ALL ABOUT THE EREWHON CELEBRITY SMOOTHIE

Article Link (Free) + Recap

ARTICLE LINK:

How an Erewhon Celebrity Smoothie Is Born (highsnobiety.com)

Hailey Bieber’s Erewhon Smoothie: How Did a $20 Drink Go Mainstream? | GQ

RECAP:

• Erewhon is a sexier, pricier, and LA-based version of Whole Foods virally dubbed “America’s Most Expensive Grocery Store”. A significant part of their marketing and sales strategy are the limited-edition smoothie collaborations with celebrities.

• The smoothies feature exclusive and expensive ingredients like organic coconut water, Manuka honey, and branded supplements, which are also sold separately.

• Companies pay Erewhon to have their products featured in these smoothies, though the fees are undisclosed. The smoothies, including third-party add-ins, contribute significantly to Erewhon's annual revenue, potentially exceeding $16 million, excluding the additional fees paid by brands for product inclusion.

• The first co-branded shake to date, was content creator Christina Najaar, who goes by Tinx on TikTok in 2021. But it wasn’t until 2022 that the smoothies took off online with Marianna Hewitt’s blue-spirulina-hued “Coconut Cloud”.

• Hailey Bieber's Strawberry Skin Glaze smoothie launched in 2022 and has become a major hit, selling about 40,000 units monthly across Erewhon's 10 locations, generating approximately $760,000 in monthly revenue from this single item.

• Profits of course aren’t all measured in dollars. A well-timed Erewhon smoothie can also double as free promotion for a celebrity’s side-hustle — Bieber, for example, released her drink in tandem with her skincare brand Rhode

• “A big part of [Erewhon]’s allure lies in its ability to facilitate connection amongst its clientele, the idea (not dissimilar to the original teachings of macrobiotics) being that if you are what you eat, and we’re both eating organic roasted almond butter from a mason jar, we must have something in common.” - Isabel Ling

• Celebrities involved in these collaborations are paid $1 per smoothie sold and are encouraged to donate this amount to charity. Erewhon adds another $2 per smoothie sold to charitable causes, adding a philanthropic element to their business model.

• “What is itself a plastic cup with some stuff [inside] that you can make at home, technically, has become literally, like, a symbol of luxury, wealth, status-signaling,” says JayDouzi - a creative consultant who has worked with Erewhon on recent drink collaborations like apparel brand Cactus Plant Flea Market.

• Check out the Balenciaga x Erewhon hoodie