Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Episode 61: Margaritaville Holdings Co-Founder & CEO John Cohlan
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Episode 61: Margaritaville Holdings Co-Founder & CEO John Cohlan
“Margaritaville: How a Song Became a Brand” John Cohlan, Co-Founder and CEO of Margaritaville Holdings explains the creation and enduring value of singer Jimmy Buffet’s successful multi-billion-dollar brand, before a November 21, 2024 meeting of The Economic Club of Florida.
Show Notes (for complete Show Notes, please visit https://economic-club.com/podcasts_and_summaries)
Dr. Jeff Sharkey of The Capitol Alliance Group introduced Mr. Cohlan but first had the club members put their hands on top of their heads in the iconic “Fins Up” salute.
Mr. Cohlan showed a video featuring Jimmy Buffett and people talking about the lifestyle they experienced at his Margaritaville franchise locations. He then explained how Buffett, whose hit songs include the iconic “Margaritaville,” expanded his recording career into what has become that franchise. The beginning was very humble – Buffett began seeing T-shirts sold in Key West with his name spelled wrong.
“It really all began because Jimmy was so annoyed that his name was being spelled wrong, which is pretty crazy,” said Mr. Cohlan. “So Jimmy was an entrepreneurial guy. And there he was in Key West, and he was just getting going, and all of a sudden, he noticed that there were people in Key West selling T- shirts with his name on them with one T instead of two T’s. And he basically said to himself, you know, I should rip myself off, because other people are ripping me off.”
Buffett built a T-shirt shop, then a bar and a restaurant. That’s all that existed in 1997 when Universal Studios in Orlando called and wanted to build a 25,000-square foot Margaritaville restaurant at the entrance to its theme park.
Buffett didn’t want to just license the name, he wanted to build a company and brand, so he called John Cohlan to come down from New York. They did market research and found that the word Margaritaville had a 50-60% recognition.
Mr. Cohlan said people would answer “’Oh, it's a great song. It's that guy, Jimmy Buffett. It's the place I want to be. It's a hammock.’” No one said, ‘Oh, it's that restaurant in Key West.’ So Margaritaville had a product. It had a product and the product was an emotion.”
“And the lesson of a lot of what's happened here is that an emotion can travel to many more places than a product,” Mr. Cohlan added. “The reason we can be the number one coconut shrimp in America, in your Publix store, and also the leading Active Living brand where you want to go and spend the back nine of your life at a Latitude Margaritaville destination is because Margaritaville stands for an emotion, and that emotion is something that is based on the fact that he was such a unique person, and through his music and really the way he lived his life, everyone said ‘I want to live that life.’”
Universal built a model of the proposed restaurant and invited Buffett and Cohlan to look at it. They arrived and met the executives, who were dressed in suits, while Buffett was dressed in shorts.
“Jimmy Buffett is looking at this big, $12 million restaurant model, and everyone's holding their breath, and... (for the rest of the Show Notes, please visit https://economic-club.com/podcasts_and_summaries) A TeleDirections podcast
View all episodes
By Economic Club of Florida
5
11 ratings
“Margaritaville: How a Song Became a Brand” John Cohlan, Co-Founder and CEO of Margaritaville Holdings explains the creation and enduring value of singer Jimmy Buffet’s successful multi-billion-dollar brand, before a November 21, 2024 meeting of The Economic Club of Florida.
Show Notes (for complete Show Notes, please visit https://economic-club.com/podcasts_and_summaries)
Dr. Jeff Sharkey of The Capitol Alliance Group introduced Mr. Cohlan but first had the club members put their hands on top of their heads in the iconic “Fins Up” salute.
Mr. Cohlan showed a video featuring Jimmy Buffett and people talking about the lifestyle they experienced at his Margaritaville franchise locations. He then explained how Buffett, whose hit songs include the iconic “Margaritaville,” expanded his recording career into what has become that franchise. The beginning was very humble – Buffett began seeing T-shirts sold in Key West with his name spelled wrong.
“It really all began because Jimmy was so annoyed that his name was being spelled wrong, which is pretty crazy,” said Mr. Cohlan. “So Jimmy was an entrepreneurial guy. And there he was in Key West, and he was just getting going, and all of a sudden, he noticed that there were people in Key West selling T- shirts with his name on them with one T instead of two T’s. And he basically said to himself, you know, I should rip myself off, because other people are ripping me off.”
Buffett built a T-shirt shop, then a bar and a restaurant. That’s all that existed in 1997 when Universal Studios in Orlando called and wanted to build a 25,000-square foot Margaritaville restaurant at the entrance to its theme park.
Buffett didn’t want to just license the name, he wanted to build a company and brand, so he called John Cohlan to come down from New York. They did market research and found that the word Margaritaville had a 50-60% recognition.
Mr. Cohlan said people would answer “’Oh, it's a great song. It's that guy, Jimmy Buffett. It's the place I want to be. It's a hammock.’” No one said, ‘Oh, it's that restaurant in Key West.’ So Margaritaville had a product. It had a product and the product was an emotion.”
“And the lesson of a lot of what's happened here is that an emotion can travel to many more places than a product,” Mr. Cohlan added. “The reason we can be the number one coconut shrimp in America, in your Publix store, and also the leading Active Living brand where you want to go and spend the back nine of your life at a Latitude Margaritaville destination is because Margaritaville stands for an emotion, and that emotion is something that is based on the fact that he was such a unique person, and through his music and really the way he lived his life, everyone said ‘I want to live that life.’”
Universal built a model of the proposed restaurant and invited Buffett and Cohlan to look at it. They arrived and met the executives, who were dressed in suits, while Buffett was dressed in shorts.
“Jimmy Buffett is looking at this big, $12 million restaurant model, and everyone's holding their breath, and... (for the rest of the Show Notes, please visit https://economic-club.com/podcasts_and_summaries) A TeleDirections podcast