In the mid-1990s, Sidney Frank – an American businessman with a knack for crafting luxury brands – wanted to introduce a new premium vodka to the market, at the time dominated by established Russian brands and Sweden's Absolut.
Targeting the affluent and aspirational, Frank leveraged American consumers' intuitive association between luxury and French goods by partnering with Francois Thibault, a cellar master, to craft what he'd decided to call 'Grey Goose' using traditional French techniques – distilled in Picardy and bottled in Cognac. With taste and production sorted, Frank turned to branding. Wanting his bottle to convey French provenance, Frank's design featured frosted glass for a premium edge and a small flag to denote its country of origin; delicate netting circles the body to mimic the region's fine wines, as does a replaceable cork.
The product was placed in Sex and The City – a pinnacle of late 90s New York lifestyle – as well as donated to multiple society charity galas. Business boomed, and by 2004, just seven years after launch, Grey Goose was sold to Bacardi for $2 billion.
By hiking pricepoint (at launch Absolut sat around $17 for 750ml, Grey Goose went on shelves for $30), Frank created a self-fulfilling prophecy. Everything about vodka is perception. It's colourless, odourless, even tasteless in a way. Yet by building visual, psychological and social associations between the product and perceptions of luxury, Sidney Frank set a new standard for the spirit market.
Whilst the likelihood of Grey Goose lining the cellars of collectors is slim, its origin lends itself to the importance of perceived value. Fine wine and rare spirits are an increasingly credible asset class, with a global market value in the billions. More than that, owning products of high calibre possesses an intoxicating quality unmatched by other kinds of capital — whether investors drink it or not.
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