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LIQUOR MARKETING
Although ostensibly the brandy
industry is united in uplifting the
category under the SABF banner, in
reality producers are still going very
much their own ways. “The industry is
not pulling together as it should,” says
Hooper, echoing a common view.
For example, dissention is clearly
evident between Distell and another
sector heavyweight, KWV. “Distell is
discounting heavily with its Klipdrift,
Commando and Viceroy brands,” claims
DeBruyn Steenkamp, Commercial
Director at Paarl-based KWV.
But Distell’s Holdcroft argues that
holding prices is not discounting prices. and broadening its market appeal
Whatever the merits of the case,
Steenkamp responds: “It means there
are still brandies selling at R100 a
bottle. It fosters the image of brandy
as a poor man’s drink. Brandy will not
get out of the [starting blocks] while
this continues.”
KWV’s emphasis is firmly on
promoting the premium nature of its
brandies sold under the KWV brand.
“Our focus is on promoting an image of
quality and heritage for our brandies,”
Steenkamp tells the IMM Journal of
Strategic Marketing. “Quality and
heritage is KWV’s motto and appears
on all our products.”
In 2015, the company threw its
weight behind marketing its 10-year
old pot still (highest quality) brandy.
“It worked well,” says Steenkamp. “In
our year to March 2016, the 10-year
vintage’s sales volume lifted [by] 7%
and its revenue [by] 18%.”
For competitor Distell, one of the
challenges is that it must market
a diverse lineup of 14 brands. “We
considered rationalising our brands
three years ago and opted not to do
so,” notes the company’s Holdcroft.
“We see our advantage as having
brands catering for specific consumer
segments. But it does make allocating
marketing spend a challenge.”
26 strategicmarketing August–September 2016
?
Right: A brandy
tasting event in
Soweto. Far right:
South African
consumers walk
past a billboard
for French-based
Bisquit Cognac
NEW BRANDING FOCUS
Distell’s strategy has been to
concentrate marketing spend on its top-
selling brands. High priority has been
given to its bestseller, Klipdrift, where
the focus is on emphasising its quality
beyond the traditional ‘Klippies and
Coke’ brigade of brandy drinkers.
“We will still sponsor the Springbok
rugby team, but we are slowly changing
the nature of our advertising to talk to a
new and younger group of consumers,”
says Holdcroft. New target consumers
include those in the affluent black
middle class.
Oude Meester has also been given
a makeover. “It was seen as an old
Afrikaans brand,” Holdcroft explains.
“We had to make it relevant again.”
Distell set about doing this in a 2011
marketing campaign in which local
and international celebrities Jamie
Foxx, Idris Elba and Siyabonga Radebe
featured prominently. It worked. Oude
Meester is now the company’s biggest-
selling premium brand in volume terms.
Distell has more up its sleeve. “Our
packaging is getting better and better,”
says Holdcroft. “More things will also start sells for about R700 and a similar
to happen in innovation. We have already
launched a new flavoured Klipdrift.”
REBRANDING BRANDY
However, there is a strong school of
? PHOTOS: GETTY/GALLO IMAGES, SUPPLIED
The industry is
not as united
as it should be
thought within the brandy industry
that to achieve a complete makeover
requires a radical approach. It would
entail a new image for the spirit based
on its geographic region of origin.
The concept calls for the brandy
industry to emulate what French cognac
producers have achieved by shifting
completely away from any reference
to the generic term ‘brandy’.
Cognac produced in France is a
perfect example of this strategy. It has
long enjoyed protection under French
law, preventing brandy that is produced
outside the country’s Cognac region
from using the name ‘cognac’ anywhere
in their branding.
“Many people do not even realise
that cognac is actually brandy [by
another name],” points out Edward
Snell’s Iain Hooper. The resultant
exclusivity of cognac has resulted in
its super-premiumisation.
“A bottle of 12-year-old Van Ryn’s
French cognac for at least twice that
price,” observes Van Ryn’s Brandy
Master, Marlene Bester.