Maker’s Mark waters down its bourbon

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Why do I think this will backfire.



  • http://twitter.com/tarungangwani Tarun Gangwani

    I doubt anyone would be able to notice the taste. And those who would are probably the type who buy “46″ or similar.

    • Mother Hydra

      you know what they say about assumptions right?

  • Mother Hydra

    Tastes like crap anyway. I love Evan Williams but none of the joints in my neck of the woods have anything but Makers Mark. Shame really, I’ve felt makers mark was akin to Jack Daniels- a name and a bit of clever branding with little else.

  • matthewmaurice

    How to maim a brand in one easy step! This is total fail for Maker’s Mark. First, by their own admission, there’s no difference in taste, so why do it? Right now there’s the bad press, and for at least the near term, maybe longer, MM is going to be known as the “watered-down bourbon.” So you’re turning off the casual bourbon drinkers. Second, you have executives seen as “monkeying with the product” which will turn of the bourbon snobs who will be sure that their palates are sharp enough to tell the difference. Finally, real bourbon aficionados who probably weren’t going to drink MM are now going to avoid it with even more gusto. So where’s the upside? I’m sure there’s an Excel spreadsheet that showed how much more money they could make by making this change, but is it worth the damage to the brand they’ve just done?

  • Doctorossi

    I don’t care for wheated bourbon, but this is a shortsighted and disappointing move, IMO. If you can’t keep up with demand, raise the price (or- heaven forbid- be satisfied with the profit you can make from selling at full production), don’t (literally) dilute the product.

  • http://twitter.com/Moeskido Moeskido

    Ach, I’m not happy to hear this. But I wonder if it’s just the tip of a big iceberg in the industry.

  • itsgene

    Seriously? My first choice would have been to jack the price up and put out a press release to the effect that demand is outstripping supply and “we apologize if you have difficulty finding our product on shelves.” Next thing you know, people will be standing in line to get it, stores will ration it, and people who have never tasted bourbon before will be buying it on eBay at insane prices thinking it is some rare commodity.

    • http://digitizedsociety.tumblr.com/ DigitizedSociety

      I completely agree. Hold to your culture of artisan small batch bourbon production that holds quality and consistency as one of the highest marks. High demand for your product allows you to make more margin per bottle. I’ve never heard a company say that they were willing to compromise their popular product in order to satisfy the high demand for the product.

      Why “water down” your product? This is going to be a marketing field day for its competitors.

      Could you imagine what would happen if Apple decided to “compromise” their iPhone/iPad design in order to output higher product yields?

  • http://www.tumblr.com/blog/his-divine-shadow His Shadow

    As long as its spring water…

  • JohnDoey

    They should have made the bottles slightly smaller.

    This is a good chance for bourbon drinkers to step up to scotch.

    • http://twitter.com/Moeskido Moeskido

      Your use-case. Bourbon is different from scotch.