Make a better product, make more money. GHOST has innovated in the supplement category and now the market is rewarding them. (Also, I’m addicted.)

Last week, I'm walking through DICK'S Sporting Goods. If you don't know what that is, it's a sporting goods store. I've got whatever I'm getting, I walk up to the cashier. They have an assortment of easy things to add to your cart—candy bars, beef jerky, sunflower seeds, et cetera.

There I see it in the upright cooler: the GHOST Energy drink.

It's got cool topography. It looks like somebody tagged it with spray paint. It's a bright yellow can. It grabs my attention. It also has Sour Patch Kids on it—okay?!

The flavor is Blue Raspberry Sour Patch Kids.

That takes me back. I'm a '90s kid. I grew up going to the movies. I love Sour Patch Kids. I'm intrigued. I go in a little closer and it says on the can, “Zero Sugar.”

One has to wonder how can this alchemy have happened? What miracle of science has taken place to make something taste like Sour Patch Kids without the sugar? I don't know. But it's intrigued me.

I pick up the can and then on the label there's a raised tactile feel. Wherever there's a design, there's actually a raised portion that just gives it this cool, unique tactile feel while I'm holding this cold can of Blue Raspberry Sour Patch Kid flavored energy drink—and I have to get it.

It's only $3. I throw it in the cart. And that's when the magic took place…

The marketing drew me in.

But the magic was with the flavor.

When I tasted that drink, I got transported. I was 13 years old again. It was the year 2000. My mom was dropping me off with my friends on a Friday night at the theater. I'm pumped to see whatever I'm seeing. I'm making my way to the snack bar, right there next to the giant vat of buttered popcorn is the plexiglass full of candy. Reese's Pieces, Butterfinger, and they're the holy grail of them all: Sour Patch Kids.

I'm tasting this drink and its flavor is nostalgic. It's transportive for me. It's crazy.

A couple days later, I find a Quick Trip near my house that carries GHOST Energy drinks. I get every flavor that they have. It's incredible. After the Blue Raspberry Sour Patch Kid flavored drink, I tried the citrus flavor. The citrus one was so good: I wondered in my truck as I was driving home, “Are there illicit drugs in this drink?”

“Why does it taste so good? What is it about this drink that makes its flavor so impactful and at the same time with zero calories? How can this be?” I don't know. I just know that it is. And the magic was in the flavor.

Next, I go home. I get on the website. That's when I discovered the model.

GHOST is not even an energy drink company.

It's a supplement company. Who knew? Who knew that GHOST Lifestyle was a supplement company? But they are. The energy drink isn't even their lead product. They make protein powder. They make pre-workout. And just as they do with their energy drinks, they co-brand with recognizable brands that you already love from childhood (like Chips Ahoy) and they mouth-watering flavors.

I'm assuming that their flavor standard carries over to all their products. I haven't tried the protein powder or the pre-workout, but I'd love to. And actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I wonder, can I make my own version of their energy drinks just by taking their pre-workout and mixing it with carbonated water? I really do wonder that. But that's neither here nor there.

What I love about this is that GHOST could have gone with the “do-it-yourself, slap your label on our already pre-made product” route. They could have gone that way as far as making their own supplements. There's plenty of companies that can take your label, slap it on their products, and you can roll a chocolate flavored protein powder out the door in a hurry.

I've looked into it myself. I think it's cool. But you're not going to make a splash with that. Not likely anyway. I love it that they didn't go that route.

What they did was truly innovate in their category. They made unique, recognizable, impactful, addictive flavors that people like myself love to come back to again and again. They actually went through the trouble of creating incredible flavors. They found other products that people would recognize that would give them an entrance.

Would I have tried that energy drink without Sour Patch Kids being on it? I doubt it. I don't drink energy drinks. But flavor got me in the door and now I'm sold. I'm sold on the whole company! I've never even had the protein powder, but I want it just to eat it for dessert. That's what I think about it without even having tried it yet.

I love it that they actually went through the trouble of making a better product.

If you make a better product, you're going to make more money.

If you want to make more money, make a better product.

It sounds stupidly simple, but I think oftentimes (especially if you're an idea person) we forget about that. Instead of just making another supplement company with a cool name and a cool domain and a cool influencer attached to it—actually go about the trouble of making a better product.

And if you do that, the market will reward you, as I'm sure GHOST has already seen.

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