092 | Scaling a City Cocktail Culture Through Middle-Tier Bars
Francois Monti | Madrid, Spain
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When most drinks leaders hear "bottom-up brand building," they think grassroots marketing. Influencer seeding. Community building. Word-of-mouth tactics.
Wrong.
Bottom-up is empirical strategy development. It's how you know what's actually true about your markets when everything keeps changing.
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You Can't Build a Brand Without Owning a Category. But You Can't Create a Category Before Recognizing One Bottom-up.
Categories form bottom-up at the bar level before brands recognize them. From MAFFEO DRINKS Podcast: How Aperol became the Spritz, Seedlip captured non-alcoholic sophistication, and why your liquid's natural characteristics determine which micro-category you belong in, not boardroom strategy.
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