I offer anyone who buys my book a Zoom call to chat about their brand.
Late last year I had a call from an Irish accountant called Colm O'Neill living in Boulder, Colorado. He'd created a brand and wanted to talk about it.
It's called HARD CHAW* and it's a 25% ABV cream liqueur. (Baileys and the main herd are all around 17%.)
* A 'hard chaw' is Irish slang for a 'tough nut'.
The idea derived from a college head-banger called an 'Irish Car Bomb' : a glass of Guinness a shot of whiskey and a Baileys, all downed in one.
Why not reduce the number down to 2 ingredients? A Guinness and a high-strength cream liqueur. Makes sense and reduces costs.
When I originally talked to Colm, he asked : "Why are cream liqueurs so low in strength? Why can't they be stronger than 17%?"
"Why not!" was my response. People often add a shot to a Baileys.
Colm and I met up in London recently. I was able to look at HARD CHAW up close and hear his story. And taste the product.
Here are some of the highlights :
- It's available in Colorado, Minnesota and (soon) Chicago*. He and three friends are building it slowly, extending into other mid-western states.
- They were going to call it SHILLELAGH but were persuaded that people in the US would have difficulty pronouncing the word - or knowing what it was!
- The design, which I love, was created by a gentleman of Mexican origin called Carlos Real. He managed to get Shillelagh into the design with a quote on the back label "You can accomplish more with a kind word & a Shillelagh than just with a kind word." Love that!
- I tasted the product and it was excellent. Over the past 50 years the Irish have become very good at making cream liqueurs. This was 'exactly as it said on the tin' - typical, tasty Irish Cream with a bit of a kick.
- And the kick comes from a little Irish whiskey and a touch of Poteen. How Irish is that.
- And HARD CHAW is moving beyond college frat parties. It's becoming a preferred tipple for those who enjoy the taste of cream with a bit of a kick.
- To my delight, he said that some of the thinking behind HARD CHAW came from my book, which he'd read several times. (He had his copy with him and it was so dog-eared it looked as if it had been fought over by two warring Dobermans!)
Colm is an accountant, not a creator of brands. But his logical mind and Irish sense of humor has turned up something really special.
When he asked me, I said I wouldn't change a thing.
I loved HARD CHAW : its unbelievably simple raison d'etre - a stronger cream liqueur - the colorful branding and the liquid itself. No classical marketing 'overthink', not a planner or researcher in sight. He just called it as he saw it.
That's how many of the great brands of the past were created, before someone discovered marketing and brand complication.
* Hard Chaw is now in 14 States - Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin
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