★ “Vodka Nation”

via The Weekly Standard:

There have been more than 2,000 Absolut ads using, in Lewis’s words, the “bottle plus two-word headline” format, each one costing as much as $100,000 and involving elaborate scale models (ABSOLUT MIAMI—a miniature art deco hotel on South Beach—may be the most impressive), but it was well worth the cost, as Absolut eventually overtook Stolichnaya in U.S. sales. By the 1990s it also became the most expensive vodka on the market, priced around $15. That would change, however, in 1997 when the late importer and marketing genius Sidney Frank unveiled a new vodka distilled in France and costing twice as much as Absolut. Frank told New York magazine that he called his associate early one Sunday morning in the summer of 1996, telling him, “I figured out the name! It’s Grey Goose!” New York’s Seth Stevenson picks up the story:

Here were all these vodkas, in the $15-$17 range, vying to be the premium brand (with Absolut mostly winning). Frank just sidestepped the fray altogether and charged an unheard-of $30 a bottle. The markup amount was pure profit. “He was the first person to see,” says an executive at rival Bacardi, “that there was a super-premium category above Absolut, if you had a good product story.”

And it was quite a story. As Frank explained to Inc. magazine, “I said, France has the best of everything. I asked the distiller there whether they could make a vodka. They said sure.” Then in 1998 the Beverage Testing Institute awarded Grey Goose the title “World’s Best Tasting Vodka,” a moniker that would find its way (along with “Distilled and Bottled in France”) onto each bottle.

“It was a case of almost perfect aspirational marketing,” says John Frank, Sidney’s nephew and current vice chairman of the Sidney Frank Importing Company. “We wanted to provide consumers with affordable luxury and knew that the product had to be of the highest quality with exquisite packaging but also that the timing had to be right.” In short, “Grey Goose was the right product for the right time, but it was also the culmination of 25 years of building brands and a strong sales and distribution organization.”

By 2004 Grey Goose was churning out 1.5 million cases annually (ahead of Absolut but behind Smirnoff). The product also received a boost when the characters on Sex and the City began ordering not just Cosmopolitans but Grey Goose Cosmos (Grey Goose L’ Orange, Cointreau, cranberry juice, lime, orange twist). In 2004 Bacardi acquired the vodka for $2.3 billion and, at 85, Sidney Frank finally achieved his goal of becoming a self-made billionaire.

It’s a long read but will certainly show you a glimpse into the world of marketing. I wish the same reporter would create an essay on bottled water. That would be interesting.

At home, I stock the follow vodka

• Grey Goose (1.75l)
• Belvedere (.75l)
• Smirnoff (1.75l)
• Smirnoff Vanilla (.75l)
• Smirnoff Rasberry (.75ml)
• Stoli Grape (.75ml)
• Pinnacle Cake Flavored (.75ml)
• Pinnacle Whipped Flavored (.75ml)
• Off-Brand Espresso Flavored (.75ml)

I have uses for each of these. I guess I fell for that marketing as well.