K&L Awards 2012: Whisk(e)y of the Year

[Rockefeller]

I'm kind of tempted to buy the '79 Glenfarclas now. Should I pull the trigger?

[squire]

Because the internet provides an opening for anonymous rudeness.

[Rockefeller]

Because the internet provides an opening for anonymous rudeness.

By the way, I was pretty clear in my original post that it was not an attack or even questioning of integrity but rather a desire to find more separation/clarity of potential conflicts of interests. I subsequently noted that I accepted their explanation within the post.

[Rockefeller]

Oh thank god John Hansell is online! Perhaps he can be the voice of wisdom and reason!

[LostBottle]

We live in a black and white world these days it seems.

The K&L Blog exists in a shade of grey, however. When I do hour long podcasts in my free time to help people learn more about the great producers in this industry, they're downloaded by thousands of people all over the world who live in places that K&L can't ship to (thanks to the handy-dandy download map included on the podcast site, I can see this). 75% of the hits on the K&L blog come from states that K&L cannot legally ship spirits to (which I can view on our statistics mapper). Therefore, the overwelming majority of people who read the K&L Spirits Journal Blog are people who do NOT shop at K&L. Why is that? This has greatly affected the way that I write.

That being said, my job is to sell whisky. When we sell more whisky, my bosses are happy and I get to do my job for another year. A job that pays for me to go to Scotland and taste whisky (which is awesome). I can't continue to write the blog unless I sell people more whisky - a blog that is read by thousands of people who cannot shop at K&L, even if they wanted to.

So while I in no way deny that my goal is to excite readers into wanting to purchase whisky (hopefully from us), the truth is that most people who tune in everyday are not shopping with us. Therefore, most of my posts are "advertisements" for other retailers.

Even though I've come to realize that most of our readers are not customers, I still write the blog everyday because it's fun. People email me all day long who want help selecting whisky, but not from us. I help people who live in Massachussets select whisky from their local retailer in my free time at home. When I'm not getting paid I help people buy whisky from other stores. Crazy, right? So, even though my role is to boost sales for K&L, I end up boosting sales for other stores. If I was only about writing "advertisements," I would shut down the blog completely because it's not directly helping K&L sell more booze. It does seem to be helping people enjoy their whisky, however, by the comments I'm reading so far here on SB.com

I appreciate everyone who takes the time to read it and correspond via email. It's a lot of fun. I appreciate all the feedback as well. Very touching. Thanks!

-David D

David, I was not bashing your blog, just acknowledging what it is. In fact, I want to give you compliments on the blog, it really is smart. You have managed to take your obvious enthusiasm for the retail spirits industry and focus that into an impressive marketing campaign for your place of work. You were smart in realizing that this non-paid advertising channel is extremely effective at building the K&L brand position, generating a ton of impressions (I am sure the conversion rate, and incremental revenue, is pretty solid despite those that cannot purchase from K&L), helping to move emphasized inventory, and fostering relationships with the distilleries that can get you the store single barrel offerings like your "Best Whisk(e)y of the Year", the K&L Exclusive Glenfarclas. Kudos!