Right off the bat, let me say I'm not much of an energy drink kinda guy. I think Red Bull is pretty much just a way to ruin a perfectly good shot of Jägermeister. When I lived in Brazil for a month, I did get hooked on Guarana soda, but that stuff was low octane compared the the 27 cafezinhos I drank on a daily basis.
So it was with some trepidation that I accepted an invitation to learn about Lotus, a new premium energy drink being launched in Nashville. When I did a little online research beforehand, I became even more concerned. Shots of previous launch parties featured throngs of beautiful spokesmodels and buff men with popped collars and Ed Hardy shirts strutting around chugging small cans of Lotus that looked like generic AA batteries in their massive paws. Not that there's anything wrong with it, but that's just not my scene.
However I was intrigued by the local angle to the story. You see, Lotus Premium Energy Drink is the brainchild of three Nashville siblings, Li Jackson and her brothers Jay and Thomas Umboh. All three graduated from local high schools and started careers after college. Then a year ago, the Umbohs decided they wanted to reunite for a family business venture. They conducted a lot of market research to determine what sort of product they wanted to create, they chose the premium energy drink space, long dominated by Red Bull and Monster.
Underscoring the importance of marketing when dealing with the JägerBomb/beer pong demographic, the first things they developed was the product name and logo. I think they did a pretty good job with a bold image of a dragon and a lotus flower that would make a kickass tattoo. Next, they found a beverage manufacturer in Austria, the same country were Red Bull is produced. Because, y'know, that's apparently where all the energy is...
