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Marketing Maker’s Mark (B): Diluting the Brand?
Background Note
The history of Maker’s Mark could be traced back to the early 1780s, when Robert Samuels, started distilling whisky for his personal use and for close friends. In 1840, following the suit, T.W. Samuels, the grandson of Robert Samuels, opened the Samuels’s first commercial distillery in Nelson County. Between 1951 and 1954, the brand got its name, signature taste, and seal when Bill Samuels Sr. (Samuels Sr.) from the sixth generation of Samuels family, created a fresh recipe after experimenting with various combinations of barley, corn, and wheat and finally developing a smoother taste. In the final recipe, he substituted rye with winter wheat. Samuels’s wife, Margie, designed and named the bourbon....... |
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During the 1960s and 1970s, marketing activities at Maker’s Mark increased and the bourbon was sold with the slogan ‘It tastes expensive…and is’. The brand attracted national and international customers. In 1964, the U.S government declared bourbon as ‘America’s Native Spirit’, making it a distinctive spirit of the US. As per a US law, the bourbon had to be aged for at least two years. The law also required that manufacturers used only new barrels for aging the bourbon. Thus, a barrel could be used only once.........
