Wise Startup Blog

For those of you who love vodka, I’m sure I don’t have to educate you on Grey Goose. It’s on top shelfs and on VIP tables across the country and across the globe. You would assume a fine, high-quality vodka would have been brewed for ages in the dark distilleries of Europe well into the past century, but in fact, Grey Goose was founded in the 1970s and until recently maintained a relatively low-profile.

Package your product in wooden crates instead of cardboard boxes

Smirnoff vodka, on the other hand, has been around since the 1860s and yet maintains a “better” choice as opposed to “best” that Goose carries. (which isn’t to say Smirnoff is trying to be a top-shelf brand, but I’d argue they couldn’t if they tried due to lack of brand equity in high-quality products) Grey Goose’s image relies on its presentation: it has a nice frosted bottle, has a big price tag, and is delivered to the liquour stores in wooden crates.

This obviously adds to the cost, but it allows Goose to maintain its allure, and image, even to the liquor store. This may seem silly to waste money on packaging the end-user never sees, but Goose is trying to make the important impression on the store owner. They control the power to place the liquor in strategic locations within the store, and prominently feature Grey Goose in the “glass case”.

What can you do to make your product stand out?

This is a good example of how presentation and image make such a big difference. For web players, there are so many competing products, alone I can count 22 music services that are pretty damn close to Grooveshark, so making yourself stand out from the pack is essential.

Perhaps you have your Twitter account be a constant source of user communication or you share your office humor with the rest of the world. Whatever it is, make sure you realize the importance of image and style in selling your products, just ask Microsoft how Zune sales are doing to the iPod, er iPhone, er iPod Nano.