198: Building "Brand Mysticism" - How to Launch a Viral Booze Brand

Our guests this week are Steven Grasse and Aaron Goldfarb who are set to release their latest book: Brand Mysticism. The book releases on November 8th and is a must read for anyone looking to add creativity to their life and brand.  This isn't your typical "booze book" and definitely will raise some eyebrows in the marketing world, but Steven Grasse doesn't mind that one bit.  His portfolio speaks for itself; he's created some of the biggest brands including Hendrick's Gin and Sailor Jerry Rum and helped bring new life to some of the world's best brands including Guinness and Miller High Life.  Steven Grasse is an authority on building an authentic, enduring, and deeply beloved (viral) brands.  And Aaron Goldfarb, he's the novelist, author, and journalist responsible for wrangling all these ideas and creativity into one cohesive book.  Bourbon Lens has followed Aaron's work for a long while and were honored to pick his brain for this episode.  A huge thank you to Steven, Aaron, and Punch Media for making this episode happen.  We hope you enjoy it and grab a copy of the book for yourself!

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Cheers,
Scott and Jake
Bourbon Len

About the Book: BRAND MYSTICISM: CULTIVATE CREATIVITY AND INTOXICATE YOUR AUDIENCE

Written By Steven Grasse & Aaron Goldfarb;
Illustrated by Ron Short 

From the marketing mastermind behind countless iconic booze brands comes an irreverent and wide-ranging treatise on building and maintaining a standout brand in business and life: BRAND MYSTICISM.

Steven Grasse made a name for himself as not only an offbeat distillery owner but also the brains behind beloved brands like Hendrick’s Gin and Sailor Jerry Rum and the guy who made cheap-beer-standbys like Narragansett and Miller High Life cool again. Through his work in advertising and marketing, Grasse has changed the game in the booze world and become an authority on building an authentic, enduring, and deeply beloved brand. Food & Wine has called him “the punk-rock prince of small-batch spirits.”

“Think of me as the Ben Franklin of hooch, the Thomas Edison of booze. Or just think of me as a crazy middle-aged man who is going to tell you some really funny sometimes slightly fucked-up stories that will hopefully make you laugh and maybe realize there’s quite a bit of merit to having fun trolling people doing art for art’s sake, simply trying shit and not really giving a rat’s ass,” said Steven Grasse. “You might wonder how I became such a Big Cheese in the world of booze. I sometimes wonder the same thing, and while everything you read in my new book is true, it is also total bullshit.”

 So how did he do it? Through irreverent tips (why being a troll can be so vital), case studies (when marketing cigarettes taught him about virality) and magical ingredients (who knew beaver anus would change his fortunes), BRAND MYSTICISM guides you through the steps it takes to channel your own entrepreneurial spirit into a business, a creative practice, or a life that breaks with tradition to achieve the remarkable.

 

About the Authors: 

Steven Grasse is an entrepreneur equally influenced by punk rock and New England transcendentalism. Steven has created some of the most outrageous booze brands of the twenty-first century: Hendrick's Gin, Sailor Jerry Rum, Art in the Age Craft Spirits—all seemingly out of thin air. He is the part-owner and creative mastermind behind Narragansett beer, and his agency, Quaker City Mercantile, has brought similar success to beer icons Pilsner Urquell, Guinness, and, most recently, Miller High Life. His first distillery, Tamworth Distilling & Mercantile, opened in 2015 and gained international press and awards within its first year. Steven is also the author of The Cocktail Workshop, Colonial Spirits: A Toast to Our Drunken History, The Good Reverend's Guide to Infused Spirits, and Evil Empire. He lives and works in Philadelphia. 

Aaron Goldfarb is a novelist, author, and journalist, who frequently writes about the spirits industry and drinking culture for Esquire, Playboy, PUNCH, and VinePair. His two most recent books are Hacking Whiskey: Smoking, Blending, Fat-Washing, and Other Whiskey Experiments and Gather Around Cocktails: Drinks to Celebrate Usual and Unusual Holidays. His 2018 VinePair article on Grasse, “How Do You Make a Booze Brand Go Viral?,” fittingly, went viral itself and has since been shared online hundreds of thousands of times.

Press and ‘In The News’:

• Purchase your copy of the book via Amazon
• Meet Steven Grasse | Quaker City Mercantile
• Steven Grasse | Official Publisher Page | Simon & Schuster
• How Do You Make a Booze Brand Go Viral? The Master of Craft Explains | VinePair 
• 20 New Cocktail and Spirits Books to Read in Fall and Winter 2022
• Brand Mysticism: Cultivate Creativity and Intoxicate Your Audience
• New Hampshire Distillery Makes Whiskey Out of Invasive Crabs | Smart News| Smithsonian Magazine
• Invasive Green Crabs Turned Into Whiskey By Tamworth Distilling
• Worldwise: Gin Distiller Steven Grasse’s Favorite Things in Philadelphia & Beyond | Barron's
• Art in the Age: Ex-Ad Man Steven Grasse’s Wonderfully Weird Spirits
• How Guinness Became a Global Powerhouse | Wine Enthusiast
• These New England distilleries are among the best in America, according to USA Today readers
• Sacred Profane: The Anti-Hype Brewery in Biddeford, Maine | PUNCH
• 13 New Ecommerce Books for Fall 2022

Check out Aaron’s Work:

• Hacking Whiskey: Smoking, Blending, Fat Washing, and Other Whiskey Experiments: Goldfarb, Aaron: 9780999661246: Amazon.com 
• How Do You Make a Booze Brand Go Viral? The Master of Craft Explains | VinePair 
• How the ‘Cigar Batch’ Became a Bourbon Industry Sensation | VinePair
• The Most Famous (and Infamous) Moments in Modern Bourbon Collecting | VinePair
• How Heaven Hill Bounced Back From Disaster to Become One of the Most Successful Bourbon Brands in America | VinePair
• Wilderness Trail and the Rise of Whiskey's Fermentation Fever | PUNCH
• Your Guide to Bourbon Whiskey Terms | PUNCH
• Bourbon Thrives in a Post-Pappy Era | PUNCH