Liquid Death Marketing: How a Water Brand Sells Without Discounts

Liquid Death's marketing works because it sells a feeling, not water. The brand turns a commodity into an identity (heavy metal, skulls, "Murder Your Thirst"), then gives its email list reasons to buy that have nothing to do with price: limited flavors, strange collabs, merch drops and early access. That's how a canned water brand reached a $1.4 billion valuation without training customers to wait for a code.

Water is about as commodity as a product gets. Every store sells it, every brand tastes roughly the same, and the cheapest bottle is always within reach.

Liquid Death still sells it for around eight times the price of a store brand.

If you run an ecommerce brand that feels stuck competing on price, this is the case study worth studying. Not because you should copy the skulls. Because the thinking behind it works for almost any product.

By Emiel Dingemans, Founder of Magicianly

Updated November 2026

What Is Liquid Death's Marketing Strategy?

Liquid Death's marketing strategy is to make drinking water feel rebellious and funny, and then sell that feeling through constant newness instead of discounts. The product is still and sparkling water in a tall can. Everything else is brand.

Here's how the pieces fit together:

Liquid Death isn't a Magicianly client. Everything here comes from public reporting and their own emails.

Why Can Liquid Death Charge So Much for Water?

Liquid Death can charge more because you're not buying water. You're buying the funniest, most rebellious version of drinking water. It's simply more fun to hold a Liquid Death can at a party or a concert than a plain plastic bottle.

That's the whole trick. Once the product says something about the person holding it, nobody's checking the price per liter. We explain this lever, and three others, in our guide to premium pricing strategy.

And it's worked. In March 2024 the company raised $67 million at a $1.4 billion valuation, according to its own funding announcement.

Does Liquid Death Use Discounts?

Liquid Death leans on its audience instead of promotions. Founder and CEO Mike Cessario told Modern Retail in 2022: "We don't do a lot of fancy promotion," adding that "we have a huge cult following and email list."

This is the part most brands get backwards. If every weekend brings another 20% off email, you're telling customers your normal price is fake. They add to cart, close the tab and wait.

Liquid Death gives people other reasons to buy now:

• New limited flavors. Like Hot Fudge Sundae sparkling water, made with ice cream brand Van Leeuwen. It's weird, it's funny, and it's only around for a while.
• Collabs nobody expects. Like the Pit Diaper with Depend, pitched as the first mosh pit diaper. Completely unhinged, totally on brand, and exactly the kind of thing people share.
• Merch. Like the Uroclub with golf brand Bad Birdie, a golf club you can pee in. The subject line alone gets opened.

None of these emails say 20% off. They say: this is new, this is fun, and it might not be here for long. That's what keeps the price where it is.

How Does Liquid Death Use Its Email List?

Liquid Death uses its list as an audience for drops, not as a discount channel. For a while, it ran a free membership called the Country Club, where you "sold your soul" (and gave your email) for early access to limited merch drops and other perks. Cessario told Modern Retail that more than 200,000 people had joined.

Think about what that does. Two hundred thousand people signed up to hear about new things first. Not to get a code. That's a list that gets excited about what's new instead of what's cheap.

You can build the same thing at any size. An early access segment for your best customers, a waitlist for new drops, or a simple "you hear about it first" promise in your welcome flow. Our guide to loyalty program emails covers how to reward people without turning it into a second discount channel.

Why Does Liquid Death Sell So Much Merch?

Liquid Death sells merch because its fans want more of the brand, not just more water. Cessario told Modern Retail that more than 50% of people buying water through the Liquid Death website also added merch to their order, and that merch brought in $3 million in 2021.

The most famous drop: 100 skateboards with Tony Hawk's blood mixed into the paint, priced at $500 each. They sold out on the Liquid Death website in under 20 minutes, as The National reported in August 2021.

You don't need a celebrity's blood. But you can ask yourself: what would your best customers buy that isn't your core product? A limited edition, an accessory, a branded item that fits the identity you're selling. Every one of those is a reason to email that isn't a discount.

What Can Your Ecommerce Brand Copy From Liquid Death?

You can copy the system, not the skulls. The point isn't to be edgy. It's to give customers reasons to buy that don't lower your price, and to talk to them directly through your own list.

1. 1Pick the identity your customer buys into. What do they believe about themselves, and what would they never be caught using? Build product pages and emails around that.
2. 2Keep sales to big moments. Black Friday plus three or four other sales events a year is a good starting point. Not every weekend.
3. 3Plan newness on your calendar. Limited editions, new colors, seasonal versions, collabs. Our email marketing calendar shows how to plan these weeks ahead.
4. 4Give your list something only it gets. Early access, first look at new products, list-only perks.
5. 5Use merch or accessories as a second reason to buy. If it fits the brand, it raises order value without touching your margin on the core product.
6. 6Let the subject line carry the personality. Liquid Death's emails are funny on purpose. Your brand voice can be calmer, but it should still sound like you, not like a coupon.

For more campaign ideas that don't rely on a code, see our list of ecommerce email examples.

What Doesn't Translate From Liquid Death's Marketing?

The shock value doesn't translate for most brands. Liquid Death's humor works because the whole brand was built around it from day one. Bolting skulls or crude jokes onto a skincare brand would just feel off.

What does translate is consistency. Every email, drop and collab fits the same identity. That's why it feels like a brand you belong to instead of a store that sends you codes.

And keep in mind that a higher price only holds if customers keep feeling the product is worth it after they buy. That comes down to what you send after the first order, and the second.