Marketing Whiskeys

Many years back on a business trip to Ireland I had asked a colleague for a recommended Irish whiskey. He named me a brand called Knappogue Castle. A frenzied search at the airport duty free found me the right bottle. And I was immediately struck by the colour of the drink. It is an Irish single origin whiskey, so light delicate a hue of gold, I became a fan just on that premise. Then I drank it and convinced myself of it's smooth delicate flavour. Definitely holds it's own amongst better known Scottish cousins.

Since I treasure my whiskeys (I actually once had to move a slightly inebriated friend who was drinking my malt too fast onto Bacardi) my first bottle of Knappogue gave me years of companionship. I was back and forth from Ireland without needing to shop for another bottle. This week I needed a replenishment.

I searched high and low in the whiskey section of the Dublin airport duty free, confident that such a mellow coloured fluid would not escape my eye. No success. My friends will know that a career risk management guy I've recently, hesitantly started working in marketing. I am full of buzzwords like next best offer or cost per acquisition right now. And I can see that running marketing needs as much hard nosed data driven decisions as risk did - and I am starting to admire the professionals in this field. Suffice to say I wasn't impressed by the Whiskey Marketing people this week.

When I asked the shop attendant whether he stocked any Knappogue, he promptly took me to a shelf of dark brown cardboard cartons with that name inscribed in black on them. The whiskey marketers had thought the light gold attraction of their product would most entice consumers from behind dark coloured cardboard.

They need a shake up there. They could hire me.