand within those on-premise locations that we talk through. So hotel chains and airport opportunities for us and continue to do good inside of hospitals and use research that we've been working back with our partners to make sure that you know those better-for-you options are available for those individuals that need it. So I think that's a big part.

of our growth is just continue to innovate both on and in marketplace.

Jordan Buckner (18:55)
I like that. Marc, thanks so much for being on the day, for sharing the story of Coco5 and where you are today. I'm excited to see where the brand continues to grow under your leadership.

Marc Doggett (19:04)
Thanks, Jordan. Appreciate you having us.