How A 'Global' Perspective Yielded Deals With Post Malone, A$AP Rocky & Kevin Hart

0:10Hey folks, 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 james morrissey the founder of global brand equities the creator and operator of premium beverage alcohol brands co-developed with celebrity founders get access to limited swag and exclusive content by becoming a taste radio vip it's easy for you to join that group of very important people just head to taste radio.com slash vip and take one minute to sign up a sensational hit from post malone asap rocky's critically acclaimed crowd pleaser and kevin hart's unexpected number sounds like a spotify playlist right but what i'm describing are three of the first brands built and marketed by global brand equities founded in 2019 by irish expat james morrissey global brand equities is focused on developing innovative and creator-led beverage alcohol brands.

1:12The company has aligned with the aforementioned Malone, Rocky, and Hart to launch fast-growing brands Maison No. 9 French Rosé, Mercer & Prince Canadian Whiskey, and Grand Coromino Tequila, respectively. The company also markets Sunny Vodka, a premium spirit co-founded by social media influencers Zach Bia and Stas Karanikolaou. Morrissey's vision is to meet modern consumers where they live and drink via a contemporary approach to alcoholic beverages, one that lives at the intersection of media, entertainment, and high-quality liquid. In the following interview, I spoke with Morrissey about how his prior experience in hospitality has shaped his outlook for novel consumer brands, the foundations for mutually beneficial celebrity partnerships, why it's critical to understand and operate within the traditional infrastructure for producing and distributing beverage alcohol brands, and the effectiveness of the company's multi-pronged marketing strategy.

2:12Hey folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio. Right now I am in the Soho neighborhood of New York City and in the office of Global Brand Equities and sitting in front of me right now is the founder of the company. That's James Morrissey. James, how are you? How are you? Nice to be with you. Nice to be with you as well. Thanks so much for taking the time. I know you're a busy man. Every time I hear your name, I feel like I've met you before because I don't know I don't know what it is. Is it a common name? It's relatively common. I guess it's similar to other names. You got Jim Morrison from the Doors.

2:42You got Morrissey, the artist from the UK. So yeah, there's commonality. There's a couple of people out there. You are from Ireland? Yes. Are there a lot of James Morrissey's in Ireland? There are a couple. Yeah, Morrissey's a common name, more common in Ireland than it is probably here. So yeah, it's a relatively common surname in Ireland and the UK. When did you come to the States? I moved to New York 10 years ago. Okay. And you came here specifically to start GBE? I came here specifically to expand my business. I had a business in Ireland, which was in entertainment and nightlife. As I grew and developed that business in Ireland, I started to recognize the size of the global economy when it came to business and saw that although it is a great market to operate in, Ireland is relatively limited in terms of size and scale.

3:38There's 5 million people on the island of Ireland. And I really had my sights set on coming to the United States and expanding my business into North America, where I found very quickly when I started coming here that there was a very positive can-do energy when it came to entrepreneurship and the intention to create new business. It was a very pro-business community, which I liked. Very encouraging. A lot of people were very helpful and accommodating when I moved here. I moved here with no local partners, no predetermined plan that I walked into. I essentially came here and really had to build from the ground up.

4:16But I soon learned that people were very willing to support and help the vision or the endeavors that I had in mind at the time. That's nice to hear because I would think New York is pretty cutthroat in comparison to other countries like Ireland. It's competitive. It's competitive as hell. But for the right people, there's an energy and an attitude here that is infectious. Some people come here and they think that people in New York are very rude. They don't have time to stop and chat. I think people are very direct here. I don't necessarily think they're rude, but I had to learn that as well.

4:48Coming here, that being direct doesn't mean that you're necessarily being rude. But I could see why a place like New York might have a reputation for that. If you're a tourist visiting for two or three days, someone being very frank and direct with you might come off a little rough around the edges. But certainly the energy of New York, the pace at which it moves, I gravitated to it instantly. Well, people aren't getting enough sleep here. People aren't getting enough sleep in general. and I think that can lead to some crankiness. That's correct. For someone who's been involved in nightlife forever, you look like you are actually quite healthy and get enough sleep in your life, which is great to see.

5:24These days I spend, you know, I stay until two and then I'm done for a couple of days. Yeah, yeah. I can't do the late nights anymore, that's for sure. But yeah, I mean, look, there's a certain commitment that you have to make to business if you really want to excel and get to a certain level that you have to make some sacrifices in your life And that requires time, energy, dedication, commitment, contribution, and staying healthy physically and mentally is certainly not only a priority for me, but a necessity. Is that hard when you're hanging out with Post Malone? It has a time and a place. No, I mean, look, at the end of the day, I handle the business for most of the ventures that I'm involved with.

6:06And, you know, we certainly have a lot of fun along the way, but I'm young enough. I've got the energy. I can get on, you know, get on the plane late at night, get up early in the morning. I'm willing to put in the hours now at a younger age. That's always been my mindset. And hopefully, you know, that will pay off long term. But it's certainly not a business for the faint hearted. No, it's not. And the business that you're in, that of spirits and wine, has become a lot more competitive. Celebrity backed spirit brands have become pretty ubiquitous at this point. And it's almost like what's going to move the needle when it comes to a new brand that has a partner, investor, and an athlete, and an entertainer, musician.

6:46You seem to be on the right path with the brands that you're involved with and that you've just created and designed. But let's back up for a second, because making that transition from nightlife into entrepreneurship, essentially, and entrepreneurship in the beverage industry, seems like it might be a challenging leap. Was it? It was like any creation of a new business, it's challenging. I guess my activity or endeavors professionally since I was 16, 17 years old have been very entrepreneurial in terms of creating my own businesses. I've always had an appetite for learning about new industries and I've always had an interest not necessarily in the outward facing brand or business, but who are the people behind the businesses that make these things move at scale.

7:36Oftentimes as consumers, we see brand names, we see products, we see clothing, we see products, you know, on shelves all over the world. But the work that it takes behind the scenes to actually create success in that, that's what has always excited and interested me. So when I started to look into the alcohol business and the drinks business as a whole, I was fascinated by the different layers and complexities required to create success in the business. Everything from manufacturing and production to importation to compliance to distribution to retail to outward-facing consumer packaging. So many layers, so many people, so many groups.

8:14All of those facets need to fire simultaneously for there to be success. And that interested and excited me rather than intimidated me. Can I ask you how you define success in this business? Typically, when we see upstart brands grow at some scale, the playbook seems to be, okay, let's find a strategic partner and then eventually have that partner acquire us. Is that sort of the path that you see for yourself or is it something else you're building here with GBE? The intention for us is to build a long-term portfolio company where we have brands that cut through and disrupt and connect with consumers in innovative ways compared to that of larger companies that have gone before us.

8:58What I mean by that is creating route to market and brand identities which connect with consumers in a more meaningful way than the brands that are more traditional and more established. The consumer habits have changed greatly, particularly in the last decade. And if you look at industries, most industries have evolved and pivoted to catch up with those consumer demand changes and how that consumer reacts in the market. However, the alcohol and liquor business has innovated, but not at the same pace. And that lag is where we see our opportunity to build global brand equities in that white space.

9:38How has consumer behavior changed, specifically within Spirits & Wine? Consumers want instant gratification. If they click order today, they want the product tomorrow. consumer purchasing trends have changed greatly. Younger consumers are spending more per unit or per bottle than they would have in times gone past. So high volume growth drivers of bottles that were priced between$15 and$25 previously would have been the really strong tiers to be priced in. Now, if you look at that, the tier between$25 and$50 has exploded in terms of demand. So are they spending less on other consumables and more on spirits and wines?

10:19They're spending, the consumer habits that we see with our consumers is they're spending overall more in the category and they're more selective about their purchases. So they'll purchase less bottles, but they'll purchase better quality products. And quality for us is across liquid packaging, brand identity, et cetera. The quality of the liquid is really important. The brand is, I don't know. I mean, I think in some ways it's more important in that you need to get someone to look at your product, to want to associate themselves with that product. And that happens with the brand, not necessarily the liquid.

10:55Having a celebrity partner gives you some validation, but where does it start? Do you start with the liquid? Do you start with the brand? Do you start with the partner? We always start with the data of the industry and we have certain categories that we've intentionally wanted to grow in. Categories where there is a big uptick in growth, categories where there is an opportunity to innovate, where we feel that there's a room for improvement. For us, you know, looking at when I look at celebrity brands, believe it or not, I'm very cynical about that term because there is a naivety in certain industries where the thought process is that once you put a celebrity's name on a product, you're going to have the next billion dollar business.

11:37And unfortunately, it's a lot more complex than that. So when we look at it, my mindset has, we have to create liquids that are truly incredible compared to the status quo. And we've had to do that because there have been a lot of bad quality liquids associated with the celebrity brand space. So we've kind of taken this viewpoint where we have to work a little harder and really create some really great products when it comes to liquid and taste profile. Your first was a Rosé 1. Correct. And rosé has become a pretty popular beverage in recent years. It's always been popular in the summertime. It seems like there's some year-round demand for it.

12:15What were the numbers telling you? What was the data telling you about rosé? The category since, you know, 2010, 2012 to now has been, the category for French premium rosé has been double-digit growth every year. Looking at it, there were years where it was 20%, 30 % increases annually, which is huge for a category. And the one thing that I saw in the market was the leaders within the French rosé category that dominated most of the volume, the top two, three brands in it were all incredible products, all had great brands and came from great facilities in France. However, there was very little innovation when it came to consumer facing brand identity and how that product spoke to the new consumer.

13:00And that's typical, that has been typical of the wine industry as a whole, right? It's a very old traditional industry. It has incredible authenticity, incredible history and heritage. But the ability to be agile and adapt in a short space of time hasn't really happened. We're starting to see it more. But at the time, 2018, 2019, when we were getting ready to launch Maison No. 9, the French rosé brands that exist were all very similar. And we saw that the 35-year-old consumer plus was very well-educated when it came to brand names in the French rosé space. They were specifically asking for certain brands over the bar counter at a bar, hotel, restaurant.

13:43But the under 35-year-old consumer was just asking for the category. So they were just asking for a glass of rosé. And that's the area we saw an opportunity to innovate within and to really create a brand that communicated with our consumers in a different way. in a way more of their own inept style. When you say your consumers, are you talking about a specific group of consumers or are you talking about most consumers under the age of 35 who drink Rosé wine? 21 to 35-year-old consumers. Yeah, I kind of look at it as a new era consumer. That 21 to 35-year-old consumer is very different to the consumer that went before them.

14:18And it's a consumer that at Global Brand Equities, myself and my team really focus on catering towards because most of our team in the company are that consumer. We know the consumer really well. So we've created success within that space. Are they consumers that are particularly interested in, say, hip-hop music, given that Post Malone is your partner on Maison and ASAP Rocky is your partner on Mercer and Prince? Or are you looking at a broader opportunity with more consumers? We look broader. We absolutely look broader. The one thing we really noticed with Maison No. 9 and indeed the other brands that we have has been that although the first consumer to try it might be a fan of our talent partner, the product and the product proposition in terms of brand identity, package and liquid is strong enough that we've actually created this wider net of consumers where we have people who like Rosé who want to try our brand like it and come back to try it again.

15:24That was a real sign for us that we were on the right track when it came to creating quality products and something that the typical celebrity brand might not always be able to get right. So consumers are asking for Maison No. 9. They're not asking for the Post Malone rosé. Correct. Correct. How did you meet Post Malone? I met Post Malone through mutual friends over dinner in Los Angeles back in 2018, 2019. I'd just returned from the winery in the south of France that I'd visited and was in the early stages of creating a venture within the rosé business. And as we chatted more throughout the evening, myself, himself and his manager, Dre London, we started to see a kind of collaboration or a shared vision in terms of wanting to create something of real quality within the wine space, but a brand that spoke the language of the modern consumer.

16:19The conversations were evident from the start that the passion and the authentic commitment to wanting to create something special was shared among myself, Post Malone and Dre London. So within seven days, we were in the south of France at the winery, sampling the grapes, exploring the land and really started to put the plans together for the brand and for the business. How did you talk to him about his involvement with the brand? Or did you? Did he kind of lead the conversation about what he wanted to do? Or there are certain expectations that you had of him as a partner? It was very organic.

16:56It was very organic. The one thing that I have been very strong on is if I respect an artist or a creator's previous work, no matter what the field, music, film, TV, sport, I think those skill sets are interchangeable through industries. So if I believe in you having created something very special and something very creative in another field that has nothing to do with wine or liquor or anything that we're doing. I strongly believe that that can be applied to our business and I encourage that creativity. So, you know, working with talent to bring a vision to life in an authentic way is an absolute priority.

17:39Putting someone's name on a bottle that we've already created and not collaborated on is not of interest because it's not authentic. It's not genuine. And authenticity is absolutely a backbone of the business that we've intended to create. So did your success with Post and Maison give you a good foundation and give you the sort of validation, the story that you could bring to subsequent products and brands? It is. What the launch of Maison number nine helped do was help inform me that the plans or the intentions to go into the traditional wine business or alcohol business with something disruptive in a new way were in the right direction and that those ideas in reality worked.

18:26That validation was important because until you create a business, everything is an idea. And talking about an idea is great. Talking about full proof of concept with results is even greater. You know, we launched Maison number nine online in the depth of COVID-19 in June 2020 at a time when the country was going through a lot of unrest. People were in a pretty dark place and the business of brands had essentially stopped. Brands were internally putting a lot of plans on pause. And we had a decision to make where we looked at the business and said, well, look, our consumers are still engaged. Our consumers have an appetite for entertainment and products.

19:19They may be sitting at home instead of sitting in the office, but we always planned to launch this brand in an unconventional way. So let's continue on that clear path to launch the way we intended. So it was the objective from the first dinner I had with Post Andre to launch the brand, not like any other wine launch that had happened in the industry before, but to launch it more similar to a streetwear or a sneaker drop. What I mean by that is we announced the brand in a very short space after the brand was available online, online only on Vivino, the world's largest wine platform. And within the first 48 hours, we'd sold over 50 ,000 bottles of wine.

20:01And Vivino's website crashed for the first time in history, which was demand related. 30 days later, we rolled out nationwide through distribution into stores nationwide. So we were able to back up that velocity that we had online, in person, in stores, even through COVID-19. And I think that really helped solidify the the plans or the concepts that we had and really endorsed the fact that our business model works. Did you have the product in the United States or was it coming in from? No, we started manufacturing the product earlier in the year. It shipped through COVID into the US and landed mid 2020.

20:44So there were challenges to say the least. We had at one point our winery partner in France had to source packaging and boxes from a secondary source in Italy to make sure that we had packaging in time. It was chaotic to say the least, but we had a very clear intention and among the partners, none of us really flinched in terms of the plan. When I look back on it, in hindsight, it's actually surprising, but we all were very, very intentional about what we wanted to do. And we shared that vision, which ultimately led to a successful business. When I think about the other categories you're involved with, I guess when I think about rosé, I can see the opportunity.

21:23When I think about, say, tequila, for example, or premium tequila, more specifically, it feels like it's very saturated. It feels like the opportunity is pretty limited, honestly. And this is just me at a glance kind of looking at it. Why tequila? And how did Kevin Hart come into the picture? So your viewpoint on it, I shared also, and I continue to share it. The category of tequila is extremely saturated. There is a lot of competition. There's a lot of noise. And really for us to look at the tequila category as something that we would pursue, it had to be something different. The category as a whole is going through explosive growth.

22:02But equally, there are an explosive number of new brands launching every week, every month, every year. And there's been a lot of activity in the celebrity back space also. So there's a lot of noise. For us, I needed to wait until something really grabbed our attention where I knew we could create something that was truly different and create our own lane within tequila. And that was twofold. One, picking the category of Cristalino as a category that we wanted to expand into. That was something new and interesting compared to what was going on in the market. And that became a recognized expression of tequila relatively recently, right?

22:38Correct. Cristalino is a clear Reposado tequila for anyone that doesn't know. So if you like Reposado tequila, you will like Cristalino. It's crystal clear, so there is no discoloring in the liquid, but it has the taste profile and the notes of a Reposado. The category as a whole has been a real success in the Mexican market. So when it comes to luxury in Mexico, Cristalino is a leader. So being able to see that proof of concept and that growth in that market was a big endorsement for me in terms of the fact that it could be adopted in the luxury segment and it could be successful. I liked the way that data looked and the way that story unfolded in Mexico.

23:21The second part which aligned was my connection and meeting with Kevin Hart. Kevin is not a celebrity in my mind. Kevin is a true entrepreneur and committed businessman. And when we started to speak about the category of tequila and about Cristalino and about where we could go in creating a new product, I quickly understood that he was truly authentically passionate about the category of tequila. He owns a home in Mexico. He has a tequila bar in his home in LA. He knew about brands that nine out of 10 consumers would not know about. He knew about the more obscure side of tequila, which instantly piqued my interest.

24:02Matched with that, Kevin's ability to understand how to build a business and not only the work that goes into it, but the commitment and responsibility as a partner. I'm not shy about telling a partner or a prospective partner about the work that's required to build a business of scale. It's not for the faint hearted. it's not for people who don't want to do the work. And I very soon realized that Kevin's energy and hands-on approach to the way he builds business and commitment of time was something that was a clear priority. So we really connected from an energy standpoint in terms of both of us being really driven and really committed.

24:44The next chapter in that business, which really we set out to do was let's create a proposition, which is premium in its approach. Let's not create a product until we find a liquid that we truly believe will resonate with consumers in a really smooth fashion. Kevin's first instruction when it came to liquid sourcing was no face, no trace. He wanted to create a tequila that you could sip on, take a shot of, drink neat, drink straight, and not make that face that you make with some harsh tequilas that he'd had in the past. So there was a benchmark or a standard created from the outset that we were not going to create a tequila unless we could find a liquid of a certain pedigree and style, which was not easy.

25:30So as we set out to find the best possible tequila expression that we could, we went to the best in the world to do that. A gentleman by the name of Juan Domingo Beckman. Juan is an 11th generation tequila maker, businessman, entrepreneur. His family were the first family to receive a license from the King of Spain to produce tequila. And ever since then, Juan and his family have been responsible for creating some incredible brands within the world of tequila and other alcohol categories. But he really has been and continues to be a leader within the space. So when we went down to Mexico and went through our plans, the liquids that Juan was able to show us were incredible.

26:19We collaborated in a very engaged way in terms of continuing to dial in the liquid taste profile through multiple, multiple rounds in different cities, different countries over the coming months. But it was evident from day one, that first morning we met in Mexico all together in person, And it was evident that we all had a shared vision in terms of wanting to create something that was up to a really high standard within the crystallino category. Did you have a consumer in mind for this? Was it, is it the same sort of 21 to 35 year old consumer as Maison or was it a different kind of consumer?

26:59It was a slightly different consumer. It was, it's still all of our consumers share certain attributes and characteristics in terms of the fact that they are dialed into what's happening in culture, what's happening in consumer trends and behavior. They have their finger on the pulse. The consumer has an attention to detail, an appetite for knowledge, and takes pride in what they wear, what they drink, what they consume. but a slightly wider net when it came to tequila and Cristalino, where we wanted to target anyone who had an appetite for tequila and educate them around this new category of Cristalino, which is truly incredible, but relatively unheard of in the United States and the rest of the world.

27:40How do you keep your finger on the pulse of how the consumer is evolving? You talked about how there's been a lot of change over the past decade. There continues to be change. How do you stay on the ground in the trenches knowing what that consumer wants, not just today, but tomorrow? Staying in touch with what's happening on the street with the consumer is probably one of our strongest assets as a company. We rely on it and we spend a lot of time and energy in the market with consumers, be at events internationally, across multiple categories, music, fashion, tech. We're forever learning. My days from through, you know, early, late evening are consumed with meetings where we're meeting people of all walks of life.

28:23That is not traditionally done within the drinks industry. People in the drinks industry usually meet other people within the drinks industry. And it's relatively one dimensional. I've been fortunate enough to surround myself with people from all walks of life across entertainment, business and the alcohol business. where among those three facets, I've had exposure to and continue to have exposure to all sorts of people, all types of demographics, all type of backgrounds and all ages. And that is truly essential for me and my team to keep our finger on the pulse on a daily and weekly basis. What's an example of a learning that you've acquired as a result of one of these meetings?