The Patron Way: From Fantasy to Fortune

By Ilana Edelstein

Just above the actual title of the book, these words are splashed: “The Untold Inside Story of the World’s Most Successful Tequila”

It sort of is.

I received this book from McGraw Hill to review – they asked and I accepted. Why? I thought the story sounded interesting, I knew nothing about the story, and I have enjoyed a few sips of Patron over the last few years – and I don’t even like tequila.

The book is written by a person very involved in the formation and development of Patron as a brand, starting in 1989. While I thought it would be a book on business and marketing, it is more and less than that.

Mostly it is a memoir of the life of the author up through her involvement with the brand. In this way it is fascinating, as the life she led in relationship to the building of the first ultra-premium tequila was fast-paced, glamorous and at some points almost hard to believe. Because of the lifestyle, parts of the book read more like a novel (and to be honest a pretty spicy one – the meek or conservative might beware). While I wasn’t reading for that purpose, the style and substance made this a nice summer read.

The subtitle promises that the book is about the story of the building of the brand. The book does this, in between the personal and lifestyle stuff. To be honest, the author talks about how her life and the brand were intermixed – the writing style certainly supports that assertion.

There are lessons in this book about marketing and brand building, as well as building a business and managing partnerships, but they aren’t always front and center.

In the end, the book had some interesting lessons and was a fun read. Perhaps most of all, now I want to read more about the history of this very successful brand.