This is an interesting discussion.
ZetaStorm, as a business owner and PR Specialist, do you buy into the idea that perhaps the manufacturer of a product that is very expensive may need to limit it to what is seen by the public as *select circles* b/c this is how it maintains some of its value to those people - by being seen as something that only the creme de la creme indulge in? For example, it seems to me that many products are definitely not worth the mark up but the manufacturer can demand the price b/c those who are willing to fork over the $$ are doing so b/c it is seen as something that only the people that they perceive as the creme can afford it. For example, how good is Cristal really in terms of all of the factors that one uses to evaluate that type of product? Is JayZ talking about it in his rap songs b/c it is the smoothest, etc. or is he partly so high on it (or at least was) b/c it was seen as somethign that the everyday person cannot get? If the latter is the case, he is ironically basically a victim of the same kind of snobbery that he bought into himself only now he's seen as the everday person by the manufacturer perhaps.
All in all, I guess that I agree that it was stupid to make the comment out loud although I don't blame him for wincing when he sees someone spraying his product through the air in that manner if he feels that his product is the creme. I don't know if I would be able to appreciate non-traditional uses of my product if I had built part of its rep on being the drink of the sophistocates. However, there must have been a better way to handle it. As everyone in the corporate world knows, there are so many ways to screw a person w/out appearing to be doing so. One good thing might be that at least JayZ *knows* that this man doesn't really value him and his business and he can take it elsewhere. What if the man had been saavy enough to continue to keep quiet and JayZ just kept giving him his money.
SC
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Originally Posted by ZetaStorm
I'm sorry but I have to break this down to dollars and sense (purposely not spelled cents). I am both a business owner (several businesses) as well as a PR Specialist. No matter how you dice it or slice it Cristal made a dummy move. If I was Cristal's #1 competitor I would be sitting in a meeting with Jay Z as we speak. I read the original article from The Economist magazine when this first broke. Anyone else that read it knows that none of the other companies would comment. You know why? They know that African Americans are the #1 consumers in America. They aren't crazy enough to open their mouth and say the wrong thing and damage their sales. They let the smoke settle and then they spoke.
I quote: Lucian James, an executive with a branding agency that tracks mentions of products in Billboard's Top 20, warned that in a fast-changing marketplace luxury brands in particular must capture relatively "new" customers while maintaining "traditional or old" customers.
And straight from the horses mouth or arse depending on how you want to view it......
Even Rouzaud, the executive atop the Cristal brand, seemed to realize the potential impact a boycott by hip-hop devotees would have on his bottom line. After Jay-Z announced the boycott of Cristal, Rouzaud issued a statement to "set the record straight and express our gratitude that people from a diversity of cultures and countries have been enjoying our wine."
^^^
You don't clean up unless you've messed up. In the business world this is called, trying to clean up some isht! 
Rouzaud is a mess. What's hilarious to me is that The Economist magazine printed his statements as he actually spoke them which makes him sound like a fool. You're a top executive and these are your responses? Don't think that the interviewer for The Economist magazine didn't see an opportnity here. (Great PR for them. I bet their sales went up  )Cristal is squirming, watch and see how fast they try to remedy this problem.
I have business partners (both black and white) who own multi million dollar companies and guess what? They all agree that Cristal messed up. Bad business move. Smart business owners know how to work with the hip hop industry not against it. The bottom line is that it is one of the TOP money grossing industries. (Not just in America but worldwide.) These hip hop fans are the same consumers who buy sneakers for $200, rims and sound systems in their cars for thousands of dollars (not to mention customize the entire vehicle), get their hair done for hundreds of dollars. So you think they can't buy Cristal? Think again. Cristal is a business first and foremost & they are not going to walk away from that big of a slice of a market. That's why they're trying to 'set the record straight.'
Don't believe me watch and see how this unfolds....... |