Building a successful spirits brand is more difficult than many would believe. If only it were enough to have the right recipe, a great spirit, or even a magnificently designed bottle and label. However, at the core of every successful distillery is a good story, and the real challenge is effectively sharing that story with potential customers.
A great spirit is important—but if no one tastes it, what’s the point? A beautiful bottle can catch someone’s eye, but what compels them to open it? Larger distilleries might spend millions on marketing campaigns, consultants, and PR agencies trying to address those questions. Maybe those dollars are well spent, but even at a smaller distillery, there’s something you can do to more effectively tell your own story: Build a strong tour program.
I’ve represented several brands in a variety of roles, including as tour and events manager for Kings County Distillery in Brooklyn, New York. Here, I share with you my five keys to a successful distillery tour program.
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No. 1: Education
A good distillery tour focuses on education. Guests sign up because they want to find out more about what you’re making and how you make it.
Various spirits tend to have their own long, complex histories, but few people know much about them. No matter what type of spirit you’re making, share that history with your guests—and if there’s a local connection to that history, even better.
Process matters. Explain how you make your spirits, and highlight anything that’s unique or special about that process and why you do it. Don’t take the basics for granted. If your distillery makes bourbon, but you’re not in Kentucky, explain that not all bourbon comes from Kentucky. If you make whiskey that’s not bourbon, explain that not all American-made whiskey is bourbon.
There’s a lot for the consumer to take in on a distillery tour. Ask yourself, “What are the three most important takeaways about my brand?” Make sure the tour doubles down on those points throughout.
Most importantly, perhaps, teach people how to taste your spirits. One of the most rewarding aspects of a good tour program is watching people discover how to appreciate a spirit in a new way for the first time.
No. 2: Entertainment
As important as education is to a good tour, entertainment is of equal importance. In all the commotion around production and regulation, it can be easy to forget that we’re in the entertainment business.
Remember, the hope is that people spend their hard-earned money and free time visiting your distillery. There are countless other options available to them. Make their experience more than just worth it—also make it memorable, something they’ll want to share with their friends and family. The idea isn’t to have someone go on a tour and then move on. The goal is to get that person to come back, again and again.
After I went on my first tour at Kings County, I loved it so much that I took my wife the next time—and we had such a good time that I took my dad on Father’s Day. It was so much fun that I applied to be a tour guide myself. You don’t need every guest to become an employee, but you do want to create a tour that people would want to experience again.
Get a drink into their hands as soon as possible—don’t make them wait 30 or 40 minutes before they get to taste something. That’s one of the main reasons they came to your distillery, and you want to show off your impressive spirits.
Above, I mentioned how much information we throw at people on tours. Humor is a perfect gateway for that because it makes information stick. A distillery tour shouldn’t be a full-on comedy show, but a sprinkle of jokes throughout keeps things moving.
On that note, pace is important. Every segment of the tour should be in balance, and your average tour shouldn’t take longer than 45 minutes to an hour. Attention spans are getting shorter by the moment.
No. 3 Experience
Just 15 years ago, there were fewer than 200 distilleries in the United States. Now there are nearly 3,000 across the country, and several are likely in your state or area. Meanwhile, virtually every distillery tour delivers similar information about how their spirits are made, with slight variations.
So, what can you do from an experience standpoint to give your guests something new? For example, if you have barrel-aged spirits, give guests the chance to thief some straight from the barrel. Or, if they’re interested in buying one of your spirits, maybe they could fill their own bottle, or write their own label. There are some regulatory considerations, but you can be compliant and offer your guests a one-of-a-kind experience. Be creative.
People like tactile experiences. Let them taste grains or feel the heat coming off the fermentors. Give them a sensory experience around different distillation cuts. Let them touch the inside of a charred barrel and see that charcoal on their hands.
There is telling people about the process, and then there are little ways you can let them live it. Give them more than a lecture—give them a memory.
No. 4: Employees
This is probably the most important aspect of a strong tour program: If you don’t have good tour guides, then none of these other components will work.
For guests to have a good experience, tour guides should be outgoing, friendly, and engaging. People infer a lot about the brand based on the effect of their guide. I’ve found that the best guide candidates often come from a combination of hospitality and performance backgrounds.
I’m not a big proponent of heavily scripted tours. I prefer a sturdy framework built around important facts and details, allowing guides to create their own tours around them. Whether you go that route or decide to have them memorize a script, the trick is to make something that’s highly rehearsed come off natural and organic. Not just anyone is able to pull that off effectively. Post job notices in local theaters, comedy clubs, drama schools, and so on. Not to stereotype, but there’s a good chance that these folks also have worked in hospitality to some extent, and that they’re well versed in finding their voice and standing in front of a crowd.
Attracting and keeping the right kind of tour guides can be difficult. The best thing you can do is compensate them properly. Distilleries often view tour guides as minimum-wage workers. That’s often not malicious—for small distillers, budgets are lean and labor dollars are limited. You have the money you have, and you have to make it work. I get that.
However, I’d argue that a tour guide or visitor-center employee is just as crucial to the success of your brand as the person working the mash tun or the stills. These people are the face of your brand. These are the people guests are going to meet. If they learn anything about your brand, it’s from those whom you’ve trusted to be the ambassadors of your story and your spirits.
If you can, consider paying a rate commensurate with that trust and factor in a yearly raise as they stick with you. Provide incentives for tour guides, beyond the free bottle of this or that every once in a while. Consider bonuses for certain milestones reached, employee of the quarter/year rewards, staff outings, continuing spirits education, and growth opportunities within the company. Think about what they contribute and give back what you can.
If the budget allows, create a couple of full-time positions within the program—not just for a manager, but for lead tour guides as well. Ensure that your employees feel valued for the work they do, but also that you have people you can depend on every day to be there for your brand and for your guests.
No. 5: Execution
That brings me to the last key step: Make sure that you can execute all the above.
First and foremost, don’t overextend your tour program. If you don’t have the staff, don’t offer tours every day. If no one is showing up for a noon tour, then push your first tour to 1 p.m. or later if necessary, and the same goes for later tours. The last thing you want to do is pay labor hours for tour guides twiddling their thumbs.
What are the ultimate goals of a tour program? To create fans of the brand and generate sales. You’ve gotten people in the door. You hired good tour guides who can educate, entertain, and provide your guests with a top-notch experience. At the end of the tour, offer your guests something in return for their patronage. That could be a certain dollar amount off a bottle, or a coupon to use at the bar. Give them something small that converts the experience into sales.
After the experience, send a follow-up email to thank them for visiting. In that email, encourage them to leave a review. To collect some useful feedback, you could even include a link to a short questionnaire. If they fill that out, send them a coupon for a complimentary cocktail the next time they come in. Encourage them to sign up for the newsletter, so they can be among the first to hear about new releases or upcoming events at the distillery. These are all opportunities to create returning guests and encourage future sales.
Good juice is important—without it, your brand isn’t going anywhere. The same could be said for bottle design and a marketing strategy. However, a strong tour program can be the lifeblood for a brand—especially for a small distillery with a place to visit and a story to tell. It’s the easiest and most direct way to connect with consumers—to tell your story and to create fans who will continue to support you for years to come.
