Marketing and Sales | Booze Business: A Blog Dedicated to the Business of Spirits and Wine

Sweet Potato Vodka – More than just for Thanksgiving

November 19, 2013 No Comments

“The Best Yam Vodka on Earth,” is the slogan for Covington Vodka from North Carolina.

It might not replace Granny’s sweet potato pie at the Thanksgiving dinner, but you could enjoy the dish and the meal a bit more.

The driving force behind this handcrafted entry in the cluttered vodka market is Jim Eason, a seasoned veteran of the spirits and wine world. Jim’s travels have taken him from retailer to distributor to manufacturer with a stop along the way to work with SKYY Vodka, back when it was just a start-up brand.

Jimbo, as his friends know him, says this about Covington:

“After giving it a great deal of thought and talking to my farmer friends, we decided to create a great vodka from the fruits of our labor, so to speak. Sweet potatoes make an excellent vodka – and why not – folks have been making potato vodka for over 300 years.”

Turns out that North Carolina is the number one producer of sweet potatoes in the US and accounts for over 50% of what we consume. Covington uses 20 pounds of the vegetable in each 750 ML and is made in small batches from locally grown product.

If you’re expecting sweet or funky tasting vodka, forget it. It’s smooth and has some interesting undertones. It won a Gold Medal this year at the San Francisco Spirits Competition.

For more about Covington Gourmet Vodka go here.

I wonder if Granny would mind if I poured some into her dish?

Jägermeister Enters a New Era

October 8, 2013 No Comments

Jägermeister, a brand icon for decades, has just introduced a product extension called Jägermeister Spice. The product combines vanilla and cinnamon spices with the original Jägermeister ingredients. It will be available nationally in limited quantities starting this month.

Interesting – a limited edition spirit product. Wonder what they have in mind?

Regardless, from the handful of people I asked to taste the product, the results were very positive. “It’s perfect for this time of year…it’s like eating a holiday spiced cake.” One woman described it as “Jäeger’s softer, kinder relative.”

I think they have a winner here. It’s easy to drink; fun tasting and can go wherever the original product goes in those special Jäger occasions. But, the appeal moves it further along in the drinker’s repertoire. In that regard, the folks at Jägermeister have stayed true to the cardinal rule of product extensions – “feed the brand, don’t eat the brand.” In other words, I think it will bring new users, lapsed users and new occasions to the franchise. All without alienating those original round of Jäger shots moments.

As to the limited edition aspect, the company says that this first ever product extension will be limited to 100,000 cases this winter. The brand sells around 3 million cases so it’s a drop in the bucket.

Why limited edition?

One cynical industry observer thought that if the extension doesn’t work, they wouldn’t damage the base brand. It will just disappear. I’m not buying that.

I think that the best way to grow a franchise without denigrating the core audience is to periodically introduce seasonal or other temporary variations that – pardon the expression – spice things up and adds innovation to the mix. Perhaps we can expect a spring or summer variant. Or, maybe Spice will stick around.

Adam Rosen, EVP Marketing (and a smart, innovative one at that) summed the effort up –

“Jägermeister Spice offers both new drinkers and our longtime fans an innovative product that can be enjoyed in any setting. Whether served neat or mixed with cola, Spice offers new experiences and drinking occasions while delivering the same quality spirit that Jägermeister is known for.”

Looks like Jägermeister Spice is about to join the holiday festivities.

Southern Comfort’s Next Chapter — Does the new ad work?

June 11, 2013 1 Comment

Southern Comfort has launched the next chapter in the “Whatever’s Comfortable” campaign that I have been following for about a year (Aug14 and Dec19, 2012 as well as Jan 17, 2013). So far, according to Brown Forman, sales trends have turned around by 6% and the brand grew for the first time since 2008.

This latest effort marks a change in character from the original award winning effort, “Beaches,” which featured an interesting, everyday guy comfortable in his own skin as he casually walks down the beach. Here is the original.

The new ad execution has a different character but the same attitude. “We want to champion consumers to ‘be their awesome selves’ and that attitude comes out through this work,” said Mark Bacon, SVP, Managing Director, Southern Comfort. “We’re comfortable being Southern Comfort and we want our consumers to embody that same attitude about themselves.”

Here’s the ad by Wieden + Kennedy. I enjoyed the original ad a great deal but this one works for me as well.

What do you think? (You can also find it here.)