Speciality spirits: making a name for themselves

IN ANY area of drinks marketing, it's tempting to place pigeons into snugly fitting pigeon holes. Throughout this feature you will find rough groupings of brands that can generally be considered sub-divisions of this sprawling category. However, there are several iconic names that defy categorisation. And, in turn, they define speciality spirits.

Few bartenders have ever been asked for "a blended whiskey flavoured with fruit and spice" or "a Scotch with herbs and spices" or a shot of "aniseed and herb and spice-flavoured liqueur". But this is essentially what Southern Comfort, Drambuie and Galliano are - and it's a safe bet they have heard those brand names uttered over the bar.

The tendency for these to be ordered with bar-calls is acknowledged by their brand owners to be both a blessing and a curse. The strength of these names means they have excellent, instant recognition with customers, but do the punters actually know what they are and how they should be drunk?

Bacardi, with the distribution of Southern Comfort and Drambuie, and Maxxium, with Galliano, believe one of their main challenges with these brands is imbuing publicans and consumers with understanding behind the bar-calls.

The answer, as ever, is in effective consumer marketing and communication of the brand to licensees.

Establishing SoCo

Southern Comfort has done the most prominent work in this field, establishing the 'SoCo' bar-call. Nigel Aitken, Southern Comfort marketing manager, says the SoCo marketing campaign launched last year, importing the abbreviation of Southern and Comfort from the US, has been a huge success.

He says: "Early research has shown that this has been an incredibly successful approach, with a venue in Sheffield already reporting a dramatic increase in sales of Southern Comfort as well as the number of customers requesting a 'SoCo' when ordering."

Giving it more of an identity behind the name has been crucial. To this end, Bacardi has targeted its core 18 to 24-year-old drinkers through events such as the sponsored Fat Tuesday music nights and the Big Chill festival. It has also aligned Southern Comfort with poker - increasingly a significant pub craze - through a 'Here's the Deal' poker promotion, which ran in the on-trade at the tail end of 2006.

Aitken stresses to licensees that Southern Comfort should be thought of as a cocktail ingredient - mixed with lemonade, as well as the traditional Coke serve, and as a component on cocktail lists.

Communicating the values

Drambuie, likewise, has plans to communicate the values behind the brand and how it should be thought of either side of the bar. The second Drambuie Pursuit - an adventure sports event involving white water rafting, mountain biking and cross country running - will take place for the second time in the Scottish Highlands in April.

Drambuie international marketing manager Miranda Rennie describes this as the "lynchpin" in getting the brand's message across to the average consumer, 28-year-old sporty males.

She urges the trade to treat Drambuie as a base for long refreshing drinks with soda - and to communicate this to punters.

It is imperative to build a greater understanding of the drink, rather than pubs stocking it purely because they recognise the brand name, believes Rennie.

"We are not a gin, vodka or whisky," she says. "Officially, we are a premium strength non-cream liqueur. However, if you pose the question 'what is Drambuie?' to consumers, it's much more difficult. The emotional hook has got to be there. That is something that we have struggled with in the past."

Getting Galliano noticed

Galliano, meanwhile, also acknowledges that there is much work to be done in making sure consumers know just what this speciality spirit is.

Its brand manager Catherine Meo says: "It's one of those things that not a lot of people know what to do with, even though every pub has a bottle on the back-bar.

"Galliano has had two major PR strokes of fortune which made it more mainstream, the Harvey Wallbanger and the Hot Shot. But now many seem to have forgotten that Galliano is even in a Wallbanger. We want to make it more premium."

With these aims in mind, Galliano is soon to re-launch and revert to its original recipe and higher 40 per cent ABV after these were changed eight years ago. It is also to launch a bartenders' education programme that will be based around Galliano cocktails created by star mixologist Wayne Collins.

It is these kinds of initiatives that drinks companies hope will provide a boost to speciality spirits. Without firm categories to define these spirits, it is down to brand owners to give your customers more than a residual understanding of them.

Only time will tell whether customers will be able to tell you what Southern Comfort, Drambuie or Galliano actually are.