Word of Mouth Marketing

The Key to Brand Building in the Booze Business

If you’ve been following this blog (or read my book) you know that, with some exceptions, I’m not a big fan of paid or mass advertising to build brands. In my view, it’s all about point of sale communications, the role of the ‘gatekeeper’ (bar, server, or store people) and consumer conversations.

Call it face-to-face marketing

In fact, there’s a terrific book on the subject called The Face-to-Face Book: Why Real Relationships Rule in a Digital Marketplace. It was written by a longtime friend of mine, Ed Keller and his partner, Brad Fay when they ran the Keller Fay Group. The company is now part of Engagement Labs and Ed Keller is the CEO.

Ed Keller CEO Engagement Labs

The Keller Fay Group’s mission was to provide market research and consulting services based on consumer conversations. In 2015, the company merged with Engagement Labs and now offers a “total social”​ measurement solutions that integrates offline conversation with social media analytics. They bill themselves as “the world’s first TotalSocial® company.” They track, measure, and advise brands on how to understand and apply the insights they gain from consumer conversations.

Here’s a short YouTube video that will explain more.

Word of mouth and alcohol marketing

I’ve long felt that in this marketing environment, the key to a successful brand can be described as follows:

Discovery→ DISCUSSION→ Discernment→ Dissemination

Actually, before talking about this with Ed Keller, I hadn’t paid as much attention to the discussion aspect, when, in fact, consumer conversations can predict sales and marketers need to understand the dynamics. As Ed put it in a recent article on LinkedIn,

“Every brand needs to learn its unique social architecture to realize its full potential, and measuring and modeling is the best way to identify the drivers that will have the most significant impact on sales and other KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).”

Speaking of drivers, Engagement Labs focuses on four key drivers to create a single brand performance score that combine online social media data and offline conversations into their TotalSocial®.

  1. Volume—How much conversation a brand is building both on and offline.
  2. Sentiment—The extent to which that conversation is positive.
  3. Brand Sharing—How much content is being shared.
  4. Influence—In what way are consumer influencers engaged with the brand

In applying this, Engagement Labs ranked leading alcohol brands and learned, as a whole, the alcohol category is made up of so-called whisper brands, which are performing below average both on and offline. When comparing online to offline, these brands perform slightly better offline, in face-to-face conversations.

According to Keller:

“The alcohol beverage industry as a whole is built around a culture of sharing and encourages its customers to engage with others in a social environment—which presents a clear opportunity for brands to engage with its fans and facilitate more meaningful conversations that result in improved sales and brand recognition.”

Think about the winning spirits brands over the years and the role of influencers and consumer conversations in contributing to their success. Brands like Tito’s, Fireball, Rumchata and others. In his Face-to-Face book, Keller tells the story of Blue Moon Beer, served in a branded glass and garnished with an orange, which is in the product ingredients. The question that followed (“Hey, what is that?”) grabbed attention and sparked conversations. And, by the way, rituals related to a brand have always played an important role in their consumer acceptance.

As I write this I’m reminded of Gaz (Gary) Regan’s story of a consumer “expert” and the pains he took to alert his colleagues to his “discoveries” of single malt whiskies. You’ll find the story here, but I’ll save you the trouble:

It seems that when he was bartending in the 1980s on South Street in NYC, a particular Scottish gentleman would come in for lunch every day, order a hamburger and ask for the “book.” It was a guide to single malt scotches and differences in brands, regions, water, grain and distillation styles. After work, the gentleman would meet with friends and colleagues and hold forth on the verities of various malts. While he sounded like an authority on the subject, the information he provided was less than 5 hours old.

Don’t laugh, it helped to build some brands, The Glenlivet included.

About Ed Keller

I have known and worked with Ed when I was in the market research and consulting business at Yankelovich, Roper, and we were partners in our own venture called ASK Associates—all back in the day. So, I can unequivocally say he is among the top marketing research and communications people I know. He’s been a pioneer in word of mouth; a member of the Word of Mouth Marketing Hall of Fame; a past president of the association; and, a prolific writer on the subject. The Engagement Labs company has recently won two awards from the industry.

Whether you’re working on launching a new brand or looking for increased traction for a current brand, you ought to look into the Engagement Labs and their work. In fact, go to their website and download their material.

Tell Ed I sent you.

“Nothing influences people more than a recommendation from a trusted friend,” Mark Zuckerberg once famously said. “A trusted referral is the Holy Grail of advertising.”  

          
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That S*it Will Never Sell

A fascinating book on innovation in the alcohol industry

David Gluckman has spent 45 years in the drinks industry (the British phrase for the Booze Business) creating such outstanding products as Bailey’s Irish Cream (along with Tom Jago), Tanqueray Ten, Cîroc and scores of others. His book, whose title is the heading of this article, is a fascinating guide to what it takes to innovate and launch new products in this industry.

David was born in South Africa and came to the UK and began working in advertising. His accounts included such companies and brands as Procter & Gamble, Kerrygold butter, and several Unilever brands. In the late 1960s, he became a consultant to IDV (International Distillers and Vintners—a company that ultimately became Diageo), and entered the world of brand development.

As a new products/innovation toiler myself, I found the book to be captivating and a joyful ride on the sometimes-turbulent road of brand development.

A review by Paul Walsh (ex CEO of Diageo) put it nicely, “David Gluckman has a ‘one-of-a-kind’ approach to new brand development, but amazingly, it works. You will enjoy this book.”

I sat down (virtually) with David and asked him about his experiences.

You’ve spent most of your career on innovation and product development, what are the biggest obstacles you’ve encountered over the course of your career? Who are the innovation villains?

Somebody once asked me why we had such a high strike rate getting brands onto the market at IDV.  My answer “No marketing people.” No middle managers asking to see alternative ideas to go into massive research programmes.  I can’t imagine major players like Sidney Frank or Abe Rosenberg doing concept testing.  We had a very small team of like-minded individuals and the beauty was that we reported to top management.  I sold the idea of Smirnoff Black to Denis Malamatinas in under 10 minutes. And Aqua Libra to Tim Ambler in 5 minutes.  Well, that’s because I knew him better.

After leaving Diageo I did a project for a large drinks company.  The budget was huge and I worked in parallel with a global innovation giant.  I delivered my work a month ahead of schedule and I thought the solutions were really good.  I think it was a case of ‘budget allocated, budget spent, end of story’.  Nothing happened. I would be happy to go and re-pitch the ideas to the company tomorrow.  At no charge. I am confident the ideas would work.

Which companies (or individuals) that you’ve worked with were most welcoming or encouraging to new ideas?

IDV was a ‘one-and-only’ when it came to fostering new brand development.  Baileys took about 5 years to become significant and yet the company tolerated us (Tom Jago and me) even with the odd expensive failure. Adventure seemed to be built into the IDV culture.  When Jago left and Tim Ambler took over the rate of development accelerated.  I think of all the people I worked with, Tim was the most inspiring.  He really knew the business and he was on the main board and could make things happen.  IDV also formally introduced Tom Peters’ ‘brand champion’ idea so top management from all over the company were taking leadership on new ventures.

What’s the biggest regret of your career? What have you done or worked on that you wished you hadn’t?

When I parted company with Diageo in 2005 I got together with two ex-colleagues to develop Coole Swan, a super-premium cream liqueur.  The category made sense because there was nothing above Baileys and we felt there was an opportunity for a product with lower sweetness and more modern, sophisticated packaging which broke with the Baileys’ template. I was as proud of that brand as with any I developed for IDV/Diageo.  The problem for me personally was that it took me out of my comfort zone and into marketing and finance – not part of my skill set. I still firmly believe that it will be a great buy for a company out there with muscle and resources. But I should have negotiated a brand development fee and a small piece of the action and left it at that.

Thinking about all the new products or innovations you’ve worked on, which are you most proud and why?

It would be easy to say Baileys or Cîroc because they were so successful. But for me the two intellectual challenges which were most satisfying were Smirnoff Black and Distilled Guinness.  In the Smirnoff case, the brand was on its knees in the US.  The idea of a premium version to compete with Absolut and Stoli was scarcely credible. The solution came from a word more familiar in the brown spirits sector—we set out to achieve and perfected ‘the world’s smoothest vodka.’ And the product delivered. Hard-nosed New York 40-somethings really could taste the difference.  And even when I told them it was from Smirnoff they said they preferred it.

Distilled Guinness never got off the drawing board but the way the idea came together in my head was incredibly exciting. If you can have Jewish epiphanies, this was one. The discussion was about a Guinness Whiskey.  Should we take the brand into a new category?  On the surface, the only way was Irish and at the time (1998), Pernod-Ricard owned the market.  So, Guinness Irish Whiskey didn’t seem to make commercial sense.  Then out it popped.  The fruit of all those lengthy distillery visits.  Whisky starts life as a fermented product. A beer.  Then it’s distilled.  Why not simply distill Guinness? And call it that.  Distilled Guinness.  No SWA {Scotch Whisky Association}, no barrel-ageing, make it where you like and make it taste the way you choose.  We designed the pack the same evening and I was in a couple of focus groups a few days later. But it never happened.

What do you make of the craft (or small batch) product movement in the US and UK?

I never liked claims like ‘small batch’, ‘hand crafted’ which are all over the place these days. They are hollow claims, just hype. They don’t really mean anything.  I always liked brand claims that led to real benefits not stories. It was my advertising training working for Unilever and P&G.  Smirnoff Black was a palpably smoother vodka and Tanqueray Ten is made from fresh botanicals and has a fresher, cleaner gin taste. These are real product benefits. They could get drinkers to change their minds.

I’m not sure I agree with David on this last point inasmuch as the back story of a new brand must answer the trade’s question as to “why this and why now.” I think it’s the mix of what’s in the bottle together with the brand’s reason for being that often yields success.

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David Gluckman (L) and Joel Garner, a famous cricketer.

You can learn more about his book and buy a copy at this website.

It’s my second favorite book about the Booze Business. Can you guess which is the first? 😀

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On the Road to Success

Checking in with Bom Bom Brands

A little over a year ago I wrote about the launch of this interesting new product and Kevin Mowers, the person behind it. You can find the story here.

I caught up with Kevin recently and asked him how it was going and what his experiences were as a startup brand.

What I did not mention in the original story is that the Bom Bom team consists of Kevin and his wife Eva Maria. Both bring different skills to the brand and, it turns out, that she played a crucial role in the brand’s development, as you will see. So, this interview was with both of them.

Kevin and Eva Maria

 

BB: How is it going? What were the highlights of 2016?

Kevin: Great – keeping busy!  We launched mid-year in CT and then branched out into MA, DC and NY (Westchester County and Long Island). Our distributors did a great job getting BOM BOM into retailers while we were focused on getting BOM BOM into consumer’s hands. We did this through a lot of in-store and in-bar sampling promotions as well as showing the product at larger tasting and charity events. One of the most important things for us was to make sure we keep having fun and celebrating every victory and every milestone, however small.

BB: What are the biggest obstacles or challenges you face? What have you done about them?

Eva Maria: The biggest challenge for us, like for any new brand, has been awareness. Since we are not national, the typical PR and marketing playbooks were not relevant for us, as we needed a more market-by-market, grassroots approach. We have pushed ourselves to really think outside the box, leave our corporate models behind, and leverage local PR, especially bartender contests, magazine profiles and social media. There is still much, much more to do. As we grow into more markets, we’ll be able to expand our PR outreach accordingly and that’s a top priority for 2017.

BB: Many new product entrepreneurs have told me that the single most important element in developing their brands has been in-store tastings, as you’ve just mentioned. I’m not surprised that this would be particularly true for Bom Bom.

Kevin: Indeed. We love doing in-store tastings as it allows us to engage with consumers. For us it has been just as much about getting feedback (and new drink recipes!) from consumers as sharing the BOM BOM story. BOM BOM Coco Mochanut recently received 94 points by the International Review of Spirits, which means it is the highest in its category. As such, we love seeing the excited look on people’s faces after they’ve tried it, especially when they themselves start selling it to complete strangers in the stores for us!

BB: I’ve known you for a few years and watched the development and launch. But I never wrote about how Bom Bom came about in the first place. What’s the brand’s back-story?

Eva Maria: Like a lot of today’s modern romances we were introduced by a common friend — Tracy — Who to this day takes credit for our awesome relationship and by association, BOM BOM.

Kevin had spent the better part of his career designing great tasting products for the industry’s top players and so of course tried to impress me with his extensive knowledge of luxury spirits. But it wasn’t really doing it for me as I was never really into alcohol…. this was both a disappointment and a challenge to Kevin… and good thing for me (and our BOM BOM fans) that Kevin happens to love a good challenge.

After a few dates, Kevin changed his game and mixed up something special just for me, made with my favorite flavors — coffee, coconut and of course CHOCOLATE! And BOM BOM was born!

I loved it so much that I started asking him to make it for friends and with time it was a standing order from friends and friends of friends…. We were making it all of the time and decided to go for it and formed the company “BOM BOM Brands” to share our fun with the world!

BOM BOM is all about the right mix of flavors, having fun and being authentic.  Our business partnership really is the same idea…. we have very different skill sets and so together we’re able to accomplish what neither of us would be able to do on our own.

And, to make the deal even sweeter, Kevin’s wooing is still going strong after three wonderful years of marriage….

BB: What does the future hold for the brand – line extensions, geographic expansion, etc. What do you think will be coming down the road? 

Kevin: BOM BOM is all about having fun and being authentic. As all small companies, we are excited to bring this fun to additional markets but also cautious not to dilute our efforts and grow too fast. From a new product perspective, we have a few new innovations in the mix. As with Coco Mochanut, all of our new products will be great tasting and in fun, fashion-forward packaging.

Kevin making cocktails at an event/tasting
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