Duo Aims for Women to Feel Seen, Acknowledged as Consumers in the Whiskey Space

Natasha McCrea and Sheila Jackson, founding partners of Jackson McCrea Whiskey, a whiskey brand start-up, aim to go beyond traditional gender roles in the industry. Both think that although women have been drinking whiskey since its inception, it has not been marketed to them.

Jackson McCrea is aiming for a pre-holiday release in 2022. They launched a Kickstarter campaign for their whiskey, which ran through mid-August, to assist with production and marketing costs.

McCrea is a serial entrepreneur, entertainer and the founder of Love CEO Institute, a personal development company for women. Jackson is a writer/author, producer and entrepreneur. She’s also the founder of Eve’s Lime Productions, known for its predominantly female creative teams and crews.

“There are women who are coming into the spirits industry, certainly,” said Jackson. “There's still not a lot comparatively speaking, but we're really looking at this from a consumer standpoint – for women to be seen in the whiskey space. We looked at the research and it shows that 78 percent of the imagery whiskey labels used to advertise feature men, and that's not something that's going to speak to the broad spectrum of people who are drinking whiskey.”

The duo aims to have women feel seen and acknowledged as consumers in the space and not just the woman on the arm of the strong man who drinks his shot of whiskey. “Going beyond the supportive role that we see in commercials,” laughed McCrea.

Breaking the Male Dominated Focus

McCrea said that historically the whiskey industry has been male dominated. “We've had a lot of women show up and have a conversation, which is that they love whiskey, when they wouldn't have had the space to even have that conversation before,” she said.

The two entrepreneurs pointed out that women were the rum runners during Prohibition because they couldn't be searched by police. “Women have always drank whiskey and been a part of the transporting and sale of whiskey during Prohibition,” said Jackson. “But for some reason, it's culturally not been seen as a drink for women. Like Natasha often says – there's no trouble showing women drinking and enjoying wine, for instance, or some fruity drink with an umbrella or other decorative ornament in it. That's the girl drink.”

Jackson McCrea Whiskey
Sheila Jackson and Natasha McCrea of Jackson McCrea Whiskey (Photo: Courtesy of Jackson McCrea Whiskey)

Jackson McCrea recently created The JM Social Impact Fund for industry women; their objective in creating it is to be able to enjoy life as business leaders, not run themselves ragged, and take time for self-care. They strive for their whiskey company to follow that mission, too.

“The JM 100 is a collective of women leaders and other disrupters that we have brought on board to be part of our social impact advisory, so that we can continue year after year moving into: How can we serve women and wellness? How can we bring that to the forefront of our business?” asked McCrea.

Jackson and McCrea are choosing 100 women leaders. There's a lifetime membership of $1,000. They’ll have a women and wellness retreat yearly, and members will get VIP access to their new offerings. Jackson added that a portion of that membership fee will go to their social impact fund, and members will be part of a think tank, making decisions about how that fund is utilized.

Advice for On-Premise Venues

Jackson said they just want the on-premise venues to catch up in terms of their views about who drinks what – if they have gender related judgments about this. “Women want equal pours; if they order whiskey neat, we do not [want to be] stereotyped when we're in those spaces.”

McCrea used to work in on-premise promotion as a model who went out to various venues or events. The models were appealing to the men's perspective with the things that they wore and who they were told to talk to. They went into the bars very much catering and appealing to the men, she explained.

Her advice to on-premise venues is to always be inclusive. “Women like a BFF approach, and I found that I sold more when I had more of a BFF approach to the women, because women were buying themselves drinks,” McCrea said. “I sold more when I opened up to speaking to the women in addition to men. So, if we're sending people into traditional on-premise situations, just be inclusive and understand that women like certain drinks. They like whiskey neat, not necessarily just the mixed cocktail.”

Trends Related to Whiskey

Jackson said in California and other states there’s been more of a push or trend to move more toward online sales, e-commerce and ordering alcohol direct from restaurants. “That's one trend we're keeping our eye on because we're aiming for high powered women, women who are raising families, building teams and running companies,” she added. “We want the convenience of being able to order online.”

McCrea said one of the trends she’s enjoying is barrel finishing. She likes seeing that and trying whiskeys that have a little something more to it than just the traditional whiskey barrel.

To learn more about Jackson McCrea Whiskey, visit JacksonMccreaWhiskey.com.

Erin Flynn Jay is a reporter and publicist based in Philadelphia. She’s a contributor to Questex’s Bar & Restaurant and World Tea News, and some of her other writing credits include Next Avenue and Woman’s World, among many others.

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