Brand Ambassadors

First of all, let me start by saying I absolutely loved Martin's class yesterday. I was in pain from laughing so hard by the end!

But now, let's get down to it.

I think it's interesting that we didn't talk much about the notion of brand ambassadors and how once you've successfully gotten your product into a distributer, there's still a lot to do because products don't sell themselves. My brother used to be a brand ambassador for a company called American Born Moonshine (ABM) that sells moonshine (which is defined simply as un-aged corn whiskey) and one time I went along with him to one of these in liquor store tastings. They'd set up a whole display, teach the sales people about the products to get them excited and introduce curious liquor buyers to the product. This was extremely important for two reasons: 1. Very rarely does somebody go into a liquor store thinking "I want moonshine". This was an opportunity for them to introduce the public to their product. 2. Those who had tried moonshine before had either tried it straight out of the bathtub of a friend (the company is based in TN) back in the day or they'd tried one of the other "moonshines" like Ole Smokey which are often marketed as moonshine but aren't actually. This gave the ABM brand ambassadors the opportunity to interact with those individuals, and actually educate them on the ABM product, and the story they'd built along with it.

I was extremely intrigued by Martin's strong support of the ambassador model and spoke with him after about how he believed the future of liquor business was those individuals who had been in the weeds becoming the executives. But this made me wonder, why don't wineries use this model at all? There are companies like cupcake that have large aisle-end displays that draw the eye, but I have never seen anybody in a liquor store doing a tasting to introduce the product and educate the consumer. And I must admit, I'd probably be a sucker for walking into a store and being convinced to consider a new wine (that I'd otherwise walk right past) that I could try right there and learn about. I understand that that's a bit of what the winery's on premise store is for, but wouldn't it make sense to do tastings in liquor stores or wine stores by representatives? Maybe this is done and I've just never been lucky enough to witness it, but I have to think this would be a great way to expand a brand's reach.