The founder of Grey Goose started the vodka brand at 77, after making Jägermeister a party drink in America. He sourced Grey Goose from France instead of Russia, priced it 30% higher than competitors, and designed a taller bottle to sit above other premium vodkas on the shelf.
You guys know the Grey Goose story?
Yeah, the taller bottles.
The taller bottles. But also the guy who started Grey Goose started it when he was in his 70s. Before that, he had brought Jägermeister to the US and made it popular. He created the Jägerbomb and got like Jägerettes, the girls who would go around bars pouring the stuff down college kids' throats, and he made it the party drink. Now he's in his 70s and he's like, I want to start a vodka company. I'm going to do two things differently. We need to source the vodka. Great. We're on our next flight out to Moscow. No, no, no. We're not doing Russian vodka. Go to France and find me vodka. They go, there's no vodka in France. He goes, Classifying me, but because if I told you this is French vodka, it just makes that dirty Russian vodka look like crap. And he tells the other group, go to the bar right now and buy the most expensive vodka that there is. Bring all the bottles here. Lines them all up. We're gonna be 30% more expensive than whatever the most expensive one is. Okay, it's this fat bottle. We're gonna be a tall bottle.
