You can believe your brand is prestige if you want to, realistically it's a paper tiger that's waiting to fall apart. Luxury is the final scrap of glue to hold onto.
Totally nuts at that price. It feels like the industrial version of the emperor’s new clothes.
Although it does feel like their target market are not the ones trading down from a malt to a blend. If they have it right as an experience they may have a winner.
Not for me though, I like a distillery with authenticity. Show me your dust handling equipment and your draff bins as much as you show me your polished stills.
The more classic, the better. I agree that they're not looking for trade down client, but I also think it's a concrete block of alienation.
I doubt of their high net work customers will actually pay to get in. It'll be the curious, possibly rich, but even then they're being shown somewhere that is a distillery, but doesn't feel like one.
This might have worked at the start of the latest Whisky zeitgeist, but they are far too late with it. Even the rich don’t like being fleeced. It’s only the stupid that will pay that.
Touring Macallan at £50 is overpriced as well. Hardly an exclusive brand when you can still buy it in a supermarket.
All very valid things to say. They are late, massively so. Macallan operates in a different world, the comparison was a surprise to me when it came to their pricing, Macallan that is. £50 is too much but Dalmore being at £250 is just a wild thing to get my head around.
You could always see that Diageo would capitalise on the reopening of Port Ellen and Brora, making them desirable, as their whisky hadn’t been as easily available for decades. But Dalmore has never been restricted, and by brands making their whisky based offerings more exclusive (and expensive) in the current market, it doesn’t just attract those with more money than sense, I feel it also turns off your core market, of those who may be tempted by your core products. And losses in a profitable core customer base usually results in unsatisfying bottom lines.
For reference - Ron Johnson’s time at JC Penny’s was catastrophic, despite a successful portfolio including designing and running the Apple stores.
That's an interesting end note in your writing there. Food for thought for these brands...I hope. Regarding Diageo, I do wonder if Dalmore being a premium asset was forged out of Diageo not being allowed to buy them.
I know it was monopoly reasons, Diageo were already big enough, but I do wonder of that was a kick-start. Along with the bottle redesign.
Just an amateur writer with an opinion and an internet connection. Plus I live in Speyside, which is nice, but doesn’t always guarantee 100% accuracy. But opinions are like belly buttons…
The end note was from a blog I wrote a few years ago. In it I also compared Tesco Perthshire Spring Water and Highland Spring. The point was that both waters are produced at the same plant in Blackford, Perthshire - same village as Tullibarbine. Only Tesco’s offering was over a half the price of the HS bottle.
If people find something of a comparable quality to a premium item at a cheaper price, they rarely go back to the expensive brand. Only those who are sucked into the propaganda, image and who want to be seen drinking premium products continue to buy. And they don’t make the most reliable profit source. Alienating your customers who want to buy your non-premium products isn’t a good move.
"Exclusivity" at its worst. As whisky enthusiasts and serial distillery visitors, we're very disappointed that they didn't add a regular tour in the £30-£50 range. We want to understand how they made the product, not interested in all the marketing crap. And, Macallan being a more virtuous example says a lot. At least Port Ellen had the decency to do free tours on open days once a month (still on the naughty list for us, though).
Yeah, Port Ellen haven't quite made it off the naughty list. The best example of how this fails is with Rosebank. They had a legacy...sort of, and charged £200 for tours upon opening. Now tours are £50 as they weren't making money. Silly business model that doesn't really attract anyone exciting.
Brora are enduring it though, they've been open for a few years with only silly expensive tour options (as far as we know). But they closed the Clynelish visitor centre instead...
We toured Rosebank for £25 in 2024, with 3 drams (including the newmake spirit, the other two were a Glengoyne and a Tamdhu), which is a decent value these days. Maybe their shoulders are not as broad as DIageo's.
Broad shoulders indeed regarding Brora. I looked at their tour options before writing the above and they have alot of empty slots available...
Closing the Clynelish side of things is simply idiotic given the love people have for that place. I love Brora, I've an old bottle that is a genuine deathbed dram. But I'm not giving you £600+ for a tour when I can buy a bottle on auction for less.
Totally nuts at that price. It feels like the industrial version of the emperor’s new clothes.
Although it does feel like their target market are not the ones trading down from a malt to a blend. If they have it right as an experience they may have a winner.
Not for me though, I like a distillery with authenticity. Show me your dust handling equipment and your draff bins as much as you show me your polished stills.
The more classic, the better. I agree that they're not looking for trade down client, but I also think it's a concrete block of alienation.
I doubt of their high net work customers will actually pay to get in. It'll be the curious, possibly rich, but even then they're being shown somewhere that is a distillery, but doesn't feel like one.
This might have worked at the start of the latest Whisky zeitgeist, but they are far too late with it. Even the rich don’t like being fleeced. It’s only the stupid that will pay that.
Touring Macallan at £50 is overpriced as well. Hardly an exclusive brand when you can still buy it in a supermarket.
All very valid things to say. They are late, massively so. Macallan operates in a different world, the comparison was a surprise to me when it came to their pricing, Macallan that is. £50 is too much but Dalmore being at £250 is just a wild thing to get my head around.
You could always see that Diageo would capitalise on the reopening of Port Ellen and Brora, making them desirable, as their whisky hadn’t been as easily available for decades. But Dalmore has never been restricted, and by brands making their whisky based offerings more exclusive (and expensive) in the current market, it doesn’t just attract those with more money than sense, I feel it also turns off your core market, of those who may be tempted by your core products. And losses in a profitable core customer base usually results in unsatisfying bottom lines.
For reference - Ron Johnson’s time at JC Penny’s was catastrophic, despite a successful portfolio including designing and running the Apple stores.
That's an interesting end note in your writing there. Food for thought for these brands...I hope. Regarding Diageo, I do wonder if Dalmore being a premium asset was forged out of Diageo not being allowed to buy them.
I know it was monopoly reasons, Diageo were already big enough, but I do wonder of that was a kick-start. Along with the bottle redesign.
Just an amateur writer with an opinion and an internet connection. Plus I live in Speyside, which is nice, but doesn’t always guarantee 100% accuracy. But opinions are like belly buttons…
Enjoy the read, it’s written tongue in cheek!
Even better!
The end note was from a blog I wrote a few years ago. In it I also compared Tesco Perthshire Spring Water and Highland Spring. The point was that both waters are produced at the same plant in Blackford, Perthshire - same village as Tullibarbine. Only Tesco’s offering was over a half the price of the HS bottle.
If people find something of a comparable quality to a premium item at a cheaper price, they rarely go back to the expensive brand. Only those who are sucked into the propaganda, image and who want to be seen drinking premium products continue to buy. And they don’t make the most reliable profit source. Alienating your customers who want to buy your non-premium products isn’t a good move.
https://tastywhisky.home.blog/2023/09/21/buy-better-not-harder/
I couldn't agree more. Thank you for the link! Need something good to read on this long journey home.
Madness. And a slap in the face for the people who could be their biggest advocates.
Precisely, Gary. One of the stupidest moves I've ever seen to stimulate a new facility. Moronic.
"Exclusivity" at its worst. As whisky enthusiasts and serial distillery visitors, we're very disappointed that they didn't add a regular tour in the £30-£50 range. We want to understand how they made the product, not interested in all the marketing crap. And, Macallan being a more virtuous example says a lot. At least Port Ellen had the decency to do free tours on open days once a month (still on the naughty list for us, though).
Yeah, Port Ellen haven't quite made it off the naughty list. The best example of how this fails is with Rosebank. They had a legacy...sort of, and charged £200 for tours upon opening. Now tours are £50 as they weren't making money. Silly business model that doesn't really attract anyone exciting.
Brora are enduring it though, they've been open for a few years with only silly expensive tour options (as far as we know). But they closed the Clynelish visitor centre instead...
We toured Rosebank for £25 in 2024, with 3 drams (including the newmake spirit, the other two were a Glengoyne and a Tamdhu), which is a decent value these days. Maybe their shoulders are not as broad as DIageo's.
Broad shoulders indeed regarding Brora. I looked at their tour options before writing the above and they have alot of empty slots available...
Closing the Clynelish side of things is simply idiotic given the love people have for that place. I love Brora, I've an old bottle that is a genuine deathbed dram. But I'm not giving you £600+ for a tour when I can buy a bottle on auction for less.