AMA : Cocktail Kits for the Sober Curious
An Ask-Me-Anything submission from Mikhael in Prague
Every month, I select a few Ask-Me-Anything submissions and post a direct response on The Journey with advice and practical approaches. It’s a bit like ‘Dear Abbey’, but for builders with a headache.
Need some advice?
The Question
Hi there—I’m building a DTC subscription box featuring small-batch non-alcoholic spirits and curated zero-proof cocktail kits. My early community seems interested (lots of newsletter signups and social follows), but conversions to the first purchase are much lower than I’d hoped. Maybe I got market fit wrong?. Where would you look first to diagnose the problem, and what signals would you look for to tell if it’s worth iterating or pivoting? Thanks from Prague, Mikhael.
The Answer
You’ve got signs of traction—followers, signups, and a clear trend backing your service. That’s a strong starting point. I use the word ‘service’ instead of ‘product’ intentionally—thinking about your business like a service will help. What’s the value that you’re providing to customers that’s differentiated from what’s already available? The curation, creativity, and your expertise in crafting an experience for the end-consumer. After all, non-alcoholic cocktail recipe books have been around for decades. What are you doing that’s different?
The opportunity to serve the sober-curious with a cocktail kit offering is supported by demographic and trend data. People are consuming less alcohol per capita in most western countries (even in Czechia where consumption rates are amongst the highest in Europe). If young people (under 30) are similarly driving consumption downwards in Czechia like they are in North America, then that might be one signal to look at to refine your market fit.
Before we get into looking for problems, let’s take a second and recognize what you’ve accomplished so far—you started, and you have early interest. That’s not insignificant, getting momentum is often the earliest hurdle for entrepreneurs and builders. You’re moving, and that’s good. Keep doing so.
Now, for how to zero in on the problems and keep building :
Before assuming the problem is market fit, let’s first rule out a more common culprit: traffic quality or volume. The first thing I would do is look at your behavioural data—what’s your rate of conversion, or what are your paid signups relative to the number of people who see the offer? On a landing page, this is the math for it :
% = [ purchases / unique visitors ] * 100
Then, look for some comparable data to benchmark against (ChatGPT’s deep research feature is great for this). This will give you a sense of how you perform compared to peers. If you’re converting at roughly the same rate as the benchmark or better than it, then you might have a reach problem instead of a market fit problem. So the question becomes, how do you reach more qualified traffic?
If you’re significantly worse than the benchmark, then it’s time to look more closely at market fit. Start with pricing. How do you compare in price to similar or competing offerings? And, what’s in your subscription compared to other offerings (why would someone buy it, what’s special about it?).
There’s a simple truth about pricing an offering :
[Price] = [Perceived Value] + [Cost]
Or, the difference between what a consumer will pay for a good or service and what it costs to produce that good or service is the value which you add to it. For example, you deliver a box of food and beverage ingredients that cost 21.00 € to produce and deliver. But you curated the recipe, created a guide for an experience which gives the consumer some happiness (utility), and perhaps you filmed a fun video demonstrating how to make the cocktail or maybe you even organized a group masterclass where your subscribers can join to meet and participate in shared sense of community.
That’s a value-add which enhances the price that you can charge. What’s it worth? An extra ten euros? Twenty? Even if your competitive research shows that you’re priced higher than similar offerings, you don’t necessarily have to embark on a cost-cutting exercise to join the pack.
After looking at pricing (and your mix of value-added components), talk to your customers. A simple way to do this is through an exit popup on your landing page (you likely won’t have high engagement with this, but you also won’t exert ongoing effort to collect feedback). Another method of collecting feedback is to send a survey to your customers who did subscribe, and ask them why (you could also speak to them on a call or an in-person meeting if desired—there’s immense value in building relationships with customers).
As for what signals to look for to tell you when it’s time to pivot… that’s much more difficult and subjective. There’s no good, one-sized-fits-all answer. Trust your gut, and always be looking for opportunities to improve and move on them. At this stage of your growth, you’ll likely be performing micro pivots frequently as you explore what works and what doesn’t.
Ask yourself this question—what can I do that makes this business less of a commodity and more of a unique solution?
I’ve personally always prized this mantra : do what others aren’t.
When you’re just like every other business or brand in the same space, all that you have left to compete on is lower prices—and that’s a death spiral for all but the largest and most capitalized businesses. It’s also boring, which is a sickness for the creative soul.
The winning brands in any emerging category don’t just follow trends—they shape them. Your challenge isn’t just to deliver zero-proof cocktails—it’s to give your audience an experience they can’t find anywhere else. That’s your edge. Build from there.
Feedback
Improving The Journey is a journey in itself. Want to send me some feedback on this post? Click here (it’s completely anonymous) : https://6catalysts.ca/subscribe/the-journey-feedback/.