After receiving angry emails and social media posts, AdWeek reports Maker's Mark agreed not to lower the alcohol content in their bourbon. The company originally announced the plan to lower the alcohol content so they could meet rising global demand for their product. The COO, Rob Samuels, released a letter stating, "...effective immediately, we are reversing our decision to lower the ABV of Maker's Mark, and resuming production at 45% alcohol by volume (90 proof)."
Samuels also mentions during his letter that he is glad to know that consumers are willing to put up with "occasional shortages" in lieu of watering down the bourbon. So let's take a look at this. Demand is skyrocketing and Maker's Mark anticipates supply shortages. Their first solution was to water down their product and the brand they've worked so hard to build. When their first plan received an unplanned backlash, they decided just to keep everything the way it is and just let there be shortages. I call "bullshit" on their latest plan.
While my Korean economics teacher had an extremely heavy accent, along with a weird fascination for working bagels into every economic example he gave, I did grasp the elementary concept of supply and demand. Excuse me, I lied. He never used "bagels" in any of his examples, but instead used the term "bagel" for both singular and plural. Anyways, I'm pretty sure what I learned is when many people demand "bagel" and there is only enough supply for a few people to get "bagel", you adjust "bagel" price until "bagel" supply equals "bagel" demand. In native English it means that after the first major supply shortage Maker's Mark is jacking up their prices.
You can view AdWeek's original article here
- Rizzo