Who would have guessed one episode of Entourage Season 7 could make the perfect tutorial on the travails of small batch food production. Or in this case, tequila. As the plot progressed, I ticked off the lessons learned, chuckling. For you non-Entourage watchers, here’s the synopsis:
- Modern branding – “The design looks a little old,” Turtle complains to the tequila company owner, adding that he’s selling it in trendy clubs.
- Promotion exceeds supply = problems – The plot thickens as Vince tweeted about the tequila, driving a number of orders and stressing out the producer who explained that they are a small scale tequila company. I was surprised jacking up the price to level out demand and supply didn’t come up.
- Launching with exclusivity – Loved seeing Gil Turner‘s, the West LA classic liquor store that’s been there forever by the Whiskey and Roxy Theaters asking for a one-month exclusive. (The “sales guy,” Turtle, gets him to buy twice the quantity in exchange for the exclusive and offering to tweet that Gil Turner’s was the place to get it.)
- Roles and responsibilities – Turtle gets chewed out for selling when he’s supposed to be merely putting a marketing campaign together. Damn us passionate types! The chew out doesn’t stop him.
- Connections to the right people – If you can finagle yourself into a Hollywood agent’s office, hand out product to your target customer, and be ready to pitch to your fans who will gladly evaluate investment possibilities — well you might be ready for your own entourage and TV show, not to mention success.
And if you’ve got a retail location? I wonder if the exposure (and payment?) Urth Caffe has garnered over the seasons exceeds the intake from their cafe. Probably not, but it must certainly be worth the equivalent of Vince tweeting about the tequila in this episode which, by the way, is only for food entrepreneurs of a certain age.
