Here is an idea that might help a French whisky brand CRUSH the market:
Some context:
Everyone is looking for THE differentiating factor, asking oneself "what do we got that others dont?".
As soon as a "competitive advantage" needs to be explained/requires some form of knowledge or understanding on the consumer part/cannot be grasped immediately by the layman, it limits the scalability of the reach.
A real such advantage is one that is obvious to most.
Mash-bill, yeast, distillation, geography, terroir: all very relevant & cool but most end-customer couldn't care less.
I believe the easiest, most straightforward argument that needs little to zero explanation is the cask. There is a reason why a Macallan bought Grupo Estevez (owner of Sherry bodegas Valdespino, La Guita etc...).
Idea:
Imagine there was only one guy in France holding the highest title in the cooperage industry of "Maitre Artisan Tonnelier", the lethal weapon of barrel making
Imagine this guy's cooperage had just celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023.
Imagine a high-quality, well-capitalized, marketing savvy, French whisky company was to secure the exclusivity of this person's time and skills and market the f*ck out of it.
This would be a hell of a differentiating factor.
Note: i have zero skin in this game, i just know who that dude is (Jean-Noël PELLETAN 👀 )