85th Anniversary: The 2000s
As Heaven Hill Brands celebrates 85 years in business, we’re looking back at two foundational eras in our corporate history that have shaped and influenced where we are today.
The bridge period of the 1970s-1990s ushered in a transition from a solid foundation in bourbon and whiskey to broad diversification in the distilled spirits space, driven by consumer tastes and preferences. As a third generation of family leadership joined the company in the 2000s, the team brought more focus to sales and marketing and leaned into opportunities for strategic brand acquisition and new product development.
Chief Marketing Officer Kate Latts takes us from 2001, when she and Chief Operating Officer Allan Latts joined the company, to present day – a period shaped by groundbreaking acquisitions, sweeping product innovation and fundamental shifts in our approach to marketing and public relations.
In the early 2000s, the Millennial generation came of legal drinking age. Talk to us about the impact this had on Heaven Hill’s strategy and how their changing preferences have continued to influence our portfolio.
The Millennials were the first generation to be raised with an abundance of choices and flavor options in the things they eat and drink. From strawberry-kiwi Capri Sun to Cool Ranch Doritos, the proliferation of flavor became the norm. As the Millennials came of age, they looked to find this same range of options in the spirits they wanted to drink. This was first seen in cocktails like the appletini and cosmopolitan made trendy by shows like “Sex and the City.”
From these trends emerged the beginning of flavored spirits across premium liqueurs and flavored vodkas and rums. With the success of Burnett’s 80 proof vodka, we seized on the huge opportunity for innovation, ultimately resulting in a line of 35 flavored vodkas and the number-four selling vodka in the country. This was also the time period when we acquired the Whaler’s flavored rums and tropical fruit-flavored Hpnotiq and then launched PAMA Pomegranate Liqueur.
As the millennial generation matured, so did their tastes. The sweet Capri Sun flavors of their youth lost their appeal. Millennials became more interested in a brand’s authenticity and integrity and use of quality ingredients. This was the beginning of the whiskey Renaissance, which is obviously continuing today.
In 2005, Heaven Hill began to talk about opening its first visitors center. How has tourism changed during this time, and what are some trends that continue to drive the success of our visitors centers today?
At that time, Woodford Reserve had created one of the first Bourbon visitor centers just outside of Frankfort, Kentucky. Harry Shapira {then Executive Vice President} was a great champion of our whiskey portfolio and recognized early on the types of experiences our consumers were starting to want. Despite the very big price tag that had us all a bit nervous, we were excited to follow Harry’s passion and lead in developing the Bourbon Heritage Center in Bardstown.
From the beginning, the award-winning visitors center has been such a show piece, as one of the most prominent stops on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, drawing tens of thousands of visitors each year.
Likewise, Millennials are a generation on the move, as they seek interesting experiences, like coming to Kentucky to do the Bourbon Trail. I remember being down at the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience once a few years ago. I witnessed a young woman in her late twenties who had come to town on a girls’ weekend and was so excited and proud to buy a bottle of Evan Williams 23 year old. It was wild.
Partnerships with like-minded organizations have been part of Heaven Hill since the beginning. Talk to us about why this has been an important part of our strategic mindset in recent years.
We have always looked to partner with like-minded people. This was initially most important in our distributor partnerships and is evidenced by generations-old relationships with distributors in states like Arkansas and North Carolina that remain today. We’ve always felt comfort in doing business with people we’ve felt we had a connection with.
In the 1980s, we had a strategy of importing European brands and serving as their U.S. distribution arm. That strategy also was very much based on relationships and often the feeling of a trusting family connection. In 2010 when we entered into a joint venture relationship with the Beckmann family to launch Lunazul Tequila, we could sense right away the power of our two families coming together.
Why do you think the 2000s brought greater recognition of our brands by both the trade and by consumers?
From the beginning of the 2000s, as we continued to have more and more successes, there was also a gradual building of both capability and credibility for the company. All of this was built off our foundation as a leader of integrity and authenticity in the Bourbon space.
The acquisition of Hpnotiq truly revolutionized the company and took our sales and marketing activities to a whole new level. It was the first time we had a brand that competed in the high-intensity night life/night club space. We quickly recognized that we would need to evolve our marketing to be successful. This included new types of marketing and point of sale, new agencies and new vendors. It was a pretty hectic, but very exciting time. The learning curve that we had with Hpnotiq set us up to succeed when we launched PAMA a few years later, and then, subsequently, many additional branded initiatives.
Over this time period, we definitely came to know the New York-based public relations agency scene, and from those relationships, we began to meet other innovators and entrepreneurs. The more we were learning, the better questions we were asking, and the more we were learning to apply to our own marketing and innovation.
In thinking about the 85th anniversary of the company, what are some things you would like team members to know about this period in the company’s history?
This was obviously a very exciting time for me, with a lot going on. From the beginning to the end of that first decade, I feel like it was an easy time for the company to grow. The Millennial consumer was coming of age and interested in trying all kinds of different things.
From a marketing perspective, the 2010s are when things really started to get interesting though. When I started with the company, most of our advertising was done in print magazines and a little bit of newspapers and billboards. The only television advertising of spirits was on cable, and it was very limited. Today nearly all of our media is digital, including social media and streaming television advertising. We also advertise on major television networks and sponsor things like Major League Baseball.
Our channels for marketing have opened up so much, from the perspective of promoting our brands to our growing, diverse range of consumers, and being able to target our consumers in a laser-focused way has just made these initiatives all the more effective.
