![]() Before taking out a $50,000 mortgage on his Sausalito condo, Weiner rented a computer at Kinko's where he designed the logo and engaged flavor companies-which worked gratis, he claims, because of his connection to Kanbar-to develop recipes. His breakthrough was thinking cheaper and bigger: a 16-ounce can (usually reserved for beer) at $2 (the price of an 8-ounce Red Bull and that of other rivals). When Weiner suggested that Skyy develop its own energy drink, Kanbar demurred, particularly unimpressed with the name: Rockstar. Red Bull had recently arrived in America and become a bar staple, an easy mixer with vodka. ![]() "He saw I had the guts to stand up with the American flag-and people cursing my name," Weiner says.īut Kanbar didn't see the value in Weiner's big idea. ![]() The campaign did catch the eye of his dad's friend Maurice Kanbar, founder of Skyy Vodka, who quickly hired Weiner. At age 28, following the interests of his talk radio bomb-thrower father, Michael Savage, into conservative politics, he made a doomed run for a California State Assembly seat, receiving 30.5% of the vote. After getting a degree in poli-sci from San Diego State, he hawked spring-break trips to Cancun and Honolulu to high school students. Weiner once soared along a different trajectory. His lack of planning and missed opportunities have allowed his competitors to overtake him-a situation that troubles him not a whit: "Being third right now is a great place to be." His combativeness has cost him key executives and soured a lucrative distribution deal with Coca-Cola. It is a distant third player behind Red Bull and Monster, which started a year after Rockstar.įor starters Weiner might want to get a grip on his shortsightedness-and his short temper. A major reason: He has starved the company of resources. Over the last seven years, with annual growth slowing to 8%-to an estimated $670 million in revenue for 2013-Rockstar has been stuck in an orbit that Weiner can't seem to blast out of. Revenue soared an annual average of 103% from 2001 to 2007, reaching $405 million. Rockstar was a rocket for the first six years of its existence, a cheaper alternative to Red Bull, offering more flavors. You get more than a faint scent of victimhood. Weiner blames the stores ("They're saying they don't need anything more"), his rivals' unyielding grip on the market ("It's hard for us to break through") and brand loyalty that seems out of his control ("How do you shift someone from one thing to basically the same thing?"). "You can't find it." Not because it was sold out, but because it's seldom sold at all: His larger competitors, Red Bull and Monster, have utterly swamped his brand. "I got very depressed going out in Manhattan because there wasn't any Rockstar anywhere," he says.
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