Let me start this post with a confession. I like whisky and
think the different types taste very different from each other, I also like
cognac but can’t tell them apart well, and different types of grappa I can tell
apart but don’t really have an opinion on which ones are better. OK, so now you
know my bias, which is important for what follows, and many of you have
probably made an assessment of how (un)cultured I am.
But here is something to think about first: why did I mention
grappa along with the other two alcohols? A few years ago, that would have been
pretty insulting to whisky and cognac, but now it is natural at least among
some people. And that is a big change with some importance outside drinking
too, for example for management. In a paper forthcoming in Administrative Science Quarterly, Giuseppe Delmestri and RoystonGreenwood write about the Cinderella-to-Queen transformation of grappa, and
what it means for our understanding of categories in general, and specifically
organizations in markets.
Their paper is great in its description of how a dilemma for
grappa producers, and their solution to it, solves a puzzle for researchers:
why do different product types have different status rankings, and how much
does that change over time? Grappa was cheap booze for the underclass. That was
not ideal for grappa makers, who very much would have liked higher prices. But
as long as rich people everywhere – in Italy too – though that grappa was no
good, preferring other alcohols instead, that was not going to happen.
Some grappa producers were able to find a path to higher
status. It involved failed attempts and even a bankruptcy, and exactly that
combination of failure and eventual success let Delmestri and Greenwood work
out the process. The paper has much more detail than I can give here, but the
short story is that a rise in status involves distancing from the low-status
past and present (detachment), copying of related high-status products
(emulation), and connections to the broader society (sublimation). All needed
to be done, and the “raw materials” for all needed to be present. The story of
grappa’s rice to high status is interesting because it shows exactly how customers
can change their minds when all the right levers are pulled. It took bottles
designed to resemble perfume flagons, single-grape distilling and regional
labeling, and linking to Milanese high fashion to make grappa fashionable and
prestigious, but it could be done.
I think the story is also interesting because it suggests
a condition that needs to be present for it to work. Grappa became high
status after a long campaign. Can any regional or local product accomplish the
same? Before you say yes, consider this: Italy is a pretty cool place, so
grappa had a good starting point.
