Marketing an Alcohol company

[Markme]

Hey Im starting up a distillery within the next 12 months, i have most of the stuff sorted out, such as recipe, filter, bottling, name... everything except for location and a few very smaller aspects.

I know that marketing will make or break my company, because really when it comes to alcohol there really isnt a great difference to things such as vodka or gin, unless your an absolute connesuire.

I spoke to a few business friends and some very knowledgeable people and they reccomended hiring a very experienced marketer and giving them X% of the total profit.

Now i know that this is an extremely good way because its very good for both parties, if they increase my sales by 10 million dollars they could well receive $500,000 or $1,000,000 depending on the percentage.

But what i want to know is how do i find the perfect marketer or firm for me and what sort of percentage should they be receiving.

10% is quite a large lump sum.

But then again im not a marketing guru.

any advice is greatly appreciated.

[chanson]

Send me some details and we can discuss it further. We can sign an NDA without a problem. Vaiz Enterprises chris@vaiz.org

[bluintel]

You don't need to give away the farm to get good marketing for your brand. If you're a small distillery then you'll most likely grow via word of mouth in the region you actually make your product.

We are a marketing firm that works in the spirits industry, here's the rundown.

You should pay a firm for:
1. Packaging - very important and in spirits one of the key attributes that will differentiate your product from others.
2. Web presence - Corporate identity

Neither of these items should cost you the farm.

If you're doing this on a shoestring budget you could give profits in a region to a firm to promote and market your product based on distribution and revenue goals. When working with clients in the US we help organizations develop sales and marketing programs in markets they couldn't reach otherwise.

This is revenue you would never see without your partner in this region so giving away 10, 20 or even 50% of the profits (Margin), in these areas in order to have your product sold and more importantly serviced will ensure your brand is managed proactively and doesn't just collect dust on the shelf.

[Markme]

Bluintel,
thank you for your advice.
By giving away the farm im assuming that you mean profit margins.

The packaging for my product is one of the most important things to me, Ive got some pretty far out there ideas for bottling and i will be getting a label photo shopped for me by a mate whos a professional designer.

Im trying to market on things such as, that my vodka's wont give you such a bad hang over because of the way its filtered, also that its an Australian Made product and that its incredibly more smooth than any other vodka on the Australian market.

I dont have a huge budget, but i do have a decent one...
$500K for startup and then what ever i get out of my compensation law suit. But i figured that if i promised the right person or firm a certain % of the capital if they reached certain targets it would be very beneficial because they better my product gets the more money and in return my profits and brand name get launched to a new level.

I'd love to make it like a house hold name when it comes to going to buy alcohol, but that wont be anytime in the next year.. maybe in 5 years time.

The last thing that i am finding increasing hard to get is figures on vodka brands from the local clubs so i can finish off my business plan fully.

[James D]

One suggestion in marketing your business is to find a publication or website that’s in your same market area of business, for example if you are in real estate maybe real estate quarterly magazine (Fictitious magazine name but used as an example) and try to get an article about you or your business written and highlighted.

Give the writers something to write about and help them, they need stories ideas and are always trying to meet a dead line so if you give lay a good story in their lap chances are they will use it. When the article gets published you will be surprised at the number of inquires that will come in, people will find you.

I have done this several times and it really works

PS: I give this same advice a lot