As the CEO of retail marketing firm Two West, Ethan Whitehill has launched exciting new brands for some of the country’s biggest companies.
And now he’s doing it for himself: Whitehill recently started his own line of bourbon, Wicket & Peg. You can find it for sale at roughly 20 restaurants, bars and retail stores around Kansas City.
The idea for Wicket & Peg grew out of Two West’s work for clients in the liquor industry. For example, the firm recently helped The Roasterie and CLEAR10 Vodka debut Dizzy Three, a successful espresso-infused vodka. Whitehill and his team found they really enjoyed developing new brands in that sector.
“Through some of the work we’ve done with clients,” he said, “we realized we were having a lot of fun in the spirits category.”
And Whitehill saw an opening in the market. A lot of whiskey and bourbon brands emphasize their legacies, but in the process, they give off an older, moonshiner-prospector-cowboy vibe, he said.
Wicket & Peg wants to be less 1850s and more 1950s. The name is a croquet reference, and Whitehill said he wants his bourbon’s brand to evoke the feeling of playing badminton and other games in your family’s backyard on a warm summer day.
“Wicket & Peg as a brand is inspired by what I would kind of call that ‘epic backyard moment’ that you have during the best summer of your life,” Whitehill said.
That lighter feel could help Wicket & Peg attract more women and Millennials, who make up a growing share of the $3 billion market.
Wicket & Peg is produced at a farm distillery near Union, Mo., using ingredients grown on the property. While sustainability isn’t a big part of the brand’s overt message, its production emphasizes environmentally friendly methods.
So far, Whitehill and his team have promoted Wicket & Peg online and through a series of live tastings. They started in Kansas City, because customers here have a track record of supporting local, craft products. But the next step is becoming a statewide brand.
Creating Wicket & Peg has generated some side benefits for Two West, too. Whitehill was talking with some prospective clients the other day, and when the talk turned to distributors and in-store placements, he had a new appreciation for the topics.
“This is a project that just makes us better at what we do,” said Whitehill.
