You’ve probably never heard of it… but you should know about it.
Featured in a “bad blood” drink at Taylor Swift’s bar, getting story posts from Drake, and shoutouts on Live TV from Kelly Clarkson, this liquor has been making its way onto bar shelves for the past several years.
From within the city limits of Chicago to now being sold in 30 states and soon will be available all over the country.
Malort isn’t any ole liquor brand. It’s…. different.
And by different, I mean it’s disgusting.
But why is it so loved?? How has a product that’s DISGUSTING, grown their sales by 1200%??
Malort isn’t like most liquor brands.
It wasn’t started by a rich Italian family or by monks in a monastery, but by a Swedish immigrant Carl Jeppson in Chicago during Prohibition.
A liquor brand, founded during prohibition?? YES.
Now I know you’re thinking the exact same thing I am, how was he able to sell liquor during this time? Incredibly CREATIVE positioning.
Carl’s liquor was his take on a traditional Swedish spirit called ‘bränvinn,’ which just so happened to be used to kill parasites back home in Sweden.
Because of its “medicinal” benefits, Carl was able to position the ‘bränvinn,’ as medicine to bypass the alcohol ban.
Going door to door selling the ‘bränvinn,’ Carl did run into a few cops who intently questioned his product. But as soon as they did, Carl would offer up a sample of the product for them to taste.
The cops would taste it and immediately agree that no one would drink it for fun, yet the disgusting liquor became incredibly popular in Swedish neighborhoods.
AKA they drank it for fun.
Fast forward to 1933, Prohibition ended, making the future of Jeppson’s rough (consumers now had choices).
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The brand lay stagnant for a few years until a recent law school grad George Brode saw an opportunity, the iconic Malort recipe was up for sale.
But he faced two big issues when it came to Malort. First, the medicine angle wouldn’t work anymore. Consumers could just buy regular liquor now.
Two, Swedish immigrants were moving out of Chicago and into the suburbs so Malort’s brand advocates were gone from the market.
(George Brode pictured in the center below.)
George needed to start over with a whole new angle for a whole new cohort of customers.
He came up with a 3-pronged approach:
1️⃣. Style Malort as a Chicago and American classic.
2️⃣. Keep selling to the neighborhoods the Swedes left, going after new customers as opposed to chasing old ones.
3️⃣. Lean into the nastiness.
eorge redesigned the bottle’s label to include Chciago’s three-star flag, hitting on the regional ties the brand has (as you can see above).
Then he started running ads billing Malort as a “challenge to the braggart who says they can drink anything”
George didn’t shy away from telling people that Malort was nasty, he just made sure not to use that word. He called it “bold, rugged, brash, and rough”. Malort was meant for the most daring of drinkers, and George was triple dog daring them.
(Just look at this ad LOL. It SCREAMS “I dare you.” 👇)
But this wasn’t super effective. For over 40 years, George kept Malort alive as a passion project, to do so he had to sell the rest of his brands, rename his company to Jeppson’s, and focus solely on Malort.
Through doubling down on Malort, he helped it achieve cult status in Chicago. Hispanic and Polish neighborhoods were crazy about the stuff and you could get it in just about any dive bar.
Chicago identified with Malort, they themselves “were bold, rugged, brash, and rough”.
George Brode passed away 1999, but the Malort legacy lived on in the heart of every Chicagoan who bought a tourist a shot of Malort.
In the same way the legacy lived on, so did the company.
In his will, George left the business to his secretary Patricia Gabelick, who single-handedly kept the business running out of her apartment, getting by on orders from local dives until 2011.
Until some memes changed everything (speaking my kind of language now LOL).
Sam Mechling, a full-time Chicago bartender and part-time meme creator, loved serving Malort to unsuspecting tourists. So much so that he decided to start posting about it.
Posting memes to Facebook and X, selling unlicensed Malort merch to make some extra dough, Sam was all in on the legendary brand.
But Patricia wasn’t pleased, her brand was being used without her permission, so she did what any sane business owner would do…hired Sam as Director of Marketing. LOL.
His mission? Bring the brand back.
Modernizing Brode’s old ads was priority number one. One ad read “I’m not getting my security deposit back,” another said, “These pants aren’t gonna sh*t themselves”. The ads felt authentic. They didn’t sugarcoat Malort, they were real.
The modern remix worked and the ads began to go viral. Sales grew by 1,200% in 5 years.
Malort was now going nationwide. Prior to 2018, you couldn’t buy the liquor outside of Illinois. Now, you can buy it in 30 states, with more on the way.
Malort is now more infamous than ever and the future is bright, even if it means blacking out.
But what’s the lesson?
Self awareness as a brand. Throughout its entire history, Malort has never shied away from the fact that they KNOW they’re not the best tasting brand on the market.
They’re handling consumer objections BEFORE the consumers even have them.
Just look at the ads they run with people showing their “Malort” face.
Where other liquor brands like Casamigos or Grey Goose are focused on selling you a luxury lifestyle, Malort straight up tells you “yea, you’re probably gonna hate this”.
They’re real with their customers, and their customers appreciate it.
You know what you’re getting with Malort (unless you’re a tourist in Chicago) and in a world of flashy taglines, and star-studded commercials, the honesty is a welcome change.
You can’t beat it.
As a Marketer, your job isn’t to sell to ALL people, it’s to sell to your people.
Talk to your customers, find out what they like about your product, and nail that message every single day.
Don’t be everyone’s cup of tea.
Be their shot of Malort.
