Brands that fight for category demand pay the tax forever. Brands that create th
By Liranhirschkorn · June 12, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
Brands that fight for category demand pay the tax forever.
Brands that create their own demand play by different rules.
David Protein is the proof.
They don't follow the typical Amazon playbook. They sell a 12 pack for $39, about double the category average. Have 4.1 rating and only discount for subscribe & save.
Still they're the #4 bestseller in High Protein, and their top flavors each sell 10,000+ units a month.
While Protein bar gets 176,000 searches a month on Amazon they generally let the competitors fight for the paid click. And when they do show up in a sponsored slot, they promote Bronze, their brand-new line with less than 100 reviews.
The hero product takes advantage of branded search while ads introduce the product that doesn't have demand yet.
Their strategy is to spend where the brand can't drive the sales.
Founder Peter Rahal built and sold RXBar. He treats Amazon as a demand-capture platform, not demand generation. So he created the demand elsewhere. First he created a product with a claim nobody could match (28g of protein, 150 calories), added provocative marketing, and got it in retail everywhere. Then he protected it by acquiring the company that makes their key fat ingredient.
The result is their customer doesn't search for protein bar, they search for David.
$100M+ in sales in year one. A $300M target for 2026 and A $725M valuation two years in.
The $3-7 click isn't the expensive part of Amazon.
Needing it is.