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The Empire Builders Podcast

The Empire Builders Podcast

By: Stephen Semple and David Young
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 Reverse engineering the success of established business empires.The Empire Builders Podcast Economics Leadership Management Management & Leadership Marketing Marketing & Sales
Episodes
  • #212: Red Bull – Powerful Branding Works

    #212: Red Bull – Powerful Branding Works
    Jul 2 2025
    Red Bull has used the same marketing for 20 years. This is the power of a well thought out brand that stays the course. Dave Young: Welcome to The Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it's us, but we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients. So here's one of those. [OG Law Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast. And I'm Dave Young, and that's Stephen Semple, over at the other microphone. You may not be able to see him if you're listening on a podcast. That makes sense, doesn't it? So the only clue he gave me as the countdown timer started to what this episode is all about is he said, "Gives you wings." I'm like, well, obviously we're going to be talking about Red Bull. I didn't miss that one, did I? Stephen Semple: No, you got it right. Isn't that amazing how powerful that is? Dave Young: "Gives you wings." Yeah. I mean, we tell people all the time. That's just branding. That's just becoming known for some things, right? And the longer you do it, and the more consistently you do it, the easier it is for people to know you by a slogan, "Gives you wings" or "Ba-ba-pa-pa-pa," right? Stephen Semple: "I'm lovin' it." Dave Young: Just a few notes. And now all of a sudden, 60, 70 years of advertising is rolled up into five little notes in your head that brings back all those associations. So Red Bull, man, they're everywhere. Stephen Semple: Well, and they have not changed their advertising in 20 years. Like the whole using the drawings and it gives you wings. They have stuck with that for over 20 years. So when you say doing it over and over again, here's the other part where I got to give them real credit on the "Gives you wings." I could see somebody going, yeah, but it doesn't give you wings. We all get it. Dave Young: That's magical thinking. Come on. Stephen Semple: Magical thinking. And that's why it's powerful. And then the other thing they did is they misspelt wings. They have the extra I in there. Dave Young: Never even noticed that. Stephen Semple: Yeah. And the reason why they did that is it makes it trademarkable. Dave Young: Okay. So the chicken wing places can't infringe on them, right? Stephen Semple: Well, if something's a common phrase, you can't prevent other people from doing it. So they do that little thing and he said, you hardly notice it. So there's a bunch of little clever things that they've done. Dave Young: Well, take us back to the beginning. Stephen Semple: I just want to talk to you about how big in 2023, 12 billion in sales. Dave Young: Man. Stephen Semple: But to date, they've sold a hundred billion units, 12 billion in sales last year. And you think about it, they really have one product. Sure they've got a sugar-free one, and every once in a while they do some seasonal ones, but pretty much they're one product. Dave Young: Is caffeine. Stephen Semple: Yeah. And it's these little 8.4 ounce cans and actually started in rural Thailand. I'm going to butcher this guy's name, because it's a Thai name, I don't know Thai, but was a pharmacist, Chaleo Yoovidhya, I think is how you pronounce his name. And again, I may have that completely, completely wrong. But here's the deal. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: He's a pharmacist. He has a pharmacy in urban Thailand, and it's 1976. And what he notices is there's these energy tonics coming from Japan, and they're really popular in the cities. And he grew up in a poor rural area and he notices these imports are kind of expensive. And he decides to make his own version of it.
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    20 mins
  • #211: Alienware – Computing Power Empire

    #211: Alienware – Computing Power Empire
    Jun 25 2025
    Synonymous with gaming Alienware rode the wave of easy to use and beautiful gaming computers. Now they are the G.O.A.T. Dave Young: Welcome to The Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is... Well, it's us, but we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients. So here's one of those. [Pinpoint Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to The Empire Builders Podcast, Dave Young here with Stephen Semple, and we're talking about empires. This is The Empire Builders Podcast. You tuned in because you wanted to hear us talk about empires, right? Stephen Semple: I hope that's why they tuned in. Dave Young: I mean, I'm assuming that's why you... Stephen Semple: Either that, or you're in the wrong place. But still, stay with us, you might like it. Dave Young: If you're expecting steamy ghost stories, this is not your podcast. Stephen Semple: Oh, there goes half our audience. Dave Young: That's all right. "Choose who to lose," that's what we always say. People that are interested in steamy, ghost stories, this is not it. Stephen Semple: But. Dave Young: Aliens. Stephen Semple: Aliens? Dave Young: Maybe. Maybe- Stephen Semple: Maybe. Dave Young: ... I'm saying. Maybe. Stephen Semple: Yeah, maybe. Dave Young: Because today's topic, Stephen told me we're going to talk about Alienware, as an empire. And I know them because I remember, back in the day, one of my kids insisting that that was the only computer that would allow them to play World of Warcraft in any kind of successful fashion. Does that sound right? Stephen Semple: Yep. That would be pretty accurate. Did you end up buying an Alienware computer? Dave Young: Probably. I don't know. Dad was just the checkbook. Stephen Semple: Well, we're going to talk about Alienware, but even before we go into Alienware, I want to take a little bit of a detour, because it actually speaks to Alienware. Is, one of the things that Alienware was really good at recognizing, was things going on in the world. And you know how we often talk about tapping into what's happening out there, and the emotions that's happening out there, and looking outside of your world. I had a really interesting conversation this weekend with Bob Camp. Now, Bob Camp is the co-creator of Ren and Stimpy. Dave Young: Okay, yeah, yeah. Stephen Semple: Now, if you remember, remember back at the Slinky episode? Remember when we covered Slinky? Dave Young: We talked about Log. Stephen Semple: And we talked about Log. Well, as it turns out, Dave, you are completely right. Bob Camp told me that the whole thing Log, was actually completely inspired by Slinky. Dave Young: Oh, yeah, I was just, yeah. Stephen Semple: And here's what happened. It was in the very first episode of Ren and Stimpy, and they had produced it, and they suddenly realized just before it was about to go on air, they were a minute short. And he was like, "How do we come up a minute fricking short?" So that night he decided, "I got to come up with a minute of content." And what he decide to do is create a commercial. He thought. "Let's start the commercial." So the very first Ren and Stimpy episode started with that commercial Log, and he very specifically wanted to tie into something that was a shared experience, that had a positive emotional context, and that he could kind of have some fun with. But it was that whole looking outside the world, and that's how he came up with Log. Yeah. Dave Young: Nice. Stephen Semple: When I come see you in Austin, people can't see this podcast,
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    22 mins
  • #210: Tesla – Changing the Auto Industry

    #210: Tesla – Changing the Auto Industry
    Jun 18 2025
    Instead of talking like all the others about EVs being environmentally friendly, Tesla made a sure everyone knew just how exciting driving one was. Dave Young: Welcome to The Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick and business partner Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it's us, but we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients. So here's one of those. [Travis Crawford HVAC Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to The Empire Builders Podcast. I'm Dave Young, and Stephen Semple is here. We're going to talk about an empire that's boy, it's been in the news a lot lately, but we're going back to the early days of Tesla. We're going to ignore the whole Cybertruck knock down. Stephen Semple: Right, but we're going to talk about the electric car. We are going to talk about that. And if people are interested in terms of some of my views in terms of what's going on today, Matthew Burns and I did a Sticky Sales Story over on YouTube about what's going on with Tesla today and the challenges that they're facing and what has created all of that, especially around brand promise and things along that lines. But for a long time I've been wanting to talk about Tesla for a simple reason. So you know how you and I talk about one of the very first things that we will always want to do before we take on company, before you make up the messaging, before you do anything, you got to get really clear on the strategy and you want to always try to find unleveraged assets. I think I feel like the success of Tesla and how they've changed the world and really brought the electric car to the forefront is a great example of that, especially the unleveraged assets. So if we go back to the early days of Tesla and we take a look, or even early days of the electric car, the electric cars were basically being marketed as green. And they were ugly, and they were poor performing and they were dull, and they were uninteresting and uninspiring, and they were basically a golf cart. Dave Young: Basically a golf cart. Stephen Semple: Yeah, yeah they really were. And didn't get traction going, didn't capture the imagination, and really was sort of only this small segment of the population was where the market was, and it wasn't growing beyond that. And so that's kind of where the market was. Now, here's what Tesla did. Tesla changed the whole conversation through an unleveraged asset. And the unleveraged asset was this. When you took a look at an electric motor, if you put a high-powered electric motor in there, you could make that thing accelerate like it's nobody's business. So what they did, so while everybody else was going the whole environmental tree hugger conversation, they went, we're going to make a car that accelerates so fast that you can set your iPhone on the passenger seat halfway up, hit the accelerator and the phone will stay hung there on the car. Dave Young: Just from the acceleration. Stephen Semple: Just on the acceleration. And will beat most supercars, gas-powered supercars. We could just take this car right off the production line, it could go out and drag race and blow the doors off of pretty much every gas car on the market other than the multi-million dollar supercars. And even a few of those, it was able to beat. Dave Young: So up until this point, electric cars and hybrids in particular were, you think about Toyota Prius, right? Or something like that. And you don't think super performance, you don't think zippy fast, but you think, oh, I'm just putting along, I'm going to get from here to there, and we're not going to pollute very much. Stephen Semple: And it's economical and all this other stuff.
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    14 mins
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