At Bar Convent Brooklyn, some of the industry’s most experienced operators shared the hard-earned route-to-market insights that separate thriving brands from those that never make it past their first year. From data-driven launch frameworks and pricing strategies that actually work with distributors, to authentic brand building on limited budgets and channel-specific growth tactics, these presentations cut through the noise to deliver actionable intelligence for anyone serious about building a sustainable alcohol brand in today’s market.
How to Launch a Beverage Alcohol Brand: A Data-Driven Framework
In this presentation from Bar Convent Brooklyn, Felipe Gonzalez-Gordon, Partner and COO of Colangelo & Partners, provides a realistic, data-driven framework for launching a beverage alcohol brand. Launching a new spirit, wine, or RTD brand in today’s saturated market requires more than just a great liquid. Market sizing, financial modeling, and strategic positioning are often what separate success from failure.
Building an Authentic Alcohol Brand: Storytelling and Digital Strategy
Learn how to craft an authentic alcohol brand in this insightful presentation from Jason Barrett, President & Master Distiller of Black Button Distilling. Barrett draws from over a decade of experience to provide a realistic guide to connecting with the right consumers without a massive budget.
How to Structure Your Alcohol Brand’s Price for Distributors
In this presentation, Mark Harmann, National Sales Director of The Independent Distributor Network, delivers a critical masterclass on pricing your alcohol brand for distribution. With decades of experience and oversight across 33 wholesalers, he provides the essential framework to structure your price for profitability, navigate 52 different state markets, and finally get your product on the shelf.
Building a Mezcal Brand On-Premise
In this case study, Diego De la Vega Fernandez, Co-Founder of Zomoz Mezcal, shares the pivotal lessons learned from launching a premium, organic mezcal brand. He reveals why he abandoned a failing off-premise strategy to go all-in on the on-premise channel, building the brand one menu placement and one authentic experience at a time.
How to Launch a Beverage Alcohol Brand: A Data-Driven Framework Transcript
Felipe Gonzalez-Gordon (0:04)
As Stephanie said, my name is Felipe Gonzalez-Gordon. I’m a partner at Kangulan Partners, a communications agency specializing in the beverage alcohol industry. We help both entrepreneurial and established brands here in the US. Today, I’m going to talk about the less sexy part of our business. When building a brand, we must address several fundamental aspects. First, we need to identify the opportunity to see if there is an actual market for what we want to sell. Second, we must size that opportunity to ensure there is enough demand. Next—and I will only touch on this briefly since Mark will dive much deeper into it—you have to establish a solid pricing strategy. Finally, you need effective marketing. This is a highly saturated industry with thousands of brands out there, so you must find a clear way to stand out. While Jason and Diego will focus on how to craft your individual brand stories, I am going to share some tips and frameworks on what makes brands succeed, and what mistakes you must avoid.
Felipe Gonzalez-Gordon (1:33)
The very first thing to keep in mind is that you must take a consumer-centric approach. At the end of the day, you are trying to sell to a real person. Because the market is so crowded, the best recommendation is to closely study consumer behavior. Look at what consumers are gravitating toward, whether that is health consciousness, flavor exploration, or premiumization. Use that data to analyze the ‘white space’—look for what is currently missing in the market and identify what latent demand is completely unserved. Finding a specific angle that no other tequila or rum brand is currently executing makes competition much easier than fighting head-to-head in a saturated category. To do this, look outside the beverage alcohol sector; monitor culinary innovations, trending flavors, and consumer demands for sustainability, and find ways to weave those elements into your brand footprint.
Felipe Gonzalez-Gordon (2:58)
You also need to gather direct insights from the trade. Ultimately, you need the trade’s help to get your bottles into the hands and onto the palates of consumers. Seek continuous feedback from your distributors, on-premise buyers, and retailers to learn where they see the next big market opportunities. Talk to mixologists to find out what styles of cocktails they are currently mixing and what ingredients they feel are missing from their backbars. Furthermore, you should utilize reputable industry data sources. While you typically have to purchase these market reports, they are incredibly valuable for tracking macroeconomic trends, seeing exactly how many competitive brands are active, and identifying which product sub-categories are experiencing genuine growth.
Felipe Gonzalez-Gordon (3:44)
When sizing your market and setting goals, a highly effective framework to use is the TAM-SAM-SOM model. Think of it as a pyramid. At the top is the TAM, or Total Addressable Market, which represents the overall revenue of the entire product category. For example, let’s look at the gin category in the US and assume it is a $3 billion total market. Obviously, you will not have the resources to capture that entire space, but it establishes your baseline. Next is the SAM, or Serviceable Available Market, which narrows down to your specific price tier and sub-category. If you are launching a premium gin priced at $35 and up, your actual serviceable market might look closer to $900 million. Finally, because you won’t be the only player in that tier, you must calculate your SOM, or Serviceable Obtainable Market. This is where you set realistic capture goals—such as 0.3% or 0.5% of your SAM—based on the exact capital and resources you are willing to dedicate. If your target is 0.5% of that premium tier, your realistic obtainable market is $4.5 million. This exercise gives you a concrete, numerical foundation for your business plan.
Felipe Gonzalez-Gordon (5:47)
While Mark will go into much greater detail regarding costs, it is vital that you understand your basic cost structure from day one. Many producers mistakenly use a simple ‘cost-plus’ model, where they calculate production costs, slap a margin on top, and call it a day. You need to do much more homework than that. You must analyze the shelf and on-premise pricing of competitive brands to properly position your product. Furthermore, you have to account for the reality of the US three-tier system. There are multiple intermediary steps before your bottle ever reaches a consumer, and every single person along that supply chain needs to make money. You must factor those middle tiers into your calculations. As a general rule of thumb, a bottle that retails for $35 on the shelf likely needs to have an FOB price of around $12 out of your facility. You have to work your math backward from the retail shelf to protect your bottom line.
Felipe Gonzalez-Gordon (7:14)
A major question every founder asks is: ‘How much should I invest in marketing?’ As a baseline rule, you must invest ahead of your sales volume, which means securing proper upfront financing. A standard benchmark is to dedicate 20% to 30% of your projected Year 1 and Year 2 revenue straight to marketing. For example, if you have an initial sales goal of 5,000 cases and your brand sells at an FOB of $200 per case, you should plan to invest $200,000 to $300,000 into marketing before you ever ship your very first case. Years ago, you could launch an innovative brand based purely on liquid quality and it would sell itself. Today, quality is merely the baseline expectation; you must back that liquid up with real dollars. Consider a strategic framework where you allocate 30% to trade activations and events, 30% to PR, 20% to digital advertising and samplings, and 10% to collateral materials and custom holiday packaging. Do not get bogged down by the exact percentages; focus on mastering this foundational business framework.
Felipe Gonzalez-Gordon (9:05)
Another critical milestone is identifying your exact break-even point. This calculation is a theoretical exercise based on volume, fixed costs, and variable costs. Your break-even volume is calculated by dividing your total fixed costs by your contribution margin (which is your selling price minus your variable costs per unit). Running this simulation tells you exactly how many cases you must move before the business makes its very first dollar of profit. Crucially, you must also build risk factors and sensitivity analyses into this model. Things will go wrong in the real world that look perfect on paper. You have to account for scenarios where a distributor delays an order, a glass supplier raises bottle prices, or international tariffs shift unexpectedly. Having a sensitivity analysis prepared ensures your break-even point remains realistic.
Felipe Gonzalez-Gordon (10:48)
If you are not launching into an entirely open white space, you cannot expect to sell your product based on taste alone. You are competing across a variety of commercial vectors that must be perfectly aligned: your brand story, shelf presence, price-to-margin balance, distributor leverage, and—most critically—consumer awareness. Building real awareness often requires a six-figure investment, but you must put money behind it to answer the ultimate consumer question: ‘Why should I buy your brand over the competition?’ If you can’t differentiate, your brand will suffer from sluggish sales, low repeat orders, and an inability to get a distributor’s attention. Distributors are constantly wondering how many more tequilas, rums, or imported wines they actually need to take on. You have to create a product that makes retailers and consumers genuinely miss it if it were to disappear from the shelf tomorrow.
Felipe Gonzalez-Gordon (12:09)
If you are entering a crowded category, you must find your wedge—the specific point of differentiation that sets you apart—instead of just imitating established market leaders. Audit your competition inside and out; thoroughly understand their pricing tiers, distribution footprints, and packaging designs so you don’t offer a lesser product. Use your brand story and tone of voice as a sharp tool for differentiation. Ideally, you want to over-invest in both branding (to secure consumer pull) and the trade (to secure distribution access). Niche down to breakthrough. Find a specific sub-category or consumption occasion that isn’t about product flavor alone, but about usage moments—like an ‘après-ski bourbon’ or a ‘brunch-ready gin.’ There is immense commercial opportunity in owning a specific time of day or lifestyle moment. Finally, prepare yourself for the long game. This path is neither short nor easy; you must plan your capital around extended profitability timelines and constantly validate your ‘why.’ If you struggle to clearly articulate your messaging to consumers, you will never convince the trade or your distributors. To succeed in a crowded category, you either need a highly unique angle or a massive war chest. Ideally, you want both.
Felipe Gonzalez-Gordon (14:22)
Ultimately, what makes a brand succeed is a rock-solid foundational story. This means showcasing authentic origins, a compelling founder narrative, or a unique production method that sets you apart. While great liquid and attractive packaging are mandatory baseline requirements to catch a consumer’s eye on the shelf, consistent execution is what builds a business. You must show up in the right markets with the right messaging again, again, and again. Making a single market visit and then disappearing for a year will not help your brand. To wrap up, here are some hard truths regarding why brands fail: they lack a real point of difference, they maintain weak distributor relationships by treating them as mere logistics partners rather than commercial allies, or they confuse their pricing strategy. Consumers are only willing to pay so much, so you must get your pricing right. Do not make the mistake of thinking beautiful packaging is all it takes; you must invest equally in your route-to-market and sales distribution. Avoid becoming a ‘me-too’ product, don’t rely blindly on a single influencer to go viral, and ensure you have the cash reserves necessary to sustain the business over time.
Building an Authentic Alcohol Brand: Storytelling and Digital Strategy Transcript
Jason Barrett (0:03)
Hi everybody, my name is Jason Barrett. One of the interesting things we are starting to see is a massive influx of competition, which this show probably demonstrates better than ever. Consumers are definitely starting to wise up. It is getting very hard to go to market with a story like, ‘My great-grandpappy had a still and a secret recipe—and please ignore the back of the label where it says distilled in Indiana.’ Most consumers have picked up on that by now. They are calling out brands that are not being authentic. When you are trying to build trust and a relationship with your distribution partner, your retail partner, or the consumer, once that trust is broken, it is almost impossible to get it back. Consumers are actually much more comfortable with alternative routes to market now. It is completely fine to say, ‘Listen, we partnered with a great distillery, we blended some great bourbon, and here is how it came to be.’ It doesn’t have to fit the prototypical moonshiner narrative we’ve all heard a thousand times.
Jason Barrett (1:14)
Consumers are increasingly going online to get that first brand engagement. To put this into perspective: if we place a $50 bottle of bourbon on the shelf, and the average consumer in my area makes a little under $30 an hour, I am asking for two hours of their life after taxes to buy that bottle. It has to be twice as good as Jack Daniel’s because it is twice as expensive. That is a massive ask and a big responsibility, and it is on us to explain that value to people. We are finding that the digital realm is the best way to make those introductions, tell our story, and connect with the right audience. One of the challenges with traditional media like billboards is that you just hit everyone driving by. With a digital strategy, you can specifically target people with similar interests and personas—people who genuinely have a reason to connect with your brand.
Jason Barrett (2:15)
To make a brand memorable, you have to constantly reinforce your message and keep it completely consistent. If your packaging doesn’t match your collateral, and your collateral doesn’t match your social media tone, you confuse the consumer. You need to establish your persona: Are you a funny brand or a serious brand? Are you celebrating World Whisky Day or focusing on different core values? Maintaining a consistent persona becomes especially crucial as you scale your staff. If you were to look back at all of the tweets from Black Button Distilling, you could probably figure out down to the exact month when we transitioned to a new social media manager. Even though we work incredibly hard to maintain a unified message, that tone and tenor shifts slightly during staff transitions. This is why building an authentic narrative is so important. If there are parts of your process that are incongruent with your brand, you can’t hide from them anymore. People will figure it out. For example, we often battle the misconception that all bourbon has to come from Kentucky. That is no longer the case. We have been making bourbon in New York for 12 years, and almost every state makes it now. You can try to educate consumers on this, but I’ve also learned that if a consumer is completely stuck on that Kentucky stereotype, they are probably just not our target customer.
Jason Barrett (3:53)
So, how do you build that brand story? A lot of this foundational work needs to be written out long before you ever go to market. You need to define how much of the narrative is about the founder, how much is about your core values, and what your exact mission is. The mission for Black Button is to take great, New York-grown ingredients and craft them into great, New York-grown spirits. We occasionally wavered from that early on—we made rum once, but it was incredibly difficult to produce and didn’t align with our local mission. We even tried growing sugarcane in upstate New York, but it only got a few inches high and failed. We tried to force the rum to fit our ethos, but ultimately realized that if we are staying true to our New York agricultural mission, we shouldn’t be making rum. Your brand promise has to be clear. For us, it is about delivering high-quality, New York-grown spirits at an affordable price. Once you write these guidelines down, you should use them for staff training and recruitment. We need to hire team members who truly believe in this mission because this industry is a long, hard road. If they aren’t invested in the mission with us, the wages on the craft side—even though we pay a very fair wage—aren’t going to be enough to keep them motivated.
Jason Barrett (5:11)
Another question to consider is how much you should lean into your milestones and accomplishments. There is absolutely nothing like winning your first gold medal or celebrating a major achievement. When you are six months in, working yourself to the bone, and nothing seems to be going right, that external validation is crucial to celebrate with your team. However, you also have to recognize that almost every brand in this room is going to win a gold medal at some point. Today’s consumers already expect a baseline of high quality. I know some producers who over-index on screaming, ‘Hey, we have 100 awards!’ That is great, but a massive brand like Buffalo Trace can always buy more competition entries than you can. You have to decide which milestones actually resonate with your audience. For example, if a legendary figure like Dale DeGroff gives you a phenomenal quote saying your whiskey is transcendent in a Manhattan, consumers recognize that name. That is a specific accomplishment you absolutely want to run with.”
Jason Barrett (6:19)
When positioning your brand for impact, you must establish a unique selling proposition and define your ‘why.’ Why should a consumer buy your product over someone else’s? In our case, there are thousands of bourbons on the market, but very few are 100% pot-distilled, grain-to-glass, and made entirely in New York. If knowing exactly where your whiskey comes from and supporting local agriculture matters to you, we are a perfect fit. If you just want a $29 liter of standard Kentucky bourbon, I can actually recommend several great ones. Since we aren’t in direct competition with them, I’m happy to do so—though if someone asks me that while I’m standing inside a liquor store, I tend to be a little less helpful. A strong positioning strategy requires analyzing your target audience, clearly communicating your point of difference, and inviting them to join your ‘tribe’ or mission. At the end of the day, people want an emotional connection. It is the exact reason wine clubs exist; people remember having a fantastic time at a tasting room, and they want to recapture that feeling every time they open a bottle to share with friends. Unique stories drive that connection. I remember visiting Bordeaux, France, and finding a retail shop that carried wine made by cloistered nuns who had taken a strict vow of silence. I found that absolutely fascinating. I have no idea if the silence makes the wine taste any better, but every single time someone comes to my house, I crack open a bottle and tell them, ‘I bought this in Bordeaux, and it was made by silent nuns.’ That story is how they hooked me. It makes for incredible engagement, and it shows the power of a distinct narrative.
Jason Barrett (8:19)
Digital marketing serves as our primary growth engine because it allows us to continuously A/B test and drill down into our exact target market. There are roughly 1.2 million people in the Rochester area. If I spread my limited marketing budget evenly across all of them, I won’t make a dent. Instead, I use digital targeting to find the specific subset of people who frequent farmers’ markets, care about organic products, and buy fair-trade coffee or locally grown goods. You can significantly neck down your ad spend through these parameters to build highly lookalike, like-minded audiences, ensuring your dollars go much further. We have also taken a fairly aggressive, unconventional approach to building local brand awareness. If you are ever driving down the main highway in Rochester, New York, you will see a large building featuring the Black Button logo. It isn’t actually our distillery, but we managed to secure the signage rights on the side of that highway, and it generates immense awareness value for us. Interestingly, there are traditional billboards sitting on both sides of that very same building. You could never convince me to buy space on those billboards because they are far too expensive for the return, whereas our permanent building sign is highly cost-effective.
Jason Barrett (9:36)
Ultimately, the volume of your production, the size of your budget, and your actual operational capacity dictate your route-to-market strategy. If you have a massive war chest, it makes perfect sense to launch simultaneously in multiple states with a large field staff and professionally designed collateral. That was simply not the position I was in when I started. We began literally by selling bottle-by-bottle at our local farmers’ market, then we added our distillery tasting room, and today we are in a somewhat unique position because we self-distribute across upstate New York. We skip the traditional middleman and work directly with the liquor stores. This has been an incredibly slow, methodical route to market, but it has also kept us highly capital-efficient. It is vital for craft producers not to get out over their skis; you have to closely watch the market signals along the way. Over the years, I have truly learned that the United States is not one single market—it is 50 entirely different markets. I have friends in Virginia who have to navigate the state-run Virginia ABC system, friends in North Carolina dealing with their specific ABC boards, and friends down in Texas whose entire businesses live or die by big retail chain placements. Those are drastically different routes to market, and if you don’t take the time to deeply understand them, it is almost impossible to succeed because you are competing against local brands who spend 24 hours a day mastering that specific system. If you are in a control state, focus on winning your control state. If you are in an open state, focus on winning your open state. Just remember that the next state lines you cross represent an entirely new battleground, and you need to thoroughly understand its unique laws before you dump money into it. To close out, ask yourself this checklist: Is your brand story authentic? Do you have clear, distinct positioning? Are you leveraging digitally effective targeting? And is your route-to-market strategy tailored to your individual territory? This formula works incredibly well for us in New York, even though it wouldn’t work in Virginia. Luckily, we operate in New York, and we sign off with a ‘cheers’ on just about everything. Thank you all very much, and I will turn the floor over to Mark.
How to Structure Your Alcohol Brand’s Price for Distributors Transcipt
Mark Harmann (0:04)
I’m going to go fairly quickly, but I want to give you a quick history lesson before we dive in. I started in this business back in 1988. At that time, there were fewer than 100 craft distillers in the United States and only 1,900 wineries, but there were 3,500 wholesalers. Today, there are over 3,000 craft distillers and 11,000 wineries, but fewer than 1,000 wholesalers. The funnel to get your product out to the trade through the three-tier system has become incredibly narrow and difficult.
Mark Harmann (0:46)
Currently, I serve as the National Sales Director for an alliance of 33 wholesalers across 30 states called the Independent Distributor Network, which we formed to give small and mid-sized producers a viable path to market. I can tell you right now: everything the previous speakers mentioned is mandatory. If you don’t have your brand story and a route-to-market strategy ironed out before you come to me, it’s a complete no-go. We won’t even start a conversation. You have to understand what it takes to win in the trade before you ever approach a distributor.
Mark Harmann (1:26)
Next to marketing and making a great product, understanding your pricing is the most vital asset you can have. You had better know your numbers backwards and forwards because that is exactly where your profit comes from. If you don’t understand pricing, you will fail in this industry. Across the United States, different states act like entirely different countries with unique parameters. You need to know the rules before you talk to me about entering a market: Is it a Cash on Delivery (COD) state or a Net 30 state? Do they allow quantity discounting, or is it a ‘one-case’ or ‘one-bottle’ pricing state? Is there a broken case charge? You must know these details.
Mark Harmann (2:06)
You need to know how to calculate your pricing backwards and forwards. If the distributor works on a 30% margin and the retailer works on a 30% margin, what does your landed cost need to be to hit your target retail? Is the market a markup or a margin state? Most are margin states. Furthermore, you must know your targeted retail price and your competition’s pricing. I talk to so many brands who tell me they don’t know what their retail price should be, which ends our conversation very quickly. If your competition sits at $39.99 and you want to position yourself at $49.99, you have to understand the market parameters. When structuring deal levels as a craft producer, don’t set your best discount tier at 15 cases—set it at two or three cases. You aren’t Woodford Reserve, Jack Daniel’s, or Tito’s yet; you have to make your brand financially accessible for retailers to buy into.
Mark Harmann (3:15)
Do you know the tax and freight costs for each state? You need to know exactly what it costs to ship your product from your distillery to your target markets. If you are entering a chain-dominated state, you also need to understand ‘high-low’ promotional pricing. It’s like the grocery store tags that say a bottle is normally $49.99 but on sale for $29.99 to show a fake $20 savings—in reality, $29.99 is just the everyday price. Let’s do a quick pricing quiz: If your target retail is $49.99 and the retailer requires a 30% margin, what does your wholesale price need to be? From there, what must the landed cost be for the wholesaler to also clear a 30% margin? If tax and freight run five dollars, what is your required FOB (Free on Board) price? You need to be able to run these calculations on the fly when pitching to a distributor.
Mark Harmann (4:35)
The key takeaway here is to never leave money on the table. If you miscalculate and price your product in a way that lands awkwardly at retail—like an unintended $47.99—the retailer will often just bump it up to the next psychological price point ($49.99) and pocket the difference. Work your numbers comprehensively from the shelf backward so you maximize your own profitability rather than handing margins over to the retail tier. This is why mastering your pricing strategy is just as crucial as making a great liquid or designing beautiful marketing.
Mark Harmann (6:01)
To echo what the other panelists said: go narrow and deep. Focus on fewer states and invest heavily in them. I call the retail shelf the ‘glass canyon’ because there are simply too many choices today. Getting on the shelf is only step one. You have to convince the consumer to pull your bottle off it. Why would a customer take a fifty-dollar risk on an unknown craft brand when they could buy a known brand? Big players spend millions on above-the-line advertising, like sponsoring the Kentucky Derby. A craft startup cannot compete with those corporate budgets. However, you can compete on the ground by putting ‘liquid to lips’ inside retail accounts, sharing your local story, and proving your product belongs on that shelf.
Mark Harmann (7:20)
Ultimately, make sure your pricing works backwards and forwards to match your target competitive set while protecting your own bottom line. The distributor and the retailer will always make their money—make sure you make yours. Before expanding, ask yourself: have you truly won your backyard? If you tell me you want to launch in five new states but you’re a one-person team, I’ll ask how you are doing within a 50-mile radius of your distillery. Do you own those local stores and restaurants? Once you capture that, expand to a 100-mile radius. Look at successful craft producers who stay focused locally for years before expanding; they remain highly profitable because they don’t overextend. Remember that the US is not one uniform market of 365 million people; it is effectively 50-plus different countries, each with entirely different laws, pricing regulations, control states, and distribution systems. Master your local market and understand your neighbors’ regulations before you look to expand.
Building a Mezcal Brand On-Premise Transcript
Diego De la Vega Fernandez (0:04)
I’m going to tell you the story of Somos, what we’ve done to a certain point, my experience, and our strategy regarding what’s been working and what hasn’t. But before that, I’m going to echo everyone else’s words here about what we’ve created with Somos. Before we even got to market, as Felipe said, you have to nail the price point, the story, and the experiences. Jason was talking about activation. What works for one brand doesn’t necessarily work for another, and that’s how Somos came along.
Diego De la Vega Fernandez (0:33)
So really quickly, Somos is a single-SKU, organic Espadín mezcal—which was a very big headache to get. My co-founder, Isabel, is a fourth-generation Mezcalera in San Dionisio Ocotepec, Oaxaca. We’ve done the whole awards and competition route, which is exciting, but like Jason was saying, we have to celebrate the small milestones along the way, not just at the end of the day. One of the things that is very important right now is how we are connecting with the consumer and what that experience is. For us, it’s about culture. Where do we come from? How do we differentiate ourselves in a very crowded mezcal market? It’s a growing category, but there are thousands of brands. Just walking around near the Park Street Pavilion, I see a new brand every day.
Diego De la Vega Fernandez (1:28)
For us, it’s all about who we’re targeting: culturally engaged, general market drinkers, people from all around. We are starting very firm in that targeted consumer sector. We are doing a slightly different style of branding, trying to go for different visuals than most brands. But really, what is the route to market? I always ask myself: how do we compete with the big brands that have million-dollar budgets? What is the strategy, and how do we get case rotation to eventually reach profitability without burning cash like we’ve been doing for the last year and a half? Because that is the reality.
Diego De la Vega Fernandez (2:04)
For us, what’s really been working is an on-premise focus. I learned the lesson early on about going off-premise and trying to get onto every shelf—like getting into Total Wine in California, since we’re based in LA. The reality is, if there’s no brand awareness, people are not going to buy you off the shelf. You have to do all of the demos and tastings. My biggest campaign is ‘liquid to lips.’ However, the case rotation off-premise was 1 to 10; it was nothing. We were investing all of this cash off-premise and realized it wasn’t working. After a couple of months, we decided everything had to go on-premise. Eventually, the consumer is going to try us on-premise. We’re focused on going in and telling the story with boots on the ground. It’s a little bit different from your strategy, Jason, but for us, that’s what works. We learned it through hard lessons.
Diego De la Vega Fernandez (2:59)
What we do right now is host consumer-driven activations where we spend our money to actually get bartenders involved. We meet the consumers who go into the bars and restaurants and tell our story—Isabel’s story and my story of how we started the brand, and what differentiates us. A big hurdle for us is that a lot of people don’t like mezcal because it’s too smoky or has too big of a punch, so they say they’d rather have a tequila. We tell them, ‘Yeah, but we wanted to do a cleaner, neater, more approachable mezcal.’ It’s an introduction to mezcal. When people try the product—and by the way, after this, everybody is invited to the booth to have a free mezcal and get a little bit tipsy since it’s the end of the day—they understand it.
Diego De la Vega Fernandez (3:44)
“It’s not easy when we walk in and say, ‘Hey guys, buy my bottle,’ just because we’re organic and we’re another mezcal. We are priced at a premium SRP on the shelf, and we’re at $65 on-premise. We have different margins and price points, so we are still an expensive mezcal, but we stand very firm with our price point because of the story and what we believe in. We say, ‘Hey, if you want something cleaner, try this. If you want something cheap, we’re not for you.’ When people say they want to buy a $20 bottle, we tell them that’s a different market. Go buy Bacardi or the other massive brands—I don’t want to name other brands here, but it’s a completely different market.”
Diego De la Vega Fernandez (4:27)
We always get asked a lot, ‘Hey, what are you going to do for us?’ We know that a lot of the big brands drop their prices and make massive investments, which is just the nature of the industry. For us, what we’ve found the most success in is relationships and experiences, but it takes a lot of time. It’s been a year and a half of going out there, meeting with beverage directors, restaurant owners, and hotels. It’s about understanding our target account list, identifying potential buyers, and consistently showing up every single day to have a drink. Even if they don’t carry us yet, the fact that they see my team and me there builds the relationship. Eventually, that leads to the conversation of, ‘Okay, we know each other now, you’re hustling, you’re here—let me help you out. Let’s get you onto the menu.’ Because for us, the ultimate goal is menu placement.
Diego De la Vega Fernandez (5:23)
This is very different from Jason’s approach, and I love that because now you have two completely different strategies. What works for someone might not work for another. I tried digital marketing and it didn’t work at all. There is no single clear route to success because every brand and every story is completely different. I always focus on quality over quantity when it comes to the number of accounts, but at the end of the day, we still need case rotation. All of my funding goes into acquiring those menu placements and investing in accounts—not through a card swipe or by lowering the price of the bottle, but through consumer activations.
If you look at what Gen Z and millennials are looking for, they want a connection. They want a story, and they connect through emotions. When they see a brand that speaks to them, they engage. That’s why we opted for different visuals in our marketing. People already know the story of the guy cutting the agave. We want something that sparks emotion—good or bad. Even if someone says, ‘Ah, that’s not my vibe,’ I still made them feel something, so they remember us. A little bit of emotion helps every time. Through those activations and experiences, people go home and tell their friends, ‘I went to a great Somos party, tried this nice mezcal, and had a great cocktail.’ It just takes more time and it’s a slower build, but at the end of the day, that’s what’s been working for us. Well, that’s another picture of the brand, and that is really what I wanted to present on Somos.
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