New Diageo products to be brand extensions

Related tags Diageo great britain Diageo Whisky

Diageo Great Britain's managing director of has suggested that new launches from the company are likely to take the form of extensions to existing...

Diageo Great Britain's managing director of has suggested that new launches from the company are likely to take the form of extensions to existing brands, rather than wholly new products.

Benet Slay said he believes this is the most effective way of growing the company and the spirits category in the on-trade.

Speaking in a presentation to analysts earlier this week, he said: "We are making significant progress in the innovation space. It would be fair to say that a few years ago, we were trying to develop innovation that was new to the world and finding ways of creating new innovation.

"Now, we have moved the lens in closer to developing innovation where we know we can leverage strength we already have in the market place."

He cited Baileys Flavours, mint and crème caramel variants of the cream liqueur, and Smirnoff Flavours, fruit variants of the vodka currently testing in the Bristol on-trade. In contrast, in 2007, Diageo got its fingers burnt when it was forced to pull stand-alone RTD products Quinn's and Slate 20.

Adding that he believes "the on-trade will rebound in the longer term," Slay said that Diageo was focusing on whole categories of spirits, rather than on individual brands.

"We are developing a category vision and have a number of platforms to drive spirits performance," he said.

These are based around "ease of shop" initiatives such as Diageo's malt whisky flavour profile chart the Malt Map, "which make it easier for customers to choose the category", and "everyday relevance" initiatives. These are concerned with extending the appeal of spirits that are otherwise consumed at specific times of the day or year, and include Diageo's "Raise Your Spirits" below-the-line advertising.

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