Interview: Ken Grier, man behind the success of The Macallan and Highland Park

Although thousands of miles and an ocean separate them, the Canadian, a 40-something professional, chose The Macallan as her favourite tipple – and Grier, director of malts for whisky firm Edrington, would have had a lot to do with her choice.

Grier drives the global marketing machine behind Edrington's two single malt brands – the Speyside Macallan and the Orkney-distilled Highland Park.

Last week, Grier was crowned "marketing star of the year" by the Marketing Society at an industry awards bash in Edinburgh. This follows his winning of the "Diageo trophy for outstanding achievement in the Scotch whisky industry" in 2007, awarded by the International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC) – which must have been even better for having been sponsored by one of Edrington's great rivals.

The unassuming marketer takes the increasing number of accolades in his stride, often shrugging off direct praise and deflecting it to his close-knit team. But he is quick to point out what marketing has done for his brands – growing market share and profit in one of the fiercest markets in decades.

"Our results are pretty good," says Grier. "We have outperformed our market segment by three per cent. And we have grown our profit by double digit in the brands (in the year ended March 2010]."

But what Grier has really pulled off is ensuring The Macallan, and to a lesser extent, Highland Park, has become a luxury brand in its own right. People still pay for luxury brands, even in recessionary times. Grier points out that, while other malts, including Glenlivet and Glenfiddich, have cut their prices, he hasn't.

"Last year we kept our nerve on price," he says. "We have a luxury commodity and to be frank we are not going to price down.

"With The Macallan, 60 per cent of the flavour comes from the quality of the cask we mature it in. We pay five times more than anybody else."

Instead of smaller prices, Edrington tweaked the size of bottles for the first time. Smaller 375ml bottles of 18-year-old whisky allowed buyers to "remain in the brand rather than downtrading", while a 1.75l of 12-year-old for $100 was released to tempt the buyer stocking up until the crisis had passed.

What Grier will never discuss is the size of his marketing budget, but he clearly has to do more with less than many of his competitors in the drinks industry.

"What we do is we believe in being contrarian. A lot of what we build is case by case, drink by drink, word of mouth by word of mouth. We are very much smaller than the big guys Diageo and Pernod, we have to stand out and be distinctive."

This involves a lot of world travel – Grier spends one week a month in cities across the world including Moscow, Taipei, Singapore. He has a few tricks up his sleeve, but for the most part Edrington's malts are driven by an endless round of hard-working tastings and events.

"Education is a strong part of it. That is when the story of the wood comes into it. You taste the product against other benchmark products. That is really important. You have to get people to buy it, to have the right faith in it, to see their friends drinking it and make it sexy. Then once they start drinking the word of mouth kicks in."

But building a global brand by word of mouth alone is not his only method. Grier also has a flair for garnering headlines – and cachet – that belies his small budget.

Last year Grier won both cheers and jeers for his work with photographer Rankin. Grier's Masters of Photography Campaign paired 1,000 bottles of 30-year-old "Fine Oak" Macallan labelled with one of 1,000 commissioned photos by Rankin, many featuring the photographer's nude model wife Tuuli. Buyers – who can pay anywhere from 750 to 1,000 per bottle – get the whisky plus the original Polaroid.

Some criticised it as a stunt that merely added hundreds of pounds on to the price by slapping on a label and calling it "art". But Grier disagrees and says it was a big success, pointing out that the plan won almost $2m worth of publicity.

In fact he liked it so much, he is doing it again. Earlier this month, Grier unveiled the second Masters of Photography project, this time with US-based photographer Albert Watson.

Although both photographers are Scots – London-based Rankin is from Paisley, while Watson was born in Edinburgh – the New York-based snapper is arguably higher profile.

But not all is going well in the high-end photography world. Watson's prints of a naked Kate Moss shot in Marrakech in 1993 failed to make its 20,000 reserve price at an auction at Christies last week. Albeit Watson's print of a clothed Uma Thurman sold for 6,250.

For Grier the link with art and whisky brings it to a more youthful, glamorous market.

But other tie-ups – with car-maker Bentley and French glass maker Lalique – ensure that the brand is appealing to high fliers, particularly in Taiwan and China where the economy is still performing well – and Macallan is one of the leading malt brands.

He says: "Price leadership in those markets connotes quality. It gets acceptability, you have a great product that people recommend to their friends."

DRAM FINE CAREER

KEN Grier, 52, has worked with Edrington and its previous incarnation, Highland Distillers, for more than ten years in several roles, including global marketing controller for Famous Grouse and European zone director.

In 2001 he was promoted to brands director for the group's brands, which include Famous Grouse, The Macallan and Highland Park. Following a company restructure in 2004, Grier was given the role of director of malts.

Before Edrington he spent five years with foods group United Biscuits where he worked for a variety of well-known food and drinks brands including McCain Foods, Bernard Matthews, Strongbow Cider and McVities.

He also spent a brief stint as UK marketing director for Lego.

Grier was born in Dumfries in 1958. He studied business studies at Edinburgh University. He is married and has three children