Missing person

Brown-Forman has offered a $10,000 reward for original photographs of Mr Martin Walker Heron, the man who created Southern Comfort.  Jon Rees explains why

MARTIN WALKER HERON may not be a household name but, if Brown-Forman Corporation’s marketing department has anything to do with it, he soon will be. 

Heron is the man who, way back in 1874, invented Southern Comfort, the cloyingly sweet liqueur which is as closely associated with the South as Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey and, indeed, bourbon itself.

Personally, I can never see the words Southern Comfort without being reminded of the very good, but very creepy, film of the same name, though perhaps that just shows you the power of Hollywood.

Brown-Forman, however, reckons it’s time to remind the world of Heron, in the same way that the world already knows about the company’s stablemate liquor Jack Daniel’s.  After all, anyone who has ever read a glossy magazine or travelled on the London Underground system will be familiar with the slow, easy-going, unchanged and meticulous ways of the Jack Daniel’s distillery in Tennessee.

There, good ol’ boys sit around in rocking-chairs waiting for the crystal clear waters to trickle through enormous mounds of charcoal, or burnt hickory or some such honest-togoodness, homespun, darn-it, just plain good-fer-you kind of nonsense – and all because that’s the way Mr Jack insisted it had to be done.

To British eyes, there is sometimes a sneaking reminder of the more disturbing scenes from Deliverance in all that Southernness; it’s a little too reminiscent of news clips showing overweight, white sheriffs in the 1960s with dogs on chains determined to ensure only white Americans voted.

That, of course, is not the way Brown-Forman sees it. For B-F, Heron is a return to traditional values, a way of getting consumers to reconnect with the brand, and Heron will play a central role in its marketing; though not in the national television advertising campaign, created by Arnold Worldwide, part of the Havas group, which the company is running for the first time.

The campaign is part of a bigger effort to spur consumers to take more interest in Southern Comfort. 

Overall, the market for liqueur is doing pretty well in the US and recorded about $250 million profit last year. Southern Comfort is the second largest domestically-produced liqueur behind De Kuyper, and has seen nearly 10% growth over the past five years.

However, the overall volume of liqueur sold has increased by only just over 4% since 1999 and the drinks industry has been trying to tempt consumers back by boosting its television advertising.

Brown-Forman is also developing a radio and internet campaign around Heron, with the aim of shaking up perceptions of the brand a little.  After all, just about everybody knows its name, but a little dash of authenticity can really make all the difference.

The company has redesigned the bottle, making it a little slimmer and more modern-looking, but, after finding documents bearing Heron’s signature, it has added a raised rendition of that signature to the bottle and its security seal.  It is the first significant redesign of the bottle since 1936.

Executives at the company have spent two years finding out all they can about Heron in a journey which has taken them from the Louisiana bayous to Ireland, from where Heron’s family is believed to have emigrated in the nineteenth century.

Heron was born in St Louis, in 1850, the son of a shipbuilder and was originally called Martin Wilkes Heron, though he changed his middle name to Walker, possibly after John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln in 1865.

Heron became a bartender, serving the whiskey which was shipped down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans. Back then, though, the whiskey tended to be of pretty variable quality and it was part of Heron’s job to doctor the barrels a little to try to make it more palatable.

It was while doctoring one particular barrel, says the company, that Heron used a blend of spices and fruits to create a drink he called Cuffs and Buttons, in a New Orleans saloon.

He’d stumbled upon something folks liked, since it outsold its closest competitor, called White Tie and Tails, very comfortably indeed.  It was only after going along to a celebration of Southern heritage that Heron decided to change the name of his concoction to Southern Comfort and he even gave it a tagline; "The Grand Old Drink of the South".

Brown-Forman researchers followed Heron to Memphis, where he ran a bar off Beale Street, and then to St Louis where he ran a bar on the riverfront.  Frustratingly, one thing the company does not know about Heron is what he looked like.  It can find no photograph of him, but is willing to pay handsomely for anyone who can find one.  It has even offered a $10,000 reward for such a picture.

Nevertheless, its advertising is going ahead apace with commercials placing a strong emphasis on music and what the company calls real or genuine moments shared with friends.

The ads must appeal to an international audience, since 40% of Southern Comfort’s sales are outside the US, and they are aimed at 21 to 29-year-olds.  In one ad, "Train", a group of luggage-laden friends are staring at a station destination board, searching frantically for a train to Prague.

After a dash through the station they scramble on board the train just as it leaves. Settling into their carriage, they drink a Southern Comfort toast "To Prague", before hearing the conductor’s announcement that the train is in fact going to Barcelona.

Undeterred, the group toasts "Barcelona" instead.  Another ad, "Gift", features a group of young friends, as they unwrap presents of unvarying dullness, like a candle or an odd-looking sculpture. Finally, one unwraps a bottle of Southern Comfort and has to fight off all comers.

No doubt Martin Heron would have been proud of what became of his inventive talent but he’s long gone; he died in poverty in 1920.