Scout Brisson is the CEO of De Soi, a non-alcoholic sparkling aperitif brand co-founded by Katy Perry and Morgan McLachlan. With a technical education from MIT, Scout also brings prior experience from working in consumer packaged goods, starting her own functional food and beverage brand, and working in venture and consulting at McKinsey.
On this episode of DTC POD, Scout joins Blaine to dive into the world of branding, marketing, and entrepreneurship. We talk about Katy Perry's involvement in building her flagship non-alcoholic beverage brand, as well as exploring the lasting trend of health and wellness driving consumer behavior, the importance of social media presence, and the impact of beverage sales in-store. We learn about De Soi's scrappy approach to working with brand ambassadors, finding product-market fit in their direct-to-consumer (DTC) business, and their focus on efficient and sustainable growth.
[00:03:16] Learnings from consulting generalist to startup.
[00:06:22] Katy Perry + Morgan McLachlan create De Soi.
[00:10:36] Health and wellness trends & sober curiosity.
[00:16:02] Katy's role in brand development
[00:20:03] De Soi's DTC launch, media features.
[00:24:54] Strategy: DTC, wholesale, and social media.
[00:31:40] Target audience and location for branding.
[00:34:33] Leveraging Brand ambassadors & events.
[00:37:43] Navigating fundraising and strategy.
[00:41:39] Shift to efficient, sustainable growth and profitability.
Building A Brand With Katy Perry: "It's been really important to us along the way that De Soi is its own brand. It's a brand that resonates with Katie and her personal values, whether that's celebration and fun, if it's empowerment, if it's wellness, but that it also stands on its own because at the end of the day, it is De Soi."— Scout Brisson 16:02
Could Alcohol Disappear Forever?: "Our consumers have they've gone to almond milk and then to oat milk and then back. They're looking at all of these decisions across the board of things that they're consuming or that they're buying, and they're saying, what is the better option? And so when you look at people talk a lot about, at least in my bubble, right, that Gen Z is a generation that just drinks so differently than even millennials or our parents generations. But I'd say millennials and Gen Z are driving this trend of people just drinking less and less every year."— Scout Brisson 10:36
A Nightmare Trend For Booze Companies "but knowing that you want something that feels really indulgent in the moment, but you're pairing this inner and outer wisdom of okay, I want something that tastes really good, hits that sweet tooth, feels very satisfying, but is also going to make me feel physically well afterward."— Scout Brisson 4:00
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Past guests & brands on DTC Pod include Gilt, PopSugar, Glossier, MadeIN, Prose, Bala, P.volve, Ritual, Bite, Oura, Levels, General Mills, Mid Day Squares, Prose, Arrae, Olipop, Ghia, Rosaluna, Form, Uncle Studios & many more.
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Scout Brisson - CEO of De Soi
Ramon Berrios - CEO of Trend.io
Blaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Seated