on "gender specific" alcoholic beverages caught my interest today.
I can't argue against some of the marketing research, but I do have to wonder, what with all the honeyed that and sweetened fruit flavored that whiskies that have become all the rage for the past 2 years (not to say the flavored vodkas) that this might be the result of the availability of sodas for the better part of almost a century?
Are tastes now biased towards sweetened drinks to the exclusion of bourbons, rum, whisky, etc, etc, that don't appear to have that sweetness?
Thoughts gentlemen?
Not that I recommend Slate, but this article
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Capn Jimbo
- Rum Evangelisti and Compleat Idiot
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An article worth reading. Do I have any comments? Errrr.....
Not really, but maybe I could come up with a few, lol. I speak as an ex-marketing guy who left for good reason: I got tired of saying "Great! Fantastic!" and having to keep my stretched lips in a permanent smile. Oh and having to have my shirts laundered, and my suits tailored.
Let's consider "gender-specific". The notion is that the liquor business - which is actually a separate-you-from-your-money business - with all their great wisdom simply identified a niche, a new market and simply fulfilled it. Now while that may have been true in the 1950's, that notion is now ancient history.
Niche markets are no longer "discovered" ala Christopher Columbus. Not at all. They are carefully created, and now the mega-corporations have literally billions of dollars to achieve this. Glitzy bottles, focus tested names and slogans, multi-million dollar advertising campaigns, social media promotion, paid trolls, bar signage and promos, armies of lobbyists, and unending and powerful pressure on big distributors, retailers and bars. Not to mention the pussified and compliant promoters.
Sell it or else!
Sell it or else. And they have the power to demand that. As for the "public", here's what we will convince you to buy next, and next. And they have the power to that as well. It's perfect. They laugh at us.
Sadly, the general public has been so inundated for so long and so effectively that it's no longer a big deal to lead them by the nose to a new product. For gawds sake there are buyers whose only historical exposure to "Captain Morgan" is on the facking bottle.
They have ever diminishing memories of what pure, real, well-aged quality spirits actually tasted like, especially as the remaining spirits of real quality made by independent distillers are ever diminishing, and being forced up and off the shelves.
Now that the mega-corporations define the "product" to be what they say it is, it's just marketing based on the pretense that there are actual categories that they themselves haven't manufactured. When you mass produce lower quality, NAS, de-balled spirits you need something to keep it interesting, ergo phony flavors, ideas and presentations. It's cheap, and endlessly variable to then promote to newly created sub markets.
Watch it get worse...
*******
Note: thanks to the U-man...
Not really, but maybe I could come up with a few, lol. I speak as an ex-marketing guy who left for good reason: I got tired of saying "Great! Fantastic!" and having to keep my stretched lips in a permanent smile. Oh and having to have my shirts laundered, and my suits tailored.
Let's consider "gender-specific". The notion is that the liquor business - which is actually a separate-you-from-your-money business - with all their great wisdom simply identified a niche, a new market and simply fulfilled it. Now while that may have been true in the 1950's, that notion is now ancient history.
Niche markets are no longer "discovered" ala Christopher Columbus. Not at all. They are carefully created, and now the mega-corporations have literally billions of dollars to achieve this. Glitzy bottles, focus tested names and slogans, multi-million dollar advertising campaigns, social media promotion, paid trolls, bar signage and promos, armies of lobbyists, and unending and powerful pressure on big distributors, retailers and bars. Not to mention the pussified and compliant promoters.
Sell it or else!
Sell it or else. And they have the power to demand that. As for the "public", here's what we will convince you to buy next, and next. And they have the power to that as well. It's perfect. They laugh at us.
Sadly, the general public has been so inundated for so long and so effectively that it's no longer a big deal to lead them by the nose to a new product. For gawds sake there are buyers whose only historical exposure to "Captain Morgan" is on the facking bottle.
They have ever diminishing memories of what pure, real, well-aged quality spirits actually tasted like, especially as the remaining spirits of real quality made by independent distillers are ever diminishing, and being forced up and off the shelves.
Now that the mega-corporations define the "product" to be what they say it is, it's just marketing based on the pretense that there are actual categories that they themselves haven't manufactured. When you mass produce lower quality, NAS, de-balled spirits you need something to keep it interesting, ergo phony flavors, ideas and presentations. It's cheap, and endlessly variable to then promote to newly created sub markets.
Watch it get worse...
*******
Note: thanks to the U-man...
