MJBizMag November-December 2022 - 16

FIVE QUESTIONS with Rhonda Kallman
Building Around Brand
Craft-beverages entrepreneur shares importance of identity
when competing for shelf space against large, storied rivals
By Kate Robertson
R
honda Kallman has been
perfecting her craft since the
age of 24. That's when she
co-founded the Boston Beer Co.
and launched Samuel Adams, the
pioneering brand in a burgeoning
craft-beer category.
In 2012, Kallman launched Boston
Harbor Distillery, a whole-grain whiskey
and craft spirits company with a
portfolio of brands including Putnam
New England Whiskey, Lawley's New
England rum and gin as well as the
fiery Demon Seed Whiskey.
In preparation for MJBizCon,
where Kallman will be a featured
speaker on the Main Stage, MJBizMagazine
spoke with the entrepreneur
for a peek at what lessons the
cannabis industry can learn about
brand-building and marketing from
the alcoholic-beverage sector.
How much does branding
influence consumers' alcoholpurchasing
decisions?
People are very loyal to brands. And
that's what makes brand-building
difficult. It takes years and lots
of money to build brands, unless
you're a powerhouse.
Take High Noon, (the hard seltzer
brand) from E. & J. Gallo. They have
the resources. They have the reach.
They have the distribution power to
really muscle in the marketplace.
But I feel like with consumers-and
I say this about the Boston area a
lot-this is a really difficult place
to build brands because everyone
works hard for their money.
It's really a strong work ethic
around here. Consumers work hard
for their money, so they want to
spend it on brands that they know
will deliver a good experience.
When you were launching
Boston Beer Co., when did
branding come into play?
It was really from the beginning.
A brand like Yellow Tail wine or
Barefoot wine, you know what's so
special about those brands? It's the
simplicity in their branding.
With Barefoot, you literally look
at a bare foot on the label. A picture
is worth 1,000 words. When the
name and the icon are simpatico, it
really makes a strong brand.
So, when you look at Sam Adams,
there's a patriot on the label, and
it was synonymous with the name
Sam Adams. From the very beginning,
it was built into the brand.
Did your approach to branding
change when you launched
Boston Harbor Distillery?
With Boston Beer, I was really
focused on tactical marketing and
go-to-market strategies like salespeople
alignment, what the shelf
looks like and pricing.
But it was easier to stand out in
1984 and 1985 because it was the
land of bland. There were yellow,
corn-based beers, and they all
looked the same and almost all
tasted the same.
Forty years later, I'm still in my
fledgling stage of growing Boston
14 November-December 2022 | MJBizMagazine
Rhonda
Kallman
Harbor Distillery, and brands to me
are so important because the whiskey
bottle label really has to speak
volumes.
My competition is the legacy
companies of Diageo (maker of
Johnnie Walker and Bulleit) and
Pernod Ricard (maker of Jameson),
and so in order to get people to
pick Putnam Whiskey up off the
shelf and spend $40 to $80, this is
the epitome of branding.
It's all come together authentically.
I knew that I wanted to make
whiskey, and I knew I wanted to
do it in Boston. But I didn't have a
brand idea, which was kind of odd
for me because usually you build a
company around a brand idea.
But we found this 11,000-squarefoot,
pre-Civil War era, 1850s building.
I bought a small, 150-gallon still,
and I got started by making whiskey
for other people-like restaurant
MJBizMag November-December 2022

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