Use to analyze premiumization, packaging, and sampling strategy; separate marketing success from unverifiable family legend.
The chapter presents Maker’s Mark as both a product-development story and a lesson in constructing perceived value.
A wheated recipe, red-wax packaging, airline sampling, and advertising that framed price as evidence of quality helped Maker’s Mark establish a premium-bourbon playbook. Later corporate ownership complicates the craft story without automatically determining product quality.
174
169
Chapter Sixteen — It Tastes Expensive
September 29 fresh audit: matched to supplied PDF sheets 169–174. These are PDF sheet numbers, not the print-edition pagination used in the index. Verification concerns source fidelity, not independent historical/scientific corroboration.
Verified evidence record from the complete source review. Use with the linked Source and Literature Note; retain the stated cautions when drafting.
Evidence
A wheated recipe, red-wax packaging, airline sampling, and advertising that framed price as evidence of quality helped Maker’s Mark establish a premium-bourbon playbook. Later corporate ownership complicates the craft story without automatically determining product quality.
Locator
Locator type: Page
Start: 169
End: 174
Source section: Chapter Sixteen — It Tastes Expensive
Context
The chapter presents Maker’s Mark as both a product-development story and a lesson in constructing perceived value.
Annotation
Use to analyze premiumization, packaging, and sampling strategy; separate marketing success from unverifiable family legend.
Verification
Status: Verified
September 29 fresh audit: matched to supplied PDF sheets 169–174. These are PDF sheet numbers, not the print-edition pagination used in the index. Verification concerns source fidelity, not independent historical/scientific corroboration.