Starbucks is out of oat milk... What else is new? Oat milk icon Oatly raised $1.4B in its IPO on Wednesday, snagging a frothy $10B valuation — more than Beyond Meat's market cap. Yesterday, Oatly shares soared 19% during their first day on the Nasdaq. The IPOat eased investors' concerns about IPOs, which have been underwhelming recently. A few things investors were sweet on...
- Sales: Sales of Oatly's sustainable milk ~2X'd in 2020 from 2019 .
- Starbs: In March, Oatly won the milk lottery: a nationwide rollout at Starbucks.
- Stars: The Swedish company is backed by celebs like Oprah, Natalie Portman, and Jay-Z.
My oat milk brings all the boys... to the Starbs. Oat milk is a barista staple today, but for decades after Oatly was born in 1994, it was pretty obscure. Wild stat: the founder of Oatly literally invented oat milk. In 2017, Oatly expanded to the US and launched a major rebrand. That hip, spunky branding has been key to its growth. Oatly's marketing strategy = anti-marketing (see: these murals, these cartons, and this Super Bowl ad). And it's provocative...
Provocative marketing comes with risks... Oatly highlighted its "provocative and unconventional marketing" as a business risk, which could expose it to more scrutiny from food regulators and lawsuits from dairy lobbyists. Oatly's slogan: "It's like milk, but made for humans." But for Oatly, the branding strategy has also come with big rewards. Oat milk is oat milk, but people seek out Oatly specifically, thanks to its "cool brand" factor. That's likely why Starbs chose to feature Oatly, too.