Lessons of History (I)

"IN THIS JET-AGE CENTURY fortunes are made at the turn of a wheel, lost at the drop of a share index, men become millionaires in a year and great businesses mushroom up from nothing in a matter of months.

Yet the twentieth century tycoon has by no means created a precedent or established a monopoly on the romance of a quick fortune and the creation of a business empire. Many staid Victorians did something very much like It.. . . a little more unobtrusively, perhaps, but with a vigour and relentless opportunism which has earned the Un-dying admiration of those who followed them.

The tall, distinguished young Scotsman who rather dourly began a business career in 1879 as London agent for a well-known firm in the whisky trade, might have remained just that. If he hadn’t realised that at that time London and indeed the rest of England was an untapped market for bottled Scotch whisky.

Whiskies available to Londoners then were chiefly Irish and ‘self’ whiskies heavy Highland and Lowland malts brought in casks from individual Scottish distillers.

He chose his blend well, and bottled it under the name ‘Buchanan Blend.’ It is no exaggeration to say that ‘Buchanan Blend’ changed the picture of the entire Scotch Whisky trade. Each distillery produced whisky of a different character and flavour, but with ‘Buchanan Blend’ came a bottled Scotch which could be absolutely relied on for consistency and quality.

All Buchanan had set out to do was to capture a reasonable proportion of the London spirit trade. He ended up by making Scotch Whisky a universal drink.

From his foresight and shrewd judgment the taste for Scotch of a known proprietary brand evolved at a tremendous rate.

Then came his second stroke of luck - He marketed ‘Buchanan Blend’ in a black bottle, with a neat white label.

For a short spell, the actual name changed: to ‘Buchanan’s House of Commons’ Scotch Whisky,’ commemorating Buchanan’s first notable step on the road to success. . . . a contract to supply, against keen competition, the House of Commons with whisky. This was in 1885, not so long after Buchanan started in business.

But despite the name change, the bottle was still black, the label still white. And this was how Buchanan hit the jackpot.

For the people of England, in general, didn’t ask for the Buchanan Brand by name - They merely said: ‘Have you got any of that black and white whisky?’

Without knowing it, the public had created one of the most famous and enduring spirit brand names in the world: ‘Black and White’ Whisky.

But James Buchanan had other ideas. He saw the potentiality for a blend ‘sufficiently light and old to please the palate of the (English) user,’ to quote his own words.

Buchanan quickly realised the publicity potential of the new brand name, and just as quickly adopted it.

It was a shrewd move.. . . within a remarkably short time, ‘Black and White’ backed up later by the trademark of a Black Scots terrier and a White West Highland terrier, became famous from end to end of the world.

He advertised widely, in trains and on the sides of buses as well as in newspapers and smart magazines. And he was not afraid to spend money on advertising...."

(Excerpt of an article written in the Illustrated Bristol News 1961)