Chief executive Phil Parnell said: “At its core, this strategy is based on moving beyond the conventional after-dinner liqueur-drinking occasion, introducing a younger generation of consumers to a much more versatile product, with relevance to today’s modern lifestyle.”
The new management team, led by Parnell, took over running the company in 2005. It turned the former family-owned and managed company around, reducing debt and moving the company into operating profit. Over the last three years, the hitherto 20 year decline of the Drambuie brand was arrested.
Marketing director, Miranda Rennie said that the company carried out market research to ascertain what 25 to 35-year-old consumers are looking for in their drinks portfolio. They identified Jack Daniels and gin and tonic as popular drinks among this core market for long drinks and cocktails. By promoting Drambuie with fresh lime, ginger ale or cranberry, they hope to put it in the frame for the targeted consumers.
Drambuie unusually, almost uniquely among major liqueur brands, has a strong male element among its consumer base due to its Scotch whisky content. Parnell and Rennie do not want to alienate Drambuie’s traditional consumers but they need to breathe new life into the brand. It is undoubtedly one of the major liqueur brands and is probably still a ‘must-stock’ item in most bars but for 20 years has been increasingly gathering dust.
The new packaging will be introduced to all markets by the end of 2009. There is TV, cinema and press advertising to kick off the new look in the UK.
