For a brand to achieve longevity, it needs to be willing to reinvent itself. It’s a lesson Alex Matthews, a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Mexican soda brand De La Calle, knows all too well. In 2023, Alex had to make a change in order to continue growing De La Calle’s audience and scale to meet profitability goals.
Ahead, Alex breaks down how his beverage company underwent a strategic repositioning, and why it was a natural evolution of his brand’s journey.
De La Calle’s original positioning
“De La Calle,” which translates to “from the street” in Spanish, is a company rooted in the rich traditions and flavors of Mexico. Initially launched in 2021, De La Calle sought to bring the traditional Mexican beverage tepache—a fermented drink made from pineapple rind, usually found sold by street vendors—to the US market. Alex’s co-founder, Rafael Martin del Campo, is from Mexico City and had a family recipe that he learned to make from his grandmother, which became the basis of De La Calle.
Initially, the product was positioned as an upscale, fermented beverage, similar to kombucha. “Tepache is this fermented beverage from the streets of Mexico,” Alex explains. “It’s good for your gut, delicious, and celebrates the flavors of Mexico.”
However, the company soon realized that this positioning might be too niche for the broader US market, which was unfamiliar with tepache. De La Calle had confidence in the product, but it needed to simplify the brand’s message. “It was about making a little change that isn’t a complete revolution but crisps up the description,” Alex says.
The rebranding process
The company decided to shift from a fermented beverage to a “Mexican soda.” This new positioning aimed to unlock existing demand from both general American consumers and the growing Latino demographic in the US who were already familiar with Mexican sodas. “I think describing it as a Mexican soda unlocks a lot of that existing demand from those second- and third-generation Latinos, but also from other ethnic groups as well,” Alex says.
The company took a meticulous approach to the rebranding process, updating the packaging to make “Mexican soda” more prominent and simplifying the can’s design. Alex says one of the key questions he asks in any rebranding process is: “Is the packaging working as hard as it can for you without there being attribute overload?”
Alex wanted to capitalize on the trend of healthier-for-you sodas, and he believes the “modern Mexican soda” descriptor will entice customers to learn more about the health benefits of the fermented drink. De La Calle
Adjusting production and distribution strategy
Part of the rebranding strategy was also to reduce the price from $3.29 at Whole Foods to $2.49 at more affordable retailers, to make the product more accessible to a broader audience. “What we realized is that, as part of becoming a Mexican soda, you start to have to think a bit more strategically about what kind of customer you’re really going after,” Alex says, explaining he wanted the product to be stocked in places his customers were already shopping. This strategic shift meant getting stocked in Latino grocery stores, like Superior or Cardenas Markets, along with continuing to grow at Whole Foods, Kroger, and other chains.
To ensure the new price point was sustainable, De La Calle also had to change its production and distribution. The company made its drink shelf-stable, so it no longer had to be shipped in a cold box or sold from a cooler at the store. By leveraging economies of scale and optimizing their supply chain, De La Calle could maintain quality while making the product more affordable.
Embracing broader markets while staying authentic
Ultimately, the rebranding of De La Calle wasn’t just about changing the product’s outward appearance, but about aligning it more closely with the brand’s mission to get tepache in front of a broader audience. By positioning De La Calle as a modern Mexican soda, Alex Matthews and his team have paved the way for greater market penetration and consumer acceptance.
“It’s so interesting because it is just a switch from a few words, from ‘tepache’ to ‘Mexican soda,’ but it feels like it’s the seed for a redirection and it’s a greater simplification and clarification for the consumer,” says Alex, emphasizing the power of subtle branding changes.
To learn more about De La Calle’s rebranding journey, listen to Alex’s full interview on Shopify Masters.
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