...and realize that it just wasn't happening? Was it happening? What's real anymore anyway? This was discussed some time ago when their dilemma was noted and it was actually pretty simple.
A reseller decides they've got a brilliant new idea for a rum. Yeah, let's call it the Real McCoy, based on a real historical figure - a real and romantic kinda rum runner, whose 6 or 8 ships delivered rum to "Rum Row". Yup and just east of the international line, where the real rum runners - a hodge podge of souped up speedboats - ventured out to load up and then cross back into US territory and illegally bring in the booze. Shade of Junior Johnson running shine through the hills. Now there's a hero.
Bill McCoy was just a chickenshit who played it safe out there, until the day when one of his ships wandered over the line, and Bill's story came to a not so romantic end. BTW, Bill was NOT the origin of the term (which originated years earlier), but he was called the "Real McCoy" because he was reputed not to water his rum. That's the whole of it.
That was the "real part". The rest?
Monkeyed marketing. The slicked back hair concept boyz then embellished the rest, claiming (a) that McCoy "... always delivered the finest quality rum, which became known around the world as “The Real McCoy" and (b) that they - the promoter's rum of the same name was "...hand-crafted with the same unadulterated authenticity as the celebrated rum that fueled the Roaring Twenties.". Oh and what may have been their fatal mistake: they also promoted the fact that none other than our own Richard Seales made it for them. I'll agree with "fueled" part, lol...
The "Real Truth"
The real truth may just be just a wee bit different. Under the pressure of desperate American drinkers during Prohibition, what was important was obtaining alcohol - any alcohol - with quality of far less concern. The illegal importers could make a literal fortune with just one or two good illegal runs. There was no time and no incentive for either aging or quality.
There was incentive to just bring it in - anything - in without being caught and for immediate, huge and fast profit.
Most of this hooch was subject to multiple watering each time it changed hands: from distiller to the go betweens, to rum runners like McCoy, to the illegal speedboats, to the mob, to the bars and at last to the customer. McCoy's stuff - as only one of many, many runners - was valued only insofar as his unwatered booze could be then watered even more than his competitors.
The customers ended up with pretty much same glass of whatever was left. All of the runners were selling about the same rum, just watered to different degree. The rum was hardly "celebrated", but the fact that it contained hard to get, Prohibition alcohol was. Bathtub gin, moonshine, you name it. You got what you got where you got it and paid what it cost - or made it yourself - and were happy to do so and stumble home from the speakeasies.
But who believes such monkey droppings anyway?
No one, really - including the monkeys. No, the promoters big mistake - as pointed out - may have been that they also highlighted Seales as the producer. What were they thinking? Anyone remember Seales'-made "Tommy Bahama" "premium" Gold and Silver? Opened at close to $50 and where are they now? And it wasn't for lack of clout. If a Seales' rum made for and sold by the very well known and real Tommy Bahama franchise couldn't make it, do you really think a made up "Real McCoy" is gonna do any better? My speculation then became: why pay twice as much for Seales-made "Real McCoy" 3, 5 and 12 year olds, when you can buy the actual "Real Seale" in the form of Seales own Doorly's 5, XO and Seales 10 for much, much less and better yet without having to disregard the obvious marketing claims first.
Apparently this speculation may not have been far off...
According to my close personal friend and honored rum promoter, Bobby Burr
Does this story sound familiar? Does any successful and growing brand sell out like this? Or did they see their real future and look for the "Real McCoy" exit on the freeway in the form of a much larger entity had the deep pockets, the clout and the distribution to try to make this novel but unfinished concept work?"The up and coming rum brand The Real McCoy recently announced a strategic partnership with Davos Brands, an importer and marketer of luxury wines and spirits. Davos seeks to develop The Real McCoy brand nationally, focusing on building sales, distribution and marketing of its premium portfolio.
The quickly growing Davos Brands, which launched in July 2014 with Ty Ku Sake and Zyr Russian Vodka, partners with up-and-coming best in class wine and spirit brands to develop and execute innovative sales and marketing strategies under the leadership of the Company's Vice Chairman, Guillaume Cuvelier, founder and former CEO of Svedka Vodka."
And what about Davos? Do they have "Real Cajones" enought for what it takes to sell rum against the heavily subsidized Big Three in the wacky world of rum? Can they convince the 1% that the Seales-made, McCoy-labelled product is worth lots more than Seales' own portfolio? Based on their current portfolio...
I'd bet a Samuel Smith Imperial Stout to the contrary. My opinion: a bad fit and positioned not nearly "premium" enough for today's widely disparate market: the 1% vs a starving and minimum wage mass market. The "Real McCoy" is not real enough and misplaced in the No Man's Land in between.
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http://www.examiner.com/article/real-mc ... stribution
