The Telegraph is featuring Konik’s Tail success despite running on a shoe string budget. The Polish vodka brand couldn’t get funding because the vodka market was saturated. Instead, Pleurat Shabani bootstrapped his brand with private funding from friends and family, ultimately being voted as the most loved vodka by 50 top bars. Interesting to note, the label was designed and written by Hugh Laurie as a favor to Shabani’s wife, Laurie’s former PA.

The reason this is important: Like many vodka brands are finding out these days, if you focus on making an exceptional product, your product becomes your marketing and your customers become your advertisers.