Love at Flirt Sight

Monster Beverage Corporation, whose portfolio includes almost a dozen different energy drinks including the eponymous Monster Energy, has just launched FLRT, an energy drink “with benefits” that packs 200mg of caffeine into four different flavors with zero-sugar: Strawberry Fling, Guava Lava, Berry Tempting, and Sunset Squeeze. FLRT was first announced in November of last year and was presented as a product squarely aimed at women. Despite some complaints about the heavy gendering of the product, FLRT pushed forward with an overt “female” aesthetic. At the link, Eve Macdonald, a Growth Strategist at Leeds, UK-based KISS Branding, argues why that is a bad idea and why Monster didn’t even have to chase a market it already, in part, had.