How her little bit of creativity revolutionized a $59.8 billion industry
I am woman, hear me pour
“Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whiskey is barely enough.” — Mark Twain.
The whiskey industry is big … really big … like $59.8 billion and growing.
In fact over the next five years the industry will reach $86 billion in sales.
There are plenty of brands that dominate the market but none as iconic as Maker’s Mark.
The company was founded in the mid 1800’s by John Samuels in Loretto Kentucky. John was born in Ireland and traveled to the U.S. in the late 1700’s, bringing with him the family’s recipe for making whiskey.
When John passed away, his sons took over the family business even making batches of whiskey for the army by special request of George Washington.
Future generations continued to run the business, including Tailor William (Bill) Samuels Senior. He operated the business right up until 1943. That’s when President Roosevelt ordered all distillers closed unless they were able to produce commercial alcohol for the military.
Bill expected to retire as a farmer with his wife Margie and their children but soon found he just couldn’t give up on the family business. So when the Presidential ban was lifted, he went back to making whiskey. But this time, his wife Margie joined him.
The couple were determined to make a few slight adjustments to the 170-year old recipe. Bill wanted to create a smoother whiskey, similar to the taste found in Pappy Van Winkle’s Old Fitzgerald.
That whiskey was distilled with wheat instead of rye. So Bill went about experimenting with different combinations of wheat until he finally found one that had the sweetness he was after. Then he started making barrels of his new-found bourbon.
While Bill concentrated on distilling, Margie focused on ways to make their new brand of whiskey stand out from the competition. She was the creative one.
And her creativity came through one evening in 1957, when Margie dipped the top of a square bottle with a long neck in thick, bright red wax. As she did this a bit of the wax dripped down the neck of the bottle but instead of wiping it away, Margie left it there to dry.
She then carefully centered the label onto the bottle, which was cream colored and slightly torn.
When she finished, she gathered her husband Bill, along with their three children around the table to show them what she had done. This bottle is the future of Maker’s Mark she told them.
On that day Margie revolutionized the packaging and marketing of distilled liquor with her signature red wax label that read, “WHISKY.” Until then, no other whiskey makers had considered just how important the “look” of their brands were to customers.
It’s said that Margie’s creation … the shape of the bottle, the look of the label, the lettering, and red wax topper are the reasons why people buy their first bottle of Maker’s Mark. And their second bottle is because of the recipe Bill created.
Today Maker’s Mark is one of the top 10 selling whiskeys in the world, with over 16.9 million cases sold. In 2014 Margie was inducted into the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame.
It just goes to show that being different is a virtue.