Refreshing Ideas
The world changes just like consumers do,
and with audiences ever-evolving, the alcohol marketplace has changed – the difference between Generation X, born in the days preceding the digital revolution and concerned with career success and material gains – and the increasingly influential millennial generation is huge. Savvy brands are seeing this, and shifting to meet demand accordingly.
Looking back to go forward
Invigorating a drink’s image, presenting it in
a different way, and adapting its story to target
a new kind of consumer are now crucial when
it comes to driving a brand forward. Look at how gin has exploded over the last few years: thanks to a renewed focus on the spirit – down in part
to the emergence of new heritage-based brands with forward-thinking attitudes – this once-dated drink is now at the forefront of the alcohol market, a staple spirit on any cocktail list worth
its margarita salt, and not showing any signs of diminishing in popularity whatsoever.
Free spirits
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out
that this new kind of consumer will respond
best to new methods of communication
– the challenge is cracking the content question: how do you promote an old product to a new market? The starting point is to look
at the drinking habitsof a new audience.
Let's look at Hennessy. It's a brand with over
250 years of tradition, historically associated
with luxury and prestige. Today, the dated image of mature men in suits is giving way
to a more dynamic view of a younger crowd enjoying light and fruity cognac-based cocktails in cool bars across London. It’s made the transition from a serious spirit served neat to a key cocktail ingredient at the trendiest venues – a go-to for its flexible nature as much as its storied history.
Based on this trend, new low-percentage
and alcohol-free brands are appearing
on the market. Californian brand Haus
is advertised as "lighter than beer, easier
to understand than wine – and way less
sugary than those European liqueurs".
It’s a new spin on hard liquor, and brings
the fusty image of dark spirits up to date for
a new consumer. Celtic Soul from the Pernod Ricard portfolio is another alcohol-free dark spirit, while the Strykk brand, founded by Funkin Cocktails founder Alex Carlton, features Strykk Not Gin – a botanical blend that’s alcohol free. This shift to ‘clean drinking’
is one that brands cannot afford to ignore.
Thinking outside the box - or bottle - can be the difference between a brand staying where it is
or surging forward and entering new markets.
To find out more about how to attract new consumers to your brand, please contact us
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How alcohol brands are evolving to target new audiences
T
Craft beer, too, has exploded – again, it’s the
case of an age-old drink repackaged for a new generation, a generation that wants a back
story, but wants it in a contemporary way.
The overriding message from these lighter, more refreshing serves is that there is nothing positive in intoxication – there’s
now an overwhelming focus on wellbeing
and wiser drinking.
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lifetime
Global players such as the Italian Campari
Group, UK-based Diageo and French Pernod Ricard are also looking for ways to refresh
the image of their strong brands. Light aperitifs
– of which Aperol Spritz is probably the most popular – have become an ideal way to reach
a new market. Indeed, Aperol-branded orange cups and sun umbrellas are now pretty much
a summer staple in pub gardens. You can even get sunglasses to match. When you consider
that just a few years ago this was a relatively unheard-of drink in the UK, that’s a marketing masterstroke.
Habit of a lifetime
The beer industry, too, has evolved to target
a new consumer, with craft brews pretty much leading the way when it comes to
go-to beers for a younger generation.
The image of aromatic IPAs or refreshing weizen beers being the sole domain of old-school CAMRA members has been well and truly cast aside – nowadays inventive beers are brewed by hipster kids under arches
in Peckham, millennials cram into tap rooms in Hackney, and if you don’t know your saison from your stout, well, you can’t come in.
Crafty ideas
In short, it’s a sector of the alcohol industry that’s been wholeheartedly adopted by the millennial market and, unsurprisingly, a surge in demand for low-alcohol and non-alcoholic beers has followed, from the likes of Big Drop Brewing Co, which only produces 0.5% brews, and Peroni Libera 0, 0% from Asahi's portfolio.
While what’s IN the bottle is crucial, how it
looks is now just as important when it comes to catching the eye of a new audience – an audience for whom taking a photograph of a drink is as commonplace as actually drinking it.
Some brands consciously focus on a specific colour or shape of a bottle to reach a specific group of consumers. Moët & Chandon champagne works powerfully with pink, gin Pinkster has invested in a new bottle design that shows off the drink’s rosey tones, and Asombroso La Rosa tequila is packaged in
a way that tells the story of the drink inside
– sweet, floral and distinctive. These products are designed for a social media savvy generation – they’re made specifically
to be snapped and shared.
The big picture
It doesn’t have to be a total overhaul
– heritage brand Cointreau has recently launched a revamped bottle to mark its 170th anniversary, and it’s a clever way to repackage but not totally rebrand: the label, conceived by iconic French interior designer Vincent Darre,
is limited edition, and likely to catch the eye
of a new, design-focussed consumer. It appeals
to a changing demographic without losing sight
of what the drink is all about, and that’s the goal any brand looking to reach new markets should be trying to achieve.
It’s not just about ‘what’ this generation
is consuming – it’s also very much about
the ‘how’. As the swathe of new experimental cocktail bars and craft beer joints across the UK attests, consuming alcohol is now less about getting drunk,
and more about new experiences, social encounters and discovery, and alcohol brands need to join the movement.
Haus
Celtic Soul
Strykk
The key to the boom? Highlighting to the new generation of information-hungry consumers that this is a spirit with serious history that’s still perfect for a modern market.
Big Drop Brewing
Peroni Libera
Pinkster
Ambroso
Cointreau
Haus
Celtic Soul
Strykk
Big Drop Brewing
Peroni Libera
Pinkster
Ambroso
Cointreau
Big Drop
Peroni
Big Drop
Peroni
Haus
Celtic Soul
Strykk