Brands as thank you gifts

Nowadays, it almost goes without saying that your brand should have a back-story, but one category that has always had more than its own share of these stories is the spirits market.

 

The spirit of Bacardi
Bacardi is currently running a TV campaign based on its history and has produced its own graphic novel created by writer Warren Ellis and aritist Mike Allred and telling the story of the man and the family behind Bacardi rum. It focuses on the life and exploits of Emilio Bacardi, son of Bacardi founder Don Facundo.

 

Johnnie Walker’s famous one-take ‘The Man Who Walked around the World’ online ad, featuring Robert Carlyle, is a long-time personal favourite. It is a fabulous story that reveals the reason behind the square bottle and why the label slanted at 24 degrees.

 

However, it seems that in the world of liqueurs there is less differentiation, and various stories show that the brands have as common themes wealthy benefactors and thank you gifts.

 

The black pearl and the chambermaid

The Tia Maria story starts in the 17th century in the Caribbean. These were turbulent times and a combination of colonial wars and pirates brought chaos to the region. 

 

It was during one such period of unrest that a young woman, who was unusually for the time the owner of a Jamaican plantation, was forced to flee her home. 

 

Her chambermaid just had the time to take her mistress's most treasured possessions, including a pair of black pearl earrings and an old manuscript containing the secret recipe for the family liqueur. 

 

In gratitude and in memory of her faithful "Aunt" Maria, the young noblewoman named this dark liqueur "Tia Maria".

 

The battle of Culloden and the helpful Clan Chief

The Battle of Culloden was the final confrontation of the Jacobite Rising. On 16 April 1746, the Jacobite forces of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, more commonly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, fought the loyalist troops commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands.

 

Having lost the battle, Bonnie Prince Charlie fled, but was pursued by the King’s men across the Highlands and Islands of Western Scotland. During this flight, he was aided by many Highland Clans, amongst them was Clan MacKinnon.

 

It was their chief, Captain John MacKinnon, who helped the Prince escape across the sea to the Isle of Skye. There, he was given sanctuary by the Captain and in thanks for the man’s bravery, the Prince gave John MacKinnon the secret recipe to his personal liqueur. 

 

More than 100 years later, the recipe passed to John Ross of The Broadford Hotel on Skye, where he developed and improved the recipe and the drink gained its now-famous brand name. It is said that, upon tasting it, one of these locals exclaimed that this was “the drink that satisfies”, – or in Gaelic, “an dram buidheach”. This was shortened to ‘Drambuie’ and was registered as a trademark in 1893.

 

And the moral of these stories is clearly ‘do any famous people you meet a good deed and you never know, perhaps they say thank you by giving you the deeds to a new liqueur brand’.

 

Read more from Giles in our Clubhouse.