Whisky Profile - Cara Laing, Head of Brands Marketing at Douglas Laing & Co Ltd

Whisky Profile - Cara Laing, Head of Brands Marketing at Douglas Laing & Co Ltd, she said...

Part of the ever surprising whisky journey I'm on involves meeting people like Master Distillers, Ambassadors, Bloggers and so many more.  One of the things I'm always fascinated by is how did they get to where they are?  What exactly prompted them to end up in the field of whisky? Do we really know what a "day in the life" is really like? I set out to find out.  Over the course of the next 12 months I'll be profiling several people and some may be a bit of a surprise as I don't plan on focusing on just the "famous".  I really want to talk to the people who are responsible for whisky from ground to consumer's whisky cabinet.  So...

I am very pleased to have Cara Laing as my first profile subject for a few reasons: 1) The recent split of the two brothers Fred & Stewart Laing.  2)  She is one of the upcoming and bright faces of the next generation of whisky personalities, 3) Her decision to leave Morrison Bowmore to join her father Fred at Douglas Laing & Co. and 4)  Marketing... a little known avenue for me personally. What better place to start.

So why did I consider the split between two brothers when choosing Cara?  As I watched the twitter feed on the day everyone was posting the news release of the spin-out I noticed people seemed to be very interested in talking to either Fred or Stewart and if you follow twitter at all you will have noticed many did just that. A writer/friend and I were talking and he strongly suggested I approach Cara.  "Totally different perspective and a fresh look when you think about it", he said.  I quickly took the advice and I'm thankful to know such a brilliant journalist because Ms. Laing did not disappoint. Here is my interview:

Q1: Of course, tell me a bit about yourself.  Who/what/where/when and why the whisky world?

A: My name is Cara and I was born in 1982 to Fred and Ann Laing. I am engaged to Chris Leggat also a 2nd generation whisky maker/producer, and getting married in October.  Growing up I was fortunate to know some key "movers and shakers" in the Scotch Whisky industry well enough to call them "Uncle". As such, from a very early age, I heard about these magical distilleries around Scotland as well as terms like Blended Scotch, Vatted Malt, Single Malt. My dad would also be jetting off around the world for weeks at a time meeting distributors and customers coming home with gifts for me and amazing stories. I'd be lying if said by age 5/6 I understood it all but I certainly picked up on the excitement of the world of whisky! 

Through school and university I focused on business but whisky was always there and very much part of my life. It was only when I started at Whyte & Mackay in early 2006 as the Jura Brand Manager that I really started to truly love whisky.  My dad often said to me:  "It's in your blood!"

Q2: I don't know many 5 year olds that say I want to make whisky when I grow up so how did you get to where you are now? 

A: After university I worked in an advertising agency for a year and that's when I realized I wanted to move to 'client side' marketing. I heard Whyte & Mackay were investing heavily in their Malt brands with new packaging and marketing activity so I got hold of the Marketing Director's contact details and harassed him until he agreed to meet me. The rest is history! 

JURA PAPS - http://robertarood.wordpress.com/

I had 3 wonderful years as Jura Brand Manager - working with great people like 'Sir Richard Paterson', tasting some incredible whiskies, spending half my life on Jura and ultimately learning about whisky - how it's made, how to taste it, how to market and sell it.  In January 2010 I took a position with Morrison Bowmore where I totally fell in love with Bowmore and Glen Garioch.  It's also where I met Chris!

BOWMORE alchemy...

I started as Brand Manager for Bowmore and then went on to Marketing Manager for both the Bowmore and Glen Garioch lines. It was an amazing period where again I learnt so much and worked with many great people. I was lucky enough to get out to Islay regularly and never got tired of visiting Bowmore's legendary No.1 Vault warehouses or tasting Bowmore spirit straight out the cask! Truly magical! 

I would have very, very happily stayed at Morrison Bowmore but Douglas Laing was always my first priority. It's the company my grandfather Fred Douglas Laing established 65 years ago in 1948 and my dad (also Fred) has driven and developed since before I was born so when the big changes in the company began to take place it was ideal timing for me to take all the experience and knowledge I've picked up over the years and join the family business. I'm only officially a month into my role as Head of Brands Marketing but so far so good - I'm loving what I do and really enjoying learning from & working with my dad.

Q3: Do you think having your last name helped you along or did you find yourself feeling pressure to find a path of your own (not in the shadow of your family name)?

A: We're not big enough I don't think for the Laing name to have much bearing either way. I certainly never used industry contacts to progress my career. I didn't want favours from Fred's industry friends or associates. I wanted to do it myself.  I only clarified the Laing link when I was offered my roles at Whyte & Mackay and Morrison Bowmore as I felt I needed to make them aware of the association - thankfully it was never a problem!

Q4: How do you manage to stay balanced in your life? From what I've seen from friends with this type of career, it seems to involve many sacrifices and little private down time.  (I have received emails from them working at 11:00pm on a Friday!?) 

A: The whisky industry definitely demands a lot of your own personal time - I am regularly on emails late at night or attending whisky shows over a weekend but it's fun thankfully.  I'm also lucky that I have a great group of friends so that certainly helps give me balance as I make a point of making time with them or specifically not discussing whisky.  When catching up with my parents, we now have an agreement of no whisky chat! My poor mum has heard a lot of work discussions over the last 6 months, so now nomore! 

Q5: I love my mum & dad, BUT I could never work with either of them. How much thought or preparation went in to making this type of directional change in your career? Did you have to think about it or didn't even hesitate to say yes to?

A: We are lucky as we do have a great relationship.  Fred & I are very similar in terms of personality and views on the business so it works. For a long time a lot of people just assumed I would go directly into Douglas Laing however I wasn't so convinced I would. I always liked the idea but I really enjoyed the jobs I was in. That said when the question was asked, it was not a tough decision to make - it didn't require any thought. As much as I loved working at Morrison Bowmore it was an immediate yes when Fred asked me to join the family business.

Q6: What does a day in the life of Cara Laing look like? 

A: I get up at 6:00 and run 6 miles with my marathon partner and great friend Claire. I arrive at work around 8am then it can vary massively... It could be doing anything from briefing in new packaging concepts to our design agency, number-crunching, meeting customers in our sample room, organizing events, updating our social media activity to circulating press releases. 

One day varies to the next and that's hugely satisfying. I then head home, catch up with my fiancé whilst making/eating dinner together and inevitably end up talking whisky. I then have a long soak in the bath - possibly doing the odd email at the same time! Then it's off to bed around 10:00 - 10:30."   Cara

SO LET'S TALK MARKETING: 

Definition: Process of communicating the value of a product to customers of course with the purpose of selling said product.  It is a "critical" business function when it comes to attracting clients.  Marketing is a two way street that satisfies the needs of the company and the wants of the customer.  It is a means for creating, delivering and communicating with the customer base while benefiting the company and its shareholders.  It involves market analysis, understanding consumer buying behavior, knowing the competitors and building client value.  (Now that was a mouthful...)

What does it mean?  Well in my opinion anyone can make a product but without a sound marketing plan it might flop!  Example:  Can you say "New Coke"? In 1985, Coke decided to reformulate their recipe.  It created a huge backlash by staunch "Classic Coke" drinkers.  It only lasted 3 months and cast a long shadow becoming one of the biggest examples of a failed marketing plan by a well established and successful brand tampering with what "worked". 

How about a brilliant marketing plan: Selling water. Twenty years ago people would have said, are you crazy?  Who would be stupid enough to buy water?! Yet somebody somewhere had a brilliant marketing campaign and others jumped on that bandwagon because by 2009, 100 billion dollars was spent worldwide on bottled water.  The average glass of tap water (1st world countries) cost about 1/10 of a cent per gallon while bottled water is about 90 cents per gallon.  That's 560 times more expensive.  Crazy indeed?

The marketing team, in my mind, is the glue that brings everything together when it comes to the product.  They have a hand in creation (objective), they check in to see what market is doing (buyers needs/wants), then they compare to other products (competition) and lastly they prepare the tools necessary to bring that product to market (promotion).  Like Cara stated in her interview with me: One day she could be meeting with the Master Blender discussing new whiskies, organizing a tasting panel, reviewing packaging concepts or using social media to inform whisky drinkers and the very next day doing some financial paperwork, travelling to a distillery, planning a whisky show exhibit and then meeting clients.  

BIG WHISKY - DOUGLAS LAING

Yes, it's important to start with a great whisky but without a smart Head of Marketing, nobody might ever really know how good that whisky is?  So thank you Cara for giving us a small insight into your world and I look forward to seeing where you take Douglas Laing next.  Wherever it is, I'm convinced you will do a phenomenal job!

As for me there is another whisky journey just around the corner and I can't wait to bring you along.   Until then, I am off to the beach for a couple of weeks.

I will come back a well rested and happy Lassie  :)

Davin - a passion for all things Canadian Whisky

Happy 1st anniversary to me!  Well, actually I've officially been on twitter for a little over a year and a bit now but over that course of time I have racked up 17,600 tweets.  I've been teased quite a bit about it and was dubbed "twitter queen".  I don't mind because one of the things I have appreciated the most about being on twitter is how it has lifted me onto a much larger playing field.  I'm sure at first I must have been a bit of an enigma always talking about my passion and self proclaimed ambassadorship when it came to Canadian Whiskies and yes I was teased about that as well.  My favorite remarks from whisky imbibers thus far:  Canadian Whisky is "brown vodka" or "good Canadian whisky is an oxymoron".  And honestly no wonder when you see what we end up exporting to the States and overseas.  What gets sent away is the "mixing whisky".  The stuff people ask for when they want a rye & coke.  Hell, even Canadians have no idea how good some of our whiskies are?

I simply can't help who I am which is a very dedicated and serious ambassador when it comes to talking about Canadian Whisky so I started offering to send whisky samples from my own personal collection (I have over 30 bottles) to anyone who wanted some.  People from all over the world started receiving Canadian whisky some as far reaching as New Zealand (Hey Jay!)  I always asked for anyone who received them to be honest and let me know what they thought.  I'm a firm believer that most people were and what came back was 95% were amazed at the taste/flavor and profiles of some of the whiskies I sent.  No, it's not Scotch. So let's not try to compare two completely different whiskies. It's Canadian and that is what makes it unique.  Some people had never experienced the delicate but delicious flavors of 100% rye. Other whiskies I sent like Forty Creek (didn't matter which one I sent) often left people extremely perplexed with the nose/palate being so completely different than any other whisky they ever tasted.  Are all Canadian whiskies fantastic? Hell no but neither are all bourbons or scotches.  Let's be honest there are some real duds out there no matter what type of whisky we are talking about.

courtesy of www.canadianwhisky.org

Someone I was extremely fortunate to befriend very early into my whisky adventures was Davin de Kergommeaux.  It goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that he is THE Canadian Whisky Expert.  He has been a great friend, a wonderful mentor and has added so much to my life when it comes to advice about writing and a myriad of other things.  Davin is a scholar, a true gentleman, a Malt Maniac and a passionate Canadian Whisky Geek (that is a huge compliment!!).  It was an honor to be a judge for the 2012 Canadian Whisky Awards and I made the trip out to Victoria where I met several other Malt Maniacs, drank some of the best whiskies and of course hung out with Davin and many others.  2013 has already become a year of leaps and bounds on my crazy but always fantastic whisky journey.  

In late winter a fellow whisky writer created a Facebook Page for Spirits Bloggers and I was invited to join. Yet another wonderful example of what the whisky fabric is about.  Great ideas and creative discussions take place in that group. So when "we" decided to have a huge and very successful Twitter Flash Mob Blog on March 17th it sparked a few more great ideas; one of which was Davin wanting to try something a bit different.  He contacted me and we began to brainstorm. The thought was to create a social media event that would not only promote his book but allow people to try Canadian whiskies for themselves.  We came up with a plan, put it out there to the writers/bloggers and what came back was overwhelming.  We anticipated getting 10-15 interested people but in the end we had 32 ask to take part.  I was gobsmacked!?   

However, with only so many pours in one bottle we had to apologize to 17 and went forward with fifteen.  We had folks from Israel all the way to Oregon USA.  So I set off sending samples, Davin set off sending a few books to those who didn't already have it and between us all we got organized and did something that had never been done on twitter before:  A weekly chat with an author about his book combined with a blind whisky tasting.  

This took place over the course of the month of May on every Sunday at 3:00pm EST.  

HIGHWOOD DISTILLERY

We had an assignment every week to read 4 chapters and then on said date/time we all had the opportunity to ask Davin questions about the book, the experience of writing it, Canadian whisky and/or the individual chapters.  At the 30 minute mark we would break open one of the mystery samples, nose/taste and try to guess what it was with of course the big reveal at the end of the hour.  I was happy to volunteer myself as the keeper of questions and moderator and Davin did a fantastic job fielding and answering the rapid fire questions in 140 characters!  STUPENDOUS feat in itself...  :)  

So what came of it?  Every week, our numbers grew. More people started to join us for the chat.  Some followers poured a Canadian whisky and bounced along with us while others went out and bought the book and joined in with questions/discussions. It was a great way to get people talking about Canadian Whisky the portable expert and walk people through a nosing/tasting of some really good whiskies.

By Sunday May 26th our numbers had almost reached 50.  One as far as Australia (up at 4:30am!?) poured a sample I had sent him and watched the twitter feed (#DavinTT).  It truly was an exhilarating experience to take part and what I came away with was how much fun it was to read and watch Davin breathe life into his book for all of us on twitter.   So many great questions came out of the sessions and I personally feel like "we" were getting the word out about the real history of Canadian whisky.  Debunking so many misconceptions and myths (don't drink the kool-aid as Davin always says).   The "tah dah" moment for me was watching people react to the 4 whiskies Davin chose:  Lot 40, Alberta Premium Dark Horse, Danfield's 21 and Forty Creek Portwood Reserve 2012.  Did everyone LOVE every single one of them, of course not?! Some thought a few were less then stellar but that is truly a subjective thing.  For me they ranked: Forty Creek, Danfield's, Lot 40 then Dark Horse which surprised me because I initially loved the Dark Horse and hated the Lot 40 about 6 months ago. Regardless, the point was to have people from all corners of the world have the opportunity to try read and then try these beauties and I'm beyond happy they did. 

LASSIE SAMPLE HQ

Canadian whisky can be GREAT.  The people like Davin who have a passion about them are making sure the word gets out and the people like me, well we share.  The old story goes:  Give a man a fish he eats for a day, teach a man to fish he eats for the rest of his life. Well, Davin is out to teach us all about Canadian Whisky and my belief is once you taste is you'll be willing to try/buy them for life. 

As a result of this great little event I have received many twitter, facebook and email messages from people thanking us for the experience.  My favorite so far is this one: "This has indeed quite broadened my horizons and has opened my eyes (and palate) to the wonderful world of Canadian whiskies, about which, I'm afraid I knew nothing about.
Because of your kind invitation to join in, I have made amazing discoveries ( I have yet to recover from the exquisite pleasure brought on by last week's Danfield's 21 year old Limited Edition) and learned that great whiskies are being made in our own backyard! Thank you again,  Maryse"

This is what fuels my passion.  Congrats Davin on a job well done, not only on the book which is a fantastic award winning read but on truly being the Canadian Whisky Expert!  If you haven't purchased a copy yet, I urge you to.  Available at book stores, online and in E-book format.  

Better yet, Father's Day is around the corner so tell your kids you want this:

COURTESY OF RUM HOWLER BLOG - Chip Dykstra

A) It's a very well written book about whisky.

AND...

B) It's way better than a tie!



Continuing my work/passion for all things Canadian Whisky, I remain...

The Lassie