I spent some time with Todd Woloson, Lance Gentry and the crew at Izze Beverages. They’ve got a great line of products, six flavors of sparkling juice, and a deep commitment to transparency and dialogue with their customers. While many companies focus their strategic thinking around current market needs by getting into a conference room and divining the future (or attempting to). Such a path is a very inside-out or top-down approach. In a reversal of this traditional process, exceptional companies, like Izze, use an outside-in approach, or bottom-up strategy, to focus their thinking on engaging in a dialogue with other members of their community, allowing them to co-create with their customers. I love Izze’s “Live Well, Do Good” philosophy. Here’s what they have to say on their web site:
“Taking good care of ourselves is important to us at IZZE, in part because we know that when we feel our best, we do our best work. And because we also believe that living fully means contributing to a greater good, our company has a special commitment to cultural discovery through philanthropic action.”
Such a holistic, organic strategy allows any company to continually recontextualize and reframe their brand, making the necessary adjustments needed to evolve with their customers and community.
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