Sara Hendershot - Is This the Next Billion Dollar Bottled Water Brand?

On this episode, we're joined by Sara Hendershot, VP of Marketing at Loonen - the glass bottled water brand that starts with a spring source, purifies it, remineralizes it, and tests every batch for over 350 contaminants. Sara was previously Director of Marketing at Momentous, and before that a two time world champion and 2012 Olympic rower for Team USA. Sara breaks down how Loonen pairs a high quality spring source with purification, remineralization using Celtic sea salt, glass only bottling, and third party testing for 350+ contaminants printed on every bottle. We get into the brand build: designing for heritage instead of trend (Levi's and L.L.Bean were the references), choosing yellow and blue to cut through a shelf of clear glass and white labels, and engineering a six pack box that can actually ship glass, and which storytelling hooks landed once they hit market. A big part of the conversation focuses on go to market: pricing at $3.79 at Sprouts versus the Amazon six pack, consolidating still and sparkling under one parent listing, growing almost entirely organic with zero paid influencers, and landing a first national account six months after launch. --------------- Episode Highlights: 🐦 The loon: monogamous to one lake until it gets contaminated 💧 The first water that is both spring sourced and purified 🧪 Testing for 350+ contaminants when the FDA requires almost none 🍼 Clara's IVF story and the water lab on her kitchen counter 🏭 Ripping out PVC pipes and replacing them with stainless steel 🎨 Building a heritage brand (Levi's, L.L.Bean, yellow and blue) 📦 Engineering a six pack box that ships glass without breaking 💸 $3.79 at Sprouts vs the Amazon six pack sticker shock 📈 The storytelling hooks that landed and the ones that didn't 🛒 Landing Sprouts off cycle six months after launch 🛻 Route rides, field blitzes, and why every new hire sells 📊 The Amazon playbook: parent listings and organic traffic 🔮 Raising the standard for the entire bottled water category --------------- Table of Contents: 00:00 – Intro 00:37 – Loonen origin story and what the brand actually is 03:20 – Clara and David: IVF, endocrine disruptors, and Spindrift 05:15 – Why an Olympian started paying attention to her water 06:35 – The bottled water category and why nobody fixed it 09:30 – Sourcing springs and the story behind the loon 12:05 – Educating consumers without fear mongering 14:00 – Competing inside the glass bottled water set 16:20 – Building a heritage brand and standing out on shelf 18:15 – Pricing at Sprouts vs pricing on Amazon 20:15 – The storytelling hooks that actually landed 22:35 – Channel sequencing and the Sprouts launch 25:15 – Route rides and selling in the field 29:20 – The Amazon playbook 32:45 – Demos, field blitzes, and organic social 36:45 – Distributors and brokers 39:15 – Lessons from David Kimmell on scaling beverage 41:45 – Success, standards, and what keeps her up at night --------------- Links: Loonen – https://loonen.com/ Follow Sara on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahendershot/ Loonen on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/loonen/ Follow me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg/ For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out KitPrint. Shout out to my friends over at Glimpse, the go-to partner for automating retail-related back-office operations and unlocking margin trapped in invalid fees and manual processes. Are you in the market for a new flexible packaging partner? Check out HD Packaging. Third-generation, family-owned and built for the needs of category leaders like Newman’s Own and A Dozen Cousins. Faster launches, lower costs, and no artwork fees.