Dan Aykroyd Is (Probably) A Better Salesman Than You

0:10Hello friends, I'm Ray Latif and you're listening to the number one podcast for the food and beverage industry Taste Radio. This episode features an interview with acclaimed actor and co-founder of Crystal Head Vodka, Dan Aykroyd. Sketch comedian, Ghostbuster, vodka entrepreneur. It's all in a life's work for the remarkable Dan Aykroyd. An original cast member of Saturday Night Live, Dan is perhaps best known for the film franchise Ghostbusters, in which he plays Ray Stanz, the proton pack wearing Ghoul Fighter, a role he will reprise in an upcoming sequel. He's less recognized, however, as the co-founder of Crystal Head Vodka, a globally distributed ultra-premium spirit brand identified by its distinctive skull-shaped bottle.

1:01Launched in 2008, Crystal Head Vodka is atypical of celebrity-backed spirits, and that its association with Dan is not front and center. Although he does meet and greet events with consumers and occasionally goes on sales calls, the brand was designed and developed to be sold on its own merits. It's a point of pride for Dan that the company is rooted in traditional business fundamentals and adherence to premium positioning. In the following interview, I spoke with Dan about cutting his teeth in beverage alcohol as an importer of Patron Tequila, how Crystal Head Vodka enhances its resonance with the heavy metal community, how he attempts to establish an authentic relationship with consumers, and why, despite the company's longstanding independence, he may be interested in aligning with a certain luxury-centric conglomerate.

1:54Hey folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio. Right now, I'm honored to be sitting down with the legend, Dan Aykroyd, the founder of Crystal Head Vodka. Dan, so great to see you. And you, sir. Yes, you have a bottle and I have a bottle. Everyone has a bottle of Crystal Head vodka, or they should. Yeah. This is a pretty outstanding vodka and a really remarkable brand. The one I'm holding in my hand is your Pride expression, your 2023 Pride expression. That's right. It's a beautiful, beautiful package dotted with a whole bunch of splotches of paint. Yeah, spattered to represent the various colors in the LGBTQS movement.

2:31And on Pride, you know, around the world, you know, thank God that there's some support and awareness out there in a tasteful way that doesn't ram it down people's throats. We offer this up as sort of a, you know, a tribute to the, I guess, the arduous path that some people have had in terms of expressing themselves coming out sexually with their gender. You know, that shouldn't be a painful process. That should be one that's easy. And it's not these days. A hundred percent. And this is the second edition of your Pride bottle. Yeah, we had a rainbow bottle here. there it is the rainbow bottles quite nice but we wanted to represent more colors there and so yeah that's fun then we have on our onyx which is the agave tequila i mean the agave uh vodka it's what i mean to say is agave is of course what they make tequila out of and we've done a vodka distillation on this it's the notes are long and earthy on the finish and we have our corn here's the party head 1.5 you'll see that on bars and you know ibiza and tropical hangouts around the world.

3:39We do not go out and do advertising for college kids or youth under 25. We're not at Corpus Christi or Destin or Fort Lauderdale with a big trailer and handing out shots. You know, this is a premium vodka for people between 25 and 75 or 85 or 95, and it's priced so that you have to be fairly prosperous to buy it. However, it is an affordable luxury. it's only 45 more cents a drink than some of the leading premium brands. And what you're getting is a great package and a fluid that we take great care of manufacturing. So, you know, between 50 and 60 bucks for a bottle for the 750 milliliter corn, it's a pretty good deal for what you're getting.

4:22I would 100 % agree. And you used two words there that I want to touch on, package and luxury. And I'll admit, the first time I saw a bottle of Crystal Head Vodka, I thought there was an association with the artist Damien Hirst. And then with the most recent edition of your Pride release, it actually feels like there's a kind of a combination between Damien Hirst and Jackson Pollock in so many ways. But obviously there is no association with Damien Hirst. But this package is really recognizable. I think anyone who saw this in a liquor shop or a bar back would know that it's Crystal Head Vodka.

4:58Talk about the inspiration behind not just the brand, but the package itself. and you know i wonder how did retailers think about this because this literally you know might have a hard time fitting on a shelf well uh to answer your your last question first uh no problem it's a standard size size bottle and can fit on retail shelves and it looks great on bars and uh as far as the origin of the bottle well i have a good friend john alexander you can do search on him. He's a Texas artist. His work is spectacular. And we've been very old friends from Saturday Night Live days when the lady that I was dating on the show, Rosie Schuster, dumped me for him.

5:42And we became great friends, Johnny and I. And I was in Canada. I was in, no, I was visiting from Canada down in New York City one night, almost 16 years ago now. And I was telling him about how I had brought Patron Tequila to Canada. That's what got me into the spirits was I just wanted a better tequila to make a better margarita on my dock at the lake in Canada. And I asked JP DeGiorgio, my friend, you know, can I get some cases shipped up? He said, well, Dan, you've got to bring it to the whole country. And I said, well, let's do that together. And so he made me the importing agent. We brought Patron into Canada.

6:19There were only two other brands of tequila you could get. and we opened up the whole luxury tequila market there across the country, and it now remains 10 % of sales of luxury tequila Patron, and I love that. Bacardi bought it, so I'm no longer involved in it. But that got me interested, and it got me started in looking around, and, you know, well, what's the biggest category in the world? That's vodka,$50 billion in sales a year. I'm thinking, well, if I were to do a spirit, you know, if I can get a slice or sliver of that type of business, it might work out okay. So I'm looking at vodkas. I'm trying them, I'm tasting them.

6:53One smells like Chanel No. 5, one of them tastes like, I don't know, nothing. And then one's as rough as a cat's tongue, and I'm going, well, jeez, you know, why, and some of them are over viscous. I say, why are these unpalatable? I don't mention names, and of course, went to research the fact that all kinds of additives are put in there. Lemonine, and sugar, and glyceride are added. Now, not enough to kill you or hurt you, and they go into a lot of alcohol products. And I thought, imagine stripping all those oils out of there. What would you have? Well, you'd have a pure spirit. And Alexander and I were talking about Patron, and I had this idea in my head for this pure spirit.

7:34And he said, well, I've always wanted to put a tequila in a skull. And I said, well, I have Patron in Canada, as we're discussing here. That would be betraying my friend JP. I couldn't do that. But I said, I know what to put in a skull bottle, because I had it in my head already, this stripped-down spirit. So I said, draw me up a sketch and, you know, come back to me in a couple of months. He turns around, in two minutes, he draws up this bottle with the grin, with the little smile, beautiful cheekbones, the cant, catted back, the spout doesn't look as good straight up and down. You have to have a little cant in it.

8:09Now, that's bad for machine fill, because we had to have special cradles made at quite expensive, special machinery, so that it could be filled and we keep the canton it what the factory wanted was for us to have the spout straight up but no no no wait it doesn't look as good you see so he designs that and i said i know exactly what to put in that i look at the sketch and i make me a mold he makes me a sculpture and from there we were off to uh to begin this uh this journey which has taken us to 80 countries now it's probably sold i would say if you count the minis and everything between 20 and 30 million bottles.

8:46So, of all our, yeah, line and around the world, yeah. And it's been really, really fun. You know, we used to travel to the distributors and the bars and retail places in a freightliner tractor, which I bought, you know, it's like what you'd see pulling race cars. And so we had wonderful time. We painted the vodka on the side of it, the skull, it looked like a delivery truck. I love driving that thing too. It did 90 miles an hour. Turn on the infrared light at night, And that thing, that turbo diesel whistled, man. And we got all around the country. And that's what makes these brands. It's interpersonal relationships with importer, vendor, distributors, retailers, bar owners.

9:29I have friends now that I'll know for life from this business. Whereas in the picture business, you only know them for months. And I'll know these friends for life. And so it's personal contact, getting around. We did signings at some of the stores where people would line up and bring bottles and memorabilia. Those were always fun. And commitment to it. And that's what really makes a brand. And then, you know, if you've got the fluid, the quality to back it up, you're going to have a hit like we have. The fluid is clean, and people love it. It's won awards. Our notes on the corn are sweet, vanilla, dry and crisp.

10:05Our notes on the wheat are the Sunset Wheat Vodka we make in that mirror finished bottle. Those notes are pepper, anise, a little spice. And our notes on this is, you know, long and earthy on the finish. We would be nowhere if it weren't for the fluid in the bottle. People are drinking it and they're going, it's the real thing. So the package draws them in, but the liquid keeps them buying. I would say so. we wouldn't be alive after 15 years, I guess, and in 80 countries if they're just buying the package once. For sure. Yeah. You know, I'd read in an article, a profile about you that you have a reputation as being a good salesman, a great salesman.

10:46How am I doing? Well, it's interesting because not everyone is a great salesman and sometimes a brand on its own can be its best salesperson. But I mean, I feel like it's really helpful when someone enjoys the process and like you said, develops the kind of relationships that are the long-term backbone of a brand. How do you become a good salesman? And I guess, would you agree with the premise that you are a great salesperson and how do you become one? Well, there are a lot of techniques that other people have written about more convincingly than I might be able to, but I think an ebullient personality helps and a good voice can be heard in a room of 300 or 400 people.

11:33And I guess confidence in yourself and no wandering of the eye, look people in the eye. A really good salesman can basically sell anything. A good salesman, it doesn't matter what you give them, they can sell anything. I don't think I can sell anything, but I know I can sell this product and this vodka because I have confidence and faith in it. Some salesmen out there might not have confidence or faith in their products and kind of doubt that they're of quality and they're selling them anyway and they're doing a good job over history's time. But what makes me, I think, effective is that you can see that I know about the industry and what was added to these fluids in the past and what I have taken out of it and the impact that it's had on the consumer.

12:19So I'm aware that I'm vindicated by removing these fusel oils, having a pure spirit and a great package and winning awards and being worldwide. I can sell all of those as attributes and as real benefits to publicizing the product. So I've got a lot of help here. Yeah. Well, in publicizing, you have. You are promoting the brand on social media. I think if you Google Crystal Head Vodka, your name comes up pretty quickly. although and maybe i'm wrong here i feel like the association between dan akroyd and crystal head vodka isn't as i guess apparent as that of say casamigos and george clooney or no the rock and terramana am i accurate in thinking that it's not it's not and uh that's good because um if you ask our consumers uh many of them i would say two-thirds of the consumer does not know i'm associated with the brand.

13:14So that tells you that it's selling itself. The package is selling, the fluid is selling. As company, one of the senior manager, one of the managing partners, I'm a good effective spokesman for my brand and my company, but the brand is not relying on me to do that. I could step away completely, although I'm enjoying it, I could step away completely, and it would not hurt the brand, you know, because it's selling itself by virtue of its quality, and then package appeal. But when you are promoting it, I wonder how do you use your celebrity and promote the brand in a way that comes across as authentic to consumers?

13:56By meeting the consumer, by actually going out and saying hello to them, meeting them. We go to government liquor stores, we go to big chains and we'll do a signing and we'll publicize it. And I will sign bottles for as long as it takes to go through a line of between 600 and 1 ,000 people. And I'm able to see what other beverages they're buying, whether they're older, I get my full demographic array there. They're coming, they bring memorabilia for me to sign, you know, on that. And they're coming because of the celebrity value of being there. But I'm able to actually interface directly with them and see who is buying my product.

14:36Professionals, what economic range, gender, all of it is available to me as an active survey when I do these signings. So that's how I use a celebrity is to go and actually meet the consumer, find out who they are, and then we can go and target a little better. We have a big following in sort of the heavy metal community, the skull, I guess. And so, you know, we know that we've got some good friends in the bar business and heavy metal bars around the country that have consistently consumed us and supported us. And so that's where we're going to send our love to, to the people who love us. There's another brand that's pretty well known and beloved by the heavy metal community, and that's Liquid Death.

15:20The canned water brand that's been on fire over the last few years. Although there's been some controversy around the brand because of its name, its association with, I guess, some outrageous kind of ways of being, for lack of a better phrase. And I know there was some controversy around Crystal Head Vodka in that there was an association with death and alcohol, or maybe not an association, an implicit one for sure, but one where people were wary of, you know, using a skull to sell liquor. Well, I'll tell you, it was one person, only one person had uh well now there's some people who just don't like skulls and they're not going to put them on their the bar or their store but officially and in terms of an authority that was purchasing from us there was only one person who uh felt that well first of all it's got a grin it's a happy skull it's a head i don't call it a skull i call it a head there was one person president of the liquor control board of ontario and he was afraid that it would appeal to youth too much.

16:24And there would be a component of traffic accidents that would be a part of that. Now, to that I say, well, you have to be a prosperous youth to buy it. And we don't pitch to youth. And we don't pitch to youth. We're someone 25 to 75. And I say, you go home with five friends and consume this. You don't consume it alone. We've been very responsible in our advertising. And basically when he left the office where he was working, we were able to get the product in fairly quickly after that. So that was the only official buyer who had a, you know, who had a problem with it, because he thought that it would, that youth would buy more of it.

17:02But it's expensive for youth to buy, you know, 60, 50, 60 bucks a bottle. We're an affordable luxury, but we are a premium product. Only 45 cents a drink, then you're leading premium brands, we're only 45 cents more. So you're getting a great package, and you're getting fluid that's guaranteed to be clean and good tasting because vodkas do have taste now in our profiles, as I said, sweet, vanilla, spicy, anise, long on the finish. You're getting that and you're paying, you know, as they say, 45 cents more a drink than the next premium brand down. So it's not a bad, it's an affordable luxury to step up and treat your friends and impress people with how you can throw the skull like a basketball.

17:44Oh, geez. Be careful. Anyone who just saw the video, just saw Dan Aykroyd toss a skull, a head, excuse me, into the air. Yeah, the head or head or skull, but sometimes I call it a skull. But bartenders can throw John or June up in the air. They don't care. John or June? John, yeah. John, this is John. Here's June. Here's John. Oh. John and Junie. Junie and Johnny throw them up. Throw them up in the air. Oh, be careful. It looks like you have a nice room that you're casting from or recording from. I don't want you to have to clean up any glass later on. Yeah, this is the Zoom room in the town here, downtown, near the lake, Lake Ontario.

18:26Nice. The price of Crystal Head Vodka might be prohibitive for some younger consumers, but I feel like it's pretty attractive to strategic companies, the large conglomerates, the large beverage alcohol suppliers out there, in that you have a premium price point. You have a loyal following. You have a well-known and well-recognized brand. Yet, and correct me if I'm wrong, Crystal Head Vodka is still an independently run company. Is that correct? Well, there are four partners. Myself, as the originator of the fluid. John Alexander, as the originator of the bottle. Our senior executive, Jonathan Hemi, who has a long history in the spirits and wine business in Canada.

19:09He runs our company. And then David Brown, who, like me, is an ex-postie. He's an ex-postman. So the four of us own the company. And it's effectively managed. We haven't gone into our line of credit. It's very healthy, self-sustaining. Again, though, here this is rare because this is a partnership of four individuals going on 16 years now, almost 16 years. And in business, that can be comparatively rare. We were there with goodwill. We still have fun. And, you know, we've got a lot of room to grow, which is great. And we're going to do it with all of our allies and friends in the next three to four years.

19:51You know, we should see consistent, significant upward trends, even in the face of the fact that beverage alcohol consumption is declining in millennial and Gen X a little bit. There are economic headwinds everywhere, such as the COVIDs that pop up in the world. but I think we've survived so far. And there were six vodkas that came out when we did. I don't name names of any other products, but there were six and you'd know one or two if I did name them, but they're all gone now. They're all gone and we're still here. And there's a reason for that. And that people are cracking it and tasting it and loving it.

20:26It is amazing that you've been in business for 16 years and that, again, you've stayed independent, even though, you know, by independent, I mean, not aligned with a strategic company. And I'm sure there have been overtures. I'm sure there have been companies knocking on your door asking, hey, can we do a partnership? Hey, can we buy your company outright? What's kept you from doing so? Well, number one, you sell a brand and then you've got a pile of cash, but then you don't have the brand anymore, you know, and you don't have the fun, the camaraderie. Also, we frankly believe that it can grow more and it can be worth more as time progresses.

21:02we think it can be worth more. But I think it's just because we're having fun with it and meeting some great people and meeting challenges every day of being in a very, very competitive industry without having to be a pay or play. We don't go into bars and pay. You know, do you want to buy us? We'll do pours, we'll do subsidies, we'll do extra bottles. But, you know, we're not going to go into a bar in New York City and pay 10 grand for a month's placement. We don't have the money to do that. A lot of the other brands do put their money there. that's quite an outlay for them. It's quite significant.

21:34And so we'd rather do subsidized pours. We'd rather do programs, tasting programs, hire another ambassador, for instance, in the world to go around. So we're allocating our resources within a very well-run company. What makes it a well-run company? I think our executive team, for sure. And the goodwill we generate in the world, you know. We don't go in there. We're not screamers. We're not, you know, we're not bullies. we're just good Canadian guys who want to have a little fun and uh and build our business and uh we're honest about that and uh I think that uh again our executive team is superb I can supply uh you know the the public relations and and media uh piece and mouthpiece quite effectively to those who want to listen and who those who care and then also direction on strategy we are all we all weigh in on strategy.

22:27And then Jonathan covers with the executive team, administrating the office and going to all the bar shows. And so it's very effective. And for now, we're just going to, we're just going to keep growing it. Yeah. I mean, you're not involved in the day-to-day that is the role of your executive team, your leadership team, but it sounds like you do have a significant hand in addressing strategy or concerns with strategy when you feel the need to address those concerns. Has there been an instance where you said, you know what, I don't think we should be doing this X, you know, we should be doing this.

23:04And how was that received? We've been in harmony on all the major decisions. We have, you know, quarterly meetings and I check in with the team, one or two of them, at least two, three times a week. I go up to Toronto to the office and go in there when we do our annual video. So we have a meeting then. We've been in harmony on pretty much everything. I don't think there's ever been an idea that came up that the four of us didn't just like and say, let's go for it, because we're all aligned sort of in intelligence and psychically, I guess. Well, it may help that two of you are former postmen. I didn't know that about you, by the way.

23:43Yeah, David, he walked a route, and I drove a mail truck for a contractor in both Toronto and in Ottawa and Toronto. I love that job, man. I love that job. In this country, I think it sounds like a nice job in that, you know, you'll have a job and you'll have pension, but it seems like a very boring one for some folks. Well, I grew up in Ottawa, Canada, and at that time I had shoulder length hair and I'd bicycle, even in the winter, bicycle the five miles to the truck garage. And in the winter, I would have to sit there and and start the truck, if I could get it started right away, start it up and let it run for at least 45 minutes before I could even touch the gas before it's stalling out.

24:23So that made it interesting. There was driving in all kinds of weather. You know, back then, I'd light up a little J there to start my route, and I drove high for the Queen for years because I was a royal male career. You know, you're sitting in the seat, you're getting in, and that's it. You know, it's THC and CBD, I found can relieve certain physical situations in the body, aches and pains and that. So I used it back then. Now I'm allergic to smoke. You don't use it anymore? Well, I sneeze when I smoke it. So like multiple times. Yeah. But I like the good smell of it. And I think, you know, everything in moderation again, everything in moderation.

25:08For sure. I feel like if I were a postman in Canada, the first thing I'd want to do after I was done with my route is sip on some whiskey. Canadian whiskey, of course. You guys are getting into Canadian whiskey. Is this right? Yes. We have a whiskey called Signal Hill. It's sold in Canada and I think somewhere in the States. I'm not sure. Again, it's a beautiful product. It's a rye, and it's from old stock that's been sitting around for years. We were able to find this beautiful aged stock, and that's where we started with it. And it's going very well. Brown spirits consumers are very strong these days.

25:52Everybody says that in terms of the profession and sophisticated bartenders, everybody in the sophisticated bar chef arena there, they'll come back and say, well, you know, I've got a lot of vodkas on the bar, I like a brown spirit, you know. And, you know, vodka's not exciting. But I say, well, a vodka that has no additives might be exciting as a professional bar chef to you, because you're going to add everything in there, you know, Frenette Branca, St. Germain, citrus, lemon, grapefruit, orange juice, emulsified sugar, Red Bull, you're going to add all kinds of things to vodka. So why not have a clean slate to start with.

26:30And that, I would say, that logic has punched through to bar chefs worldwide, that they love Crystal Head because it's the virgin canvas in which to pour all of these other mixes and all of these other additives, because there's no additives in it, and they're starting with the blank slate. You have to, you're going to have, every bar's got to have a vodka on it. So why not have the clean premium taste, the luckily affordable luxury of Crystal Head? That's my argument. You've got to have a vodka on there anyway. Why not? It's only 45 cent more, buck 50 a shot, maybe 45 cent more a drink than some of the premium vodkas that are below it.

27:06And there's a good margin there. Yeah, I would say so. Going back to the Canadian whiskey, is it not branded as Crystal Head at all? I mean, is it a separate brand entirely? Separate company, well, separate, yeah, separate company. It's called Signal Hill whiskey and it's, no, there's no skull bottle and no direct, I would say, fiscal association with Crystal Head. It was funded separately and it's a separate entity that Jonathan, our CEO, has and I have a small share of it. And is it a sort of test to see, you know, whether you can go beyond into other spirit categories as well? Well, certainly we're doing very well with it, and we'll see.

27:51But for now, you know, people ask me, you know, you want to do anything else? Well, you know, I'm in the vodka business, and I'm also in the—people say, what about flavors? You know, and I say, well, I'm in the vodka-flavored vodka business, you know. And you're not likely to see the head come in flavors, because then we would compromise our purity story if we were doing flavors, because then we'd be adding oils and all kinds of things that would compromise our beautiful filtration, which gets us so pure. Yeah. Well, one person who I would assume has to sign off on the taste of your product before you really, really know that its quality is your Ghostbusters co-star, Bill Murray, who I think knows a thing or two about quality premium spirits.