Business Acumen and Marketing Mastery
Posted on Mon, Dec 19, 2011
Several weeks ago while waiting around at the American Airlines Admiral’s Club, I overheard a young professional order a “Belvedere with soda” for himself and a “Belvedere with orange juice” for his friend who was going to join him shortly. My ears perked up because my son’s good friend happens to be the product manager for this particular brand of vodka. So I felt compelled to ask the gentleman who ordered the drinks why he asked for this particular brand. He could have said “vodka and soda” (as one would order a “vodka tonic”). He also could have used an expression perhaps more common to my generation: “screw driver,” instead of the Belvedere with orange juice. “I used to drink Grey Goose,” he said, “but now I prefer the taste of Belvedere. “
I didn’t want to bother him further so I stopped there. But I found it interesting that people can distinguish the taste of vodka, particularly when it is mixed with other types of liquid. Moreover, there are dozens of brands out there in the market. I would have been less surprised if his explanation had something to do with the cooler looking bottle, the million plus hits of a YouTube video featuring the product, endorsemets by a reality show celebrity, or all the Belvedere bottles prominently displayed by his Facebook friends in posted photos of their parties.
There are a number definitions of vodka but here’s one provided by www answers.com that originally comes from the Encylopedia Brittanica: http://www.britannica.com/ (The words in bold font are my doing.)
Colourless distilled liquor of neutral spirits usually made from a grain mash (generally rye or wheat). Potato vodka originated in Russia in the 14th century. Today most vodka is distilled from cereal grains. It is highly neutral, most flavouring substances having been eliminated during distillation and filtration, the latter process employing charcoal purifiers. Distilled water is usually added before bottling in order to lower alcohol content to 40 – 43% by volume (80 – 86 proof). Vodka is not aged. It is traditionally consumed unmixed and chilled, in small glasses; in the U.S. and elsewhere, it is often used in mixed drinks.
So by most accounts, vodka is an alcoholic beverage that has no distinct color, odor, or taste. When it is combined with mixers such as fruit juices it takes on the color, taste and odor of the mixers. When it is taken “straight” or when a splash of soda is added, might it be then that the superior taste of a particular brand comes out, or by chance might marketing have something to do with it?
As a marketing professor once told me, “if you can differentiate water, you can differentiate anything!” And since we all know that there are many brands (and price points) of bottled water, of course the same can be said of vodka.
In any case, here’s how the company that makes Belvedere describes its product: http://www.belvederevodka.com/collection/belvedere-red
The world’s first super premium vodka, Belevedre represents the pinnacle of the Polish vodka-making tradition. Distilled exclusively from the finest Dankowskie Gold Rye and quadruple distilled to create the perfect balance of character and purity., Belvedere Vodka is the true expression of luxury vodka. Complete additive-free and diluted with wter from Belvedere’s own atesian well, this is a vodka that combines over six hundred hears of vodka producing expertise with an uncompromising commitment to quality and heritage.
In my next blog, I’ll talk about some of the success stores in the production and sale of vodka from both a marketing and financial point of view. We talk about these factors in Business Acumen: Your Key to Success and Marketing Mastery: Your Key to Success.