It Takes A Generation to Build a Spirit Brand
Scott Rosenbaum
Head of Search at Distill Ventures | Beverage Alcohol Start-Up Advisor | Co-Host of Business of Drinks
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a poverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. – Calvin Coolidge
Think about the success of spirit brands like Casamigos or Tito’s and naturally one can’t help but marvel at their seeming “overnight popularity.” But a spirit is not a celebrity or a top 40 radio hit; nothing just happens to break out on its own merit. Look beneath the veneer a brand’s sudden uptick in status and familiarity and you’ll find about two decades of blood, sweat and tears.
Malcolm Gladwell has popularized the pseudo-sociological notion that “expertise” costs one about 10,000 hours of dedication and hard work. I’d propose that a corrollary exists for so-called brand building. It take 20 years. No way around it. Now this conjecture was born of anecdotal observation, but hear me out. Let’s take a very quick look at three examples:
1. Tito’s – Tito Beveridge start commercial production in 1997. It took hima decade to get to 160,000 case production and only after tireless work and luck. It took another decade to get to sales of nearly 4 million cases/year.
2. Casamigos – People will focus on the fact that a brand founded in 2013 sold for an incredible $700 million in 2017. But I would argue that the brand building took place sometime around 1997, the nadir of Clooney’s career with the ill-fated Batman & Robin and two years before he left ER. It took a generation of building his superstardom to be able to so richly capitalize off of it.
3. Grey Goose – Developed in the mid 1990s and sold to Bacardi in 2004 for $2.2 billion, Grey Goose was hailed as a phenomenon. It’s founder Sidney Frank has spent 20 years prior cutting his teeth building Jagermeister from scratch.
There are plenty of other examples--from Absolut's rise thanks to its brilliant ad campaign (started in 1981) to the building of Maker's Mark's legacy. If you've recently started a craft brand, I hope you're ready for the long haul. There no are shortcuts. It's going to take 20 years. Oh and some luck, too. – Scott Rosenbaum