The Marketing of Good Taste

Have you ever asked "Why is Champagne so popular"?  This article might start to explain. Sidney Frank once stood in front of a shelf of vodka in America and asked himself a similar question. Which vodka should I buy?  His is not a name you would recognise but his perception on vodka and subsequent actions  exemplifies why champagne is highly sort after and other sparkling wines are not so much. They are definitely  runners up. There were dozens of bottles of vodka side by side on the shelf. Clear liquid. Similar taste profiles. Similar bottles often based on a Russian theme Dramatically different prices. And some of them — the expensive ones — were flying off shelves while cheaper alternatives gathered dust.

Sidney Frank did not see a product puzzle. He saw a psychology puzzle.

He understood in that moment, that the vodka business was not a taste business at all. It was a perception business. A status business. A strong visual identity, and the right associations could make people choose a product not for what it was but for what choosing it said about them. People were not buying vodka. They were buying a version of themselves they wanted others to see.

Sidney Frank decided to test that insight and  in 1997, he launched Grey Goose Vodka.

Every decision was deliberate and psychological. The vodka would be produced in France — specifically in the Cognac region, using high-quality French wheat and water from a natural limestone spring. France was a genuine production choice, but it was also a masterclass in association. France meant refinement. France meant taste. France meant arriving. The bottle was tall, elegant, frosted — designed to look expensive sitting on a back bar or in an ice bucket at a table.

And then Sidney did the thing that seemed, to many industry insiders, almost reckless. He priced it higher than everyone. Not slightly higher; significantly higher. He wanted Grey Goose to sit at the top of the shelf — literally and symbolically — because he understood that in a market where 99% of consumers cannot reliably distinguish between vodkas by taste  price becomes information. High price signals high quality. High price signals exclusivity. High price tells the person ordering it, and everyone watching them order it that this person has made it.

The strategy worked spectacularly.

Bars began displaying Grey Goose prominently. Nightclubs pushed it. Hip-hop artists referenced it. Celebrities were photographed with it. It became not a drink but a cultural signal — a shorthand for success. Customers ordered it not just because they enjoyed it but because being seen ordering it meant something.

In 2004, Bacardi acquired Grey Goose for $2.2 billion — one of the largest transactions in the history of the spirits industry.

Frank did not invent vodka. He did not discover some hidden technical secret about distillation. What he invented was desire. What he mastered was the gap between what something is and what people believe it to be.

Champagne is a similar story. Champagne houses did not invent the process method traditional and then renamed it method chamonoise. Other regions in France made sparkling wines earlier. The basic steps were invented by English cider makers. Londoners invented sparking champagne in 1664. It was another 80 years before champagne could be bottled in France. But regulation defined it to a small geographical region making it exclusive and marketing sold the story - Napoleon, Russian Czars, sports launching boats etc.

Many method traditional wines from France, Cava from Spain etc are just as good if not better, but the buyer buys on reputation and often they cannot judge the difference quality, but can the price difference. They are buying  glamour recognition and success.

#vodka #BusinessWisdom #SidneyFrank #champagne