"Did I mention I own a gin company?"
Hey Snackers,
The hot new toy from Fisher-Price: "My Home Office," an 8-piece playset for preschoolers featuring fake laptop, fake headset, and fake latte. If only WFH were as easy as taking calls from a wooden iPhone — guess we gotta start them early.
The S&P 500 jumped to start the week but closed just short of its February record high (again). Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq notched a record close.
Sounds like a European EDM DJ... Actually the world's largest liquor maker. Diageo is the liquor legend behind cabinet classics like Don Julio, Baileys, and Smirnoff. Its 200+ alcohol brands are sold in 180 of the world's 195 countries (#flex). Its annual report looks like a lifestyle mag (Johnnie Walker-filled mason jars abound). Soon, it'll get some Deadpool cocktails:
Big faces = big money... Aviation won't be Diageo's 1st celeb-backed brand. In 2007, Diageo teamed up with P. Diddy to sell Ciroc vodka. In 2017, it dropped $700M+ for George Clooney's Casamigos tequila.
Celebs come with built-in brand equity... Brand equity = the extra value companies can squeeze from customers thanks to perception of their brand. Diageo’s OG portfolio = stuffy old liquor brands that don’t excite us. Diageo can win younger drinkers with Ryan's Millennial-friendly face (and charge extra). Its big investment will save it years (and millions) trying to make a new brand pop off. FYI, cosmetics giant Coty used the same strategy by acquiring Kylie Cosmetics.
Just the batteries... Sounds like the RXBAR of electric vehicles. Tesla stock surged 11% yesterday partly because an analyst pre-praised its new battery tech (which, BTW, hasn't even been revealed yet):
Tesla's Hinge interests... Obsessed with batteries. After all, batteries put the "electric" in Electric Vehicle. Tesla currently produces batteries with Panasonic at its Gigafactory in Nevada. It also sources them from companies in China and South Korea. It wants to do more:
Tesla has a lot of EV competition... Bigger players like VW, Ford and GM are ramping up EV production (at lower price points). And governments are tossing around EV subsidies to encourage more environmental cars — Germany recently offered $7K off EVs priced under $45K (not helping Tesla). On the luxe side, Lucid just teased an EV sedan with a record single-charge range. It's highly unlikely that Tesla will ever get a majority of the EV market, but batteries have a higher barrier to entry. Tesla might have an edge there.
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Correction: In yesterday's Snacks, we mentioned that all apps go through either Apple or Google's app stores. While that's true for iOS, there are other stores available for Android devices and apps can be downloaded through browsers as well.
Disclosure: Authors of this Snacks own shares of Uber and Amazon
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