ABSTRACT
In any study of the whisky industry marketing, broadly defined, looms large. Many would argue that the dynamic of the industry has always rested less in its production process than in its marketing; this regardless of the romantic and alluring tales of illicit distilling, the heroic struggles of pioneer licensed distillers, and, of course, of the enduringly magical process by which water and barley are converted into aqua vitae, the water of life. We will argue here that marketing was of pre-eminent importance to the industry. We also stress the quality and complexity of the marketing effort which involves personalities and innovations far greater than those associated with the whisky barons, a handful of the most successful whisky blenders, whose place in history is itself largely a triumph of their self-marketing. Like others who have examined the subject (Weir 1990) we believe that the industry is largely exonerated from the strictures of Davenport-Hines (1986) in his collection of essays. But we also assert, paradoxically, the pre-eminence of the product, for it was the unique qualities and properties of the product that provided whisky men with an unrivalled marketing opportunity. This is not a detailed narrative of the development of the industry, for this can be found elsewhere (Wilson 1970; Weir 1974; Moss and Hume 1981).
