Clarification of Question by
smilecheeeese-ga
on
19 Nov 2005 01:02 PST
Hello bobbie7,
Thank you for starting work on my question. I very much appreciate
the effort. However, the question still remains unanswered.
I remember reading some articles on Hpnotiq fairly recently, within
the last two years. The articles generally recounted the story of
concept, to production, to marketing. I remember the articles quite
well and always wondered the more specific source of Hpnotiqs physical
creator, the French company. The trigger to my interest came after
Heaven Hill acquired Hpnotiq from Global Perspectives (Yakoby's
company,) for in their current campaign, they state Hpnotiq is an age
old family recipie. From the articles I remember, this was not the
case. The articles stated Yakoby, a former wine salesman came up with
the idea for Hpnotiq while passing through a department stores womens
perfume section. The elegant bottles sparked something. He thought
the elegant bottles were a great feature to induce tiral of a
product... liquor. He contacted a French company to create the
liqueur and I take it, do the manufacturing/packaging as well.
In recent months I have tried to recapture the articles but am unable
to find them. It seems there are many sites out there with the same
article... like the new media strategies article and Australian Vogue
article, that state Hpnotiq's premium and exotic ingredients, and an
etremely watered down version of Hpnotiq's creation. I have seen the
articles you posted before, when I was searching for the first
articles I came across. These new articles only made me more curious.
As for Unicognac, I don't think they are the creator. Heaven Hill
came after the creation. The third article, I think, highlights my
point with its reference to the French company. I'd like to know more
specificly, this French company.>>> Name, contact info, and anything
else you may be able to find, such as a brochure or write up.
To clarify more, I think the reference to Yakoby and his wife hatching
Hpnotiq in their New York apartment refers to the conceptual phase
rather than the creation of the formula. It is the French company,
the creators of the formula, that I seek.
Upon writing this clarification, I have since found the articles.
Here is one of the articles I read... I hope it can help guide your search.
The other article is an shown in Adobe Acrobat, and I don't know how
to post it... I'll recount some of it after this first article.
--------------------
Out of the Blue
--------------------
Rap artists help boost new drink's public profile
By Chris Jones
STAFF WRITER
August 5, 2003
It's opening night of the BET music awards and the self-acclaimed "Pied
Piper of R&B," R. Kelly, takes the stage.
"First, we're going to pop open the bottle of Hip-not-tick," he says.
The music sets in and the crowd goes wild, responding to his lyrical
shout- out to the "oceanic blue" drink of the summer, Hpnotiq. But who's
drinking this mix of tropical juice, vodka and cognac besides Kelly?
Actor George Clooney is, and other celebs such as N' Sync's Chris
Kirkpatrick are, too. Even rapper Lil' Kim uses the catchy phrase "let's get
hypnotized" for when she's guzzling her mix of choice, Hpnotiq and
Moet.
Without formal advertising, Hpnotiq is making appearances in People,
Elite and Entertainment Weekly magazines, various music videos and
television shows. HBO's hit series "Sex and the City" is even talking about
it.
But despite its popularity with celebrities and growing sales, critics
say this "blue juice" is really just another hard liquor peddled to
urban youth. (Hpnotiq is 34 proof, or 17 percent alcohol by volume.)
"Considering black kids are trendsetters for their peer groups, which
transcends to white kids, that's who they're marketing to. We oppose
anything like this because it's targeting underage drinkers," says Jesse
Brown, spokesman for the National Association of African Americans for
Positive Imagery.
But Hpnotiq marketeer Nick Storm, 34, says he's not trying to target
urban youth. "This is not just another drink; it's a lifestyle," he adds.
Strolling down 26th Street near Broadway with Raphael Yakoby, 28, the
drink's creator, Storm kids around, as usual, walking with a fake limp,
comparing their duo to Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder's from the 1981
hit film "Stir Crazy." "Gotta get bad," he says to Yakoby. Those three
words were a mantra for their partnership. "We would say that to get
through the hard times," Yakoby said.
Yakoby, who had been selling wines from the Republic of Georgia but
says he felt too limited by his product, concocted Hpnotiq in 2001. He
believed in the dark and light liquor mix from the beginning, so much so
that he and his wife sold their Forest Hills apartment for $60,000 and
maxed out their credit cards to launch the drink through a company they
called Global Perspectives. Storm, a Yonkers native who had spent six
years in the music industry and met Yakoby through a mutual friend,
partnered with him to promote it.
Storm says that when he tasted the fruity drink, music came to mind.
The unique blend to him was like an aspiring music artist, and the best
way to get it off the ground was to take it to the streets.
"Nick had an athletic background [from college] and I knew he
understood what it meant to work as a team ... never giving up," Yakoby said.
"Never once did he question if it was possible. He didn't even ask for
any money in the beginning."
On foot, Storm and Yakoby hit up liquor stores, clubs and restaurants,
pleading for them to take in Hpnotiq. Many said no at first. But once
Storm began hosting promotional parties and underlining special events
in the city, the places that hadn't taken it suddenly couldn't get it
fast enough.
In less than a year, Storm and Yakoby went from pushing 1,000 nine-
liter cases a month out of their car trunks to selling 5,000 cases.
Hpnotiq retails for $22 to $25 a bottle.
One person Storm says was instrumental in the drink's growth is the
hip-hopper Fabolous.
"He tasted the drink at P. Diddy's restaurant, Justin's, last year and
liked the product since day one," Storm says. "He was one of the first
celebrities to like the drink."
Storm says Fabolous has given so much attention to the drink that he
mentions it in at least four songs off his latest album, "Street Dreams."
Over the years, hip-hop has had a hand in boosting other drinks' sales
as well, regardless of their makers' intent. Brand names such as
Belvedere, Courvoisier, Hennessy, Grey Goose and Alize have all been used by
rap artists as cultural markers and signs of status with the urban
community.
"These are luxury items that are all overexposed to African-American
youth," says Dave Jernigan, research director for the Center on Alcohol
Marketing and Youth. "Through our research there is reason to believe
that overexposure to advertising and marketing does make a difference."
The center released a recent study showing that blacks aren't the
largest demographic consumers of alcohol, but various brands directly
advertise to them more than non-African-American youth through TV, radio and
magazines.
"For young people, it's dangerous. It really doesn't matter if they're
advertising in magazines or not, the industry will use whatever method
they need to sell a product," says Brown of the National Association of
African Americans for Positive Imagery.
But despite the criticism, Hpnotiq has become a mega-moneymaker in the
mainstream and urban markets.
In January, Yakoby sold Global Perspectives to Heaven Hill Distilleries
of Bardstown, Ky., in a deal worth more than $20 million. Heaven Hill
made Storm its vice president of marketing for Hpnotiq, at a six-figure
salary; the company predicts sales will more than double this year.
"The result of the unprecedented trade and consumer demand has been one
of the most incredible new-product success stories in the industry,"
says spokesman Larry Kass. "We believe, based upon current sales trends,
that Hpnotiq can easily become a million-case brand in the
not-too-distant future."
Copyright (c) 2003, Newsday, Inc.
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/features/ny-p2page33401309aug05,0,7122495.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
THE SECOND ARTICLE is entitled: HPNOTIQ Takes the market by storm
I don't have the title of the magazine or website this article is from.
One of the most pertinent pieces of this article talks of Yakoby
contacting "Jim Goldstein at Wingard, a New York based importer, and
they got in touch with people in Europe to create the product."
It may very well be a third article, which I read but don't have, that
told me the company in Europe that created the product was French. I
hope this helps.
