How We Do It

May 8, 2008

The Ripple Effect of Grey Goose Vodka
Thursday, 08 May 2008
There's something to be said about a spirit brand that comes with a sense of empowerment when ordered by name; that when spoken (albeit a bit louder than if it were an alternative brand) draws attention and when held brings to mind the words, "high-end," "sophisticated" and "in-the-know," to name a few.

That spirit brand is Grey Goose.

Three years after the super-premium vodka was introduced into the US market in 1997 by Sidney Frank Importing Co. (New Rochelle, N.Y.), it found its way to the top of the super-premium brand list with sales tripling the following two years, according to industry data.

The history and noteworthy climb of Grey Goose is well known and recited often in the beverage marketplace with the much talked about more than $2 billion purchase of the brand by Bacardi in 2004. Grey Goose, which in the beginning, had little or no public awareness, a limited budget and a high price tag, sprang from selling 80,000 cases in 1999 to 2.1 million cases in 2005.

However, the story that isn't often told is that of the marketing mechanics that were used to create Grey Goose's image in the spirits industry and how it gained a loyal following of premium consumers.

"There was a whole approach to Grey Goose that was counterintuitive in the market at that time," explains David Sklaver, president of KSL Media, about the brand's launch.

David Sklaver Sklaver is referring to something he calls "entrepreneurial media"—a catch phrase or mantra, if you will, for the marketing and media services company that means understanding how to work with a brand that is a challenger in a large category. "It means being creative," he says. "You have to move a little faster, you have to be, hopefully, a little more inventive and resourceful (in terms of finances)... Very much like an entrepreneurial company startup needs to be in terms of challenging their market."

With Grey Goose, KSL Media, based in New York City, looked toward "influentials" or "opinion leaders" to spread the word on the intrinsic values of the vodka. These included its claim on being the world's best-tasting vodka during a time when vodka was considered a tasteless spirit, the fact that it is bottled in France, distilled from the same waters that fine cognac is distilled from and that it has a cork closure as opposed to a screw top. The result was akin to a "ripple effect" explains Sklaver. "It's throwing a stone into a pond and as we moved out of those very strict businessmen types, Wall Street 'opinion leaders,' we started looking at their lifestyles and how to reach those people in other ways." And that was through strategic event marketing/tastings, print advertising and television exposure, but not in the conventional way.

"Rather than just tagging on to a trend or a lifestyle, we wanted to become integral in it," Sklaver says.

Grey Goose Cartoon For example, KSL Media turned to magazines like The New Yorker and Gourmet and came up with non-traditional methods of advertising. With The New Yorker the company co-opted the magazine's cartoonist to create Le Citron themed cartoons, among other Grey Goose flavors. With Gourmet magazine, the magazine commissioned a celebrity chef to create a summer grilling menu that featured Grey Goose Vodka flavors in the recipes, which were featured in a four-page insert.

The spirit's first TV initiative wasn't with buying commercial time, but by creating its own television program, "The Grey Goose 19th Hole," on The Golf Channel in 2003. The 30-minute talk show has become one of the highest rated shows on the network, according to KSL Media.

In 2005, "Iconoclasts," a program of Grey Goose Entertainment, was created to extend the brand by creating an association with celebrities, a series of one-hour documentaries that pair iconic celebrities, like Robert Redford and Paul Newman for example, to reach the "cultural elite." The program is co-produced with The Sundance Channel and is in its third season.

This year, "Live from the Artist's Den," showcased emerging singer/songwriters in unique venues that are culturally significant. Grey Goose is the exclusive sponsor at the eight invitation-only Artists Den concerts, which aired on Ovation TV.

"Part of Grey Goose is about discovery," says Sklaver. "Whether it's 'Iconoclasts' in discovering the passions of some very famous people and what inspires them or discovering up-and-coming musical artists in very interesting venues, we want to be an enabler of that."

Today, marketing tactics like event marketing, creating unique cocktail recipes, sponsorships, etc. seem to be the common path that startup vodka brands take, looking to follow in the same footsteps as Grey Goose with hopes of becoming the next big brand. But Sklaver says that those brands may be on the wrong path. "Now the vodka category is so crowded that everybody is trying to replicate the path of Grey Goose," he says. "I don't think that path exists anymore."

So, that begs the question, why was the path successful for Grey Goose?

Brain Sudano, managing director & COO of Beverage Marketing Corporation Strategic Associates, answers: "Timing is everything… Remember vodka was growing very fast at the time and the spirit market, when Grey Goose launched, had just for the first time turned positive in terms of growth trajectory. Also, you had the boom on Wall Street where people were spending money on anything that made them look like they were a success. So there were a lot of things that were favorable for them."

Among them were the brand's consistent and effective marketing. Sudano lists premium packaging, brand visibility in trendy night clubs, its high margins (which helped secure wholesalers) and its Beverage Testing Institute backing of its "world's best-tasting vodka" claim, as intrinsic values for substantiating the position of the brand as super-premium.

However, Sudano says, "If they did the same exact thing today, exactly, with the same product that wasn't in the market before, I bet you $100 they would fail… You've had a lot of people try and do the same exact thing Grey Goose has done and they are not succeeding because the market has moved."

Maintaining its Cachet
Grey Goose is set to launch a new television and print campaign this spring with the tagline "on discerning taste." Using the brand's popularity among the elite as leverage, the campaign positions Grey Goose as the definition of what is discerning taste whether it's in music, dining or hotel accommodations. Sklaver explains that through the digital extension of the campaign, Grey Goose will serve as a referring agent on fine dining locations or hotels, for example.

"It's taking that Grey Goose cachet and insinuating it into the lifestyles of its customers," he says.

For example, the company is set to launch a new website at greygoose.com to encompass the new digital strategy. Although Sklaver could not divulge many details regarding the campaign, he did say that the, "digital strategy will allow the brand to get deeper into the hearts and minds of its drinkers."

"As you get big," says Sudano, noting that Grey Goose is a 2 million case brand in what is typically an 180,000 case industry, "you evolve from the unique discovered brand to the brand that has to reinforce its gold standard and continue to justify its price point."

Sklaver adds, "It is important to be very tight thematically, never to stray from the roots or betray the audience. Grey Goose became a brand that basically says something about the patrons who order it—they are a bit more cultured, a bit more in the know. And so every event and everything that is executed about the brand has to live within those guidelines."