Drinks industry legend David Gluckman’s audacious approach to business was neatly summed up in this succinct piece of advice made recently to an audience at London’s Regents University: “Never have a Plan B!”
That bold strategy made Gluckman one of the most remarkable innovators in the highly competitive drinks market and the genius who launched an array of alcoholic beverages over a career spanning more than four decades. “I had a suit and could spell. So I got a job as an advertising account executive,” explains the always understated Gluckman who built up a wealth of experience in the industry after leaving his home in South Africa. With Kerrygold butter he learnt how to transform a ‘commodity’ into a ‘brand’. The result was an export success for Ireland in the 1960s that continues to this day. According to eater.com, in 2018 Kerrygold was the second-best-selling branded butter in the United States. Some 23,000 tons of the butter went to the U.S. last year with more than $1 billion dollars going to 80 plus markets worldwide. Other products from Procter & Gamble, Lyons teas and several Unilever accounts moved his career forward but Gluckman wanted to take his work in another direction and fulfil a more creative role.
In the enterprise he established with business partner Hugh Reade Seymour-Davies in the late 1960’s, Gluckman was able to adopt his very individual approach to product development. Driving ideas forward requires tenacity and vision. David believes this is best achieved through a great partnership that enables that ‘dynamic’ to fully flourish. After coming up with the idea for an Irish cream chocolate liqueur, his first male focus group dismissed the product as ‘a girl’s drink’. He notes, however, that the two sample bottles put into the Allsop Arms, a pub in London’s Marylebone district, were keenly consumed by two police officers. The female focus group who tried it observed its taste profile was similar to the diarrhea remedy Kaolin & Morphine. Gluckman, however, was hopeful for his creation and so was his client, IDV (that would eventually become drinks giant Diageo), who launched Baileys in 1974.
“The real heroes are the people who bought the idea!” asserts Gluckman who advises that one most lose ‘objectivity’ and never have a Plan B. He reserves huge credit for his clients that embraced his creations and puts little trust in popular market research tools: “You get 90 per cent of what you want from one focus group. 5 per cent from the second.”
Baileys has become a global success but Gluckman has also tried his hand at competing with equally formidable beverage brands. “If you want to compete with a mega brand aim at the ankles not at the heart” advises the drinks legend. This was the approach he adopted when devising a competitor to energy drink Red Bull. Mindful that the drink is thought to be physically reviving, he considered a beverage with a different purpose. “Don’t aim head on,” was his response to the brief, “Produce a brand focusing on mental energy.” The result was IQ, an innovative drink concept that has yet to come on the market. Gluckman admits not all of his ideas make it to production but still hopes enterprising young drink producers will seize some of his ideas in the future.
“An Englishman’s way into wine” was the way Gluckman described the Le Piat D’Or range that was launched in 1975. It was to become a drinks sensation in the 1970s and 1980s not just in the UK but also markets like Japan and Canada. “At that time heavy wine drinkers had two bottles a month!” recalls Gluckman who realised the upper echelons of British society happily navigated their way through the vintages and grape varietals. They were, however, confusing to the mass market at the time. Gluckman wanted to offer something different: “Branded French wine for a mass market”. The brand offered the rising mainstream drinks market a smooth and easy-drinking wine. Some branded wines already existed, such as Black Tower and Blue Nun, but these were German and Gluckman wanted a ‘broadly acceptable’ range from France. His idea became the biggest selling branded wine in the UK and one of his greatest triumphs: “It was an exercise in common sense. I was more proud of Le Piat D’Or than Baileys.”
Described as a ‘recruitment malt’, Gluckman’s The Singleton has become the key driver in Diageo’s single malt portfolio. “It was created in the mid-1980s,” explains David in his acclaimed book “That S**t Will Never Sell”: “It’s underlying hypothesis was ‘why develop a whisky for 4% of Scotch drinkers – malt drinkers – when you can create one for 96%?’ Pretty obvious, I suppose.” Masterofmalt.com describes it as: “A bottling that’s a perfect introduction for those who are new to single malts.” Once again, Gluckman’s genius for understanding the consumer, the market and the opportunity shone through.
Present and future trends are also very apparent to the veteran drinks innovator. “There’s a lot of interest in brands with social responsibility,” observes Gluckman but he cautions that it is essential a company’s corporate citizenship is credible. Simply put, David advises social responsibility works best with “People physically doing something, not talking about something.” He singles out Sapling Spirits as being a positive example of a company making a difference. The UK-based vodka brand is described the GQ Magazine as a ‘sustainability superstar’ for planting a tree for every bottle they sell. According to the company: “We not only plant trees and nurture them but also seek to enhance the local area in which we are planting.” Their planting partners include Trees for Cities, Food and Forest, and the High Atlas Foundation.
David is also keenly aware of the potential for greater growth in the low- and non-alcoholic product categories. “There are a lot of people responding to the low alcohol trend,” says Gluckman but he also observes that people increasingly want a ‘challenging taste’ too. He is certainly the man to speak to if you want to create one.
“That S**it Will Never Sell!” is available through YPD Books
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