Grey Goose vodka was created by veteran spirits executive Sidney Frank (1919–2006) in 1997. With Grey Goose, Frank, who had run the international liquor conglomerate Schenley and had turned the bitter German liqueur Jägermeister into a sensation, started the super-premium vodka craze that ushered in the twenty-first century.
Frank already had used the name Grey Goose for a wine, which had been unsuccessful. He had better luck with the wheat-based vodka, which he had distilled in central France but bottled in Cognac, a region famous around the world for luxury brandy; that gave Grey Goose an immediate, and marketable, cachet. See cognac.
The strategy Frank adopted for making his vodka a best seller was simple. He first doubled the suggested retail price of the popular Swedish import Absolut Vodka (Grey Goose debuted at $30; Absolut was selling for about $15). See Absolut. He then submitted his brand to the Beverage Testing Institute for ranking, which named it the best-tasting vodka in the world.
In the late 1990s there were relatively few spirits competitions, and Frank capitalized on the accolade in an extensive advertising campaign. Consumers were impressed by the high price of Grey Goose. When they asked a bartender or store clerk about why it was so much, they were told it was just named the world’s best vodka, which, naturally, sealed many sales.
Frank supposedly preferred producing vodka over whisky or even Jägermeister, since as he told Inc. magazine, “you make it today, you sell it tomorrow.” He sold the brand in 2006 for more than $2 billion to Bacardi, which continues to produce and sell Grey Goose. See Bacardi.
See also Frank, Sidney.
Clifford, Stephanie. “How I Did It: Sidney Frank,” Inc., September 2005. https://www.inc.com/magazine/20050901/qa.html (accessed February 12, 2021).
Martin, Douglas. “Sidney Frank, 86, Dies.” New York Times, January 12, 2006.
Rothbaum, Noah. The Business of Spirits. New York: Kaplan, 2007.
By: Noah Rothbaum