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There's a way of thinking about things like "Tennessee Whiskey" and "champagne" that makes good business sense: They're basically shared regional brands. In Eu
by ekidd 11y ago
There's a way of thinking about things like "Tennessee Whiskey" and "champagne" that makes good business sense: They're basically shared regional brands.
In Europe, many traditional kinds of cheese, alcohol and meat are covered by a system known in various countries as AOC (France, Appellation d'origine contrôlée) or DOC (Italy, Denominazione di origine controllata). Conceptually speaking, the idea goes something like:
1. Large-scale producers can always just create a trademark and market it. Customers will be able to recognize the product and evaluate it based on its reputation.
2. Small-scale producers, however, lack the reach to advertise and be recognized on their own. But what if they're making a traditional, high-end product for which their region is famous? Well, we could set up a shared "brand", where anybody from the right region can agree to follow traditional recipes and have their quality judged. And eventually, customers will realize that Parmigiano-Reggiano means "a certain kind of really good traditional Parmesan cheese from Italy."
Under this system, the right way to think of things like "champagne" and "Tennessee Whiskey" is to treat them as a particular kind of brand. Any company can sell products under this brand, provided (a) they come from the right region, and (b) they meet a certain set of quality standards.
The system of AOC/DOC seems to work well for both "foodie" customers (who want to be able to recognize a high-quality traditional product), and small- to mid-size producers (who get to pool their branding efforts). The only cost of this system is that names like "Tennessee Whiskey" essentially become international trademarks under the control of a regional organization.
- patrickaljord 11y agoThe only problem with that is that there might be producers outside these regions who produce better quality products, these producers will be penalized for not being able to use the actual product name and may give up on it, leaving the market worse off, with lower quality products. The other problem is that producers who benefit from the regional brand name have very little reason to improve or even maintain the quality of their product as they have a monopoly on it.
- nickpsecurity 11y agoThat's probably true given it already happens with brand names in general.
- patrickaljord 11y agoExactly, except it's even more unfair in this case because when Apple or Google release software, at least they wrote the source code. In this case we're talking about recipes that have existed since centuries and are in the public domain yet only people who happen to live there can call them what they are.
- nickpsecurity 11y agoI agree. Your point is supported by the fact that the only reason it's there is to make money for groups who paid politicians to be represented in the negotiation that the rest of us couldn't participate in.
- maxerickson 11y agoAs long as they aren't prevented from saying that they are distilling a Tennessee style whiskey, someone making such an amazing product shouldn't have any trouble. Nods to tradition can certainly go too far, but I like allowing the regional names to be a little exclusive.
- smhinsey 11y agoThis is what Jack Daniels does and it doesn't seem to hurt them any.
- steve-howard 11y agoThat's not really what happens with alcohol products, though. Bourbon, for example, has specific requirements on the proportion of corn used, the barrels it's aged in, what proof it's distilled to, etc. There's a wide range of Bourbon and most of it is good, and that doesn't mean other parts of the world can't compete in the liquor market.
- RobertoG 11y agoI don't think that's the real problem. I have my doubts that "better quality products" is really a thing beyond a point. Most of people can't distinguish so subtle details and they really don't care. Just want "the better". The problem we see, if it is a problem, is that regions with big demand buy the product to regions with worst brand and then sell it as their our. A lot of the Italian olive oil comes from Spain. A lot of wine get the grape from other regions.. things like that. Not really a problem, I suppose, just a lie.
- Alex3917 11y ago> The only problem with that is that there might be producers outside these regions who produce better quality products, these producers will be penalized for not being able to use the actual product name and may give up on it Not being allowed to lie isn't a penalty. E.g. if you are raising pigs in Texas you shouldn't be allowed to label your product as being "Ham from Italy." Whether or not it tastes better is completely irrelevant.
- patrickaljord 11y ago> E.g. if you are raising pigs in Texas you shouldn't be allowed to label your product as being "Ham from Italy." What happens when the name of the product _is_ the name of the region though. For example, Champagne or Parmesan? Giving your product another name clearly disadvantages you.
- ekidd 11y agoLet's consider a US buyer of Parmesan: I have a choice between regular "Parmesan cheese", which is held to no particular standards in the US, and "Parmigiano-Reggiano", which is both expensive and (IMO) predictably delicious. Parmigiano-Reggiano is good because there are regional standards. As a customer, I know what I'm buying. This is the whole idea of a brand: It provides useful information to customers. In the case of champagne, I'm usually unwilling to pay for the regional "brand." Instead, I often buy "cava," which is another regional AOC for sparkling wine, this one run by producers in Catalonia (and elsewhere in Spain). It's a bit cheaper, which is probably less than ideal for the producers, but I still know more or less what I'm getting. You could argue that one or the other of these two situations is less than optimal. But as a customer, I find that AOCs and DOCs generally help me buy products I'll like. And since it would be hard for the producers of "Tennessee Whiskey" to enforce their agreed-upon quality standards on a company in New Zealand, it does make a certain amount of sense to limit participation geographically.
- patrickaljord 11y ago> I have a choice between regular "Parmesan cheese", which is held to no particular standards in the US, and "Parmigiano-Reggiano" What if nobody bothers making quality "Parmigiano-Reggiano" in the US because they know it is close to impossible to compete against the brand name and the margin are not worth it to even try? Maybe, if Americans were allowed to call theirs "Parmigiano-Reggiano" they'd put a lot more effort into making it high quality given that they'd have a much bigger chance of making a profit.
- digikata 11y agoSo why wouldn't that high quality provider simply create their own brand identity at that point. Brand X, an interpretation of Region Ys cheese or wine or whatever...