A “Spirited” Discussion About Marketing

I tend to enjoy listening to panel discussions more than most people. And I like them even better when I’m the one who gets to ask all the questions.

On June 19, the Seattle Chapter of the American Advertising Foundation hosted an event with four of the city’s strongest small craft distilleries. When they asked me if I’d moderate this panel about how to market a small craft distillery, I thought they were kidding me. But they were serious, and I excitedly prepped for a topic that I had not previously done much business research on.

Our panelists were fantastic (left to right):

AAFInsights

Here are a few bullets I took from the event:

  • The one piece of advice every small batch distiller will give you is, “Don’t start a small batch distillery.”
  • “Taste” can only get you so far. You have to have a decent flavor, but you are selling a brand, not what you taste like.
  • Your brand needs a story. Sparkle Donkey Tequila has the made up history of “El Burro Esparkalo” and then follows that up with a legend of, “In the modern era, Sparkle Donkey Tequila has come to mean many things to many people. But above all it means celebration, fertility, and quality.”
  • Winning awards is good for a boost, but you need a great follow through campaign to keep it going.
  • Great quote: “Whiskey is what beer wants to be when it grows up.”
  • Advice for anyone who thinks they can make tons of money in the burgeoning cannabis industry: “If you think there are a lot of forms to fill out for liquor, the cannabis guys have no idea what’s headed their way. We love that it’s getting legalized. The Liquor Control Board has so many headaches with them, they barely pay attention to us anymore.”
  • Fact: “40% of people in the bar do not know what they want to order when they walk to the bar.”
  • Make your bottle bright and easy to see against all types of backgrounds in all types of light. Don’t let it hide on the shelf.

The hashtag #AAFInsights has more of these nuggets if you want to roll through them.

Thanks to the AAF for letting me moderate. It was a blast and I hope people in the audience had as much fun as I did.

AAF Seattle Distilling a Brand

World Cup Round 1 – Continent vs Continent

Only 32 teams are invited to the World Cup finals that you are watching now. How did the 190 or so teams get whittled down to these? Well, there are 3 years of intra-continent tournaments that deliver a few finalists. Here’s how the allocations break out:
1 Host Country
13 European Countries
5 South American Countries
5 African Countries
4 North American / Central American Countries
4 Asian Countries

So, is Europe deserving of 13 spots? Is Africa worthy of 5? Let’s look at the first round of games. (For this comparison, we’re putting the host Brazil with the other 5 South American teams)

North/Central America (4): 3 wins, 1 loss. Vs Africa 2-0-0. Vs South America 1-0-0. Vs Europe 0-1-0.
South America (6): 4 wins, 2 losses, 0 ties. Vs Europe: 3-1-0. Vs Asia 1-0-0. Vs North America 0-1-0.
Europe (13): Total record: 6-6-1. Record vs non-European teams 3-3-1: Vs South America: 1-3-0. Vs NA: 1-0-0. Vs Africa 1-0-0. Vs Asia: 0-0-1
Africa (5): 1 win, 3 losses and 1 tie. Vs North America: 0-2-0. Vs Europe: 0-1-0. Vs Asia 1-0-1.
Asia (4): 0 wins, 2 losses, 2 ties. Vs Africa 0-1-1. Vs Europe 0-0-1. Vs South America 0-1-0.

So what does this tell us?
– The only African or Asian team to get a point against a non Asian or African team is South Korea, with a tie against Russia.
– South America has been as good as advertised, other than Uruguay.
– North America has been pleasantly surprising.
– Europe could not be more neutral.

Clearly the African and Asian teams are struggling, while Sweden and Ukraine are sitting at home. Maybe we should be allocating some of their spots to Europe.