Premiumisation is a key trend that the alco-bev industry is witnessing: Vijay Dev

Founded in 1846 by John Dewar, John Dewar & Sons Ltd has grown from a small wine and spirit merchant shop in Perth, Scotland, to become a globally renowned and celebrated scotch whisky that is enjoyed around the world. We have often seen, heard, experienced alcohol brands leveraging pillars such as music, comedy and social media to engage with consumers. However, that wasn’t the case with Dewar’s. Innovative and premium, Dewar’s is a brand that has always focused on creating an enhanced experience for its discerning consumers, thus, becoming an integral part of every occasion and celebration. Keeping the consumers at heart, the brand found its niche with the growing trend of romanticizing whisky with delicious food.

In an exclusive interview with Adgully for their MARKETING MINDS column, Vijay Dev, Consumer Marketing Lead - Whiskies, Bacardi India, speaks at length about the brand journey and how they always keep consumers at the heart of every decision that they make, facing the challenges thrown up by the pandemic, association with food-based shows, consumer behavior trends seen on the alco-bev industry, and more.

When you think of Bacardi, you are always associated with the white spirits. So, what were some of the challenges for brand Dewar’s to make inroads in the highly competitive whiskey market?

At Bacardi, we’ve always kept consumers at the heart of every decision that we’ve made – be it strategic or operational. These decisions are backed by insights and by understanding the needs of consumers. The decision to focus on whisky as a category was made in the recent years and is in line with the company’s aim to cater to India’s whisky dominated spirits market.

Whisky, which is the largest category within sprits, is a cluttered category with more than 150 brands/ variants. Indian consumers love whisky, which contributes more than 80% to the overall spirits business in India. As a brand, if you offer an intrinsic benefit to a discerning consumer, there’s room to grow and carve a niche for yourself as a brand. Dewar’s as a brand has always focused on innovation and creating an enhanced experience, something that our audiences indeed resonate with. This is where we have been able to meet consumer needs with our unique double aged scotch and connect with them through our #DoubleIsBetter campaigns.

Today, while the company gets majority of its revenue from rum, our whisky portfolio which is also growing at a fast pace, contributes in double digits to the company’s overall revenue. With more consumers entering the legal drinking age and being open to trying more premium spirits, we see our Whisky market share getting stronger.

As a premium product and brand, how have you differentiated Dewar’s to be the preferred choice of brand in the scotch whiskey category?

Dewar’s has always stayed at the forefront of progressiveness with experiences and content to make whisky double the fun and relevant for new-age whisky drinkers. We’ve been first-movers in creating campaigns and experiences inspired by alternative consumer and cultural trends. Thereby, resulting in content such as ‘You Got Chef’d!’, which went on to win accolades at The Talent Track Awards as Best Digital Series on Food.

We have also partnered with a show called ‘Social Media Star’, where celebrity and digital influencer duos come together for a banter-filled fun chat show, echoing the brand messaging. Furthermore, The Doers’ Club, launched in 2019 with Rhea Kapoor and Pooja Dhingra in Mumbai, was an experiment that the brand took to popularise gourmet food and whisky cocktails pairings pan-India.

Dewar’s has forayed into the carbonated water category with its Highball Soda Water product. What’s the marketing objective here and also what’s the idea behind the association with the television series FoodFood?

Dewar’s premium highball soda water launched its first-of-its-kind television series, Dewar’s Highball Hour, for the FoodFood channel. The objective behind this was to enhance consumers’ drinking experience. Focusing exclusively on fine highball mocktails made with Dewar’s Highball Soda Water and tapas, the show comprises eight episodes hosted by the renowned Chef Saransh Goila and Dewar’s India Ambassador, Myles Carroll. The duo educates viewers about the art and nuances behind pairing delectable highball mocktails with the right finger foods. With a lot of tongue-in-cheek humour, the charismatic pair made sure to keep audiences engaged with their fun banter, as well as spoke about how modern-day consumers can have a great time at home.

The pandemic was a challenge for the liquor brands. How did you navigate in those tough times and what are some of the innovations that you brought in to reach the last mile?

At Bacardi, we pride ourselves in being leaders in creating unique experiences and having identified changing consumer behaviours, we retained our strategy, but we had to pivot on the execution. With great agility and keeping consumers at the heart, we were able to take many of our platforms virtual still meeting consumer needs during the lockdown.

For example, Dewar’s introduced a uniquely crafted amalgamation of home gatherings through its signature experiential platform, The Doers Club, with a DIY element. The Doers Club’s DIY edition took a digital approach to create a virtual culinary experience for its consumers with Chef Ranveer Brar and Vicky Ratnani on Instagram.

It was encouraging to see all our other campaigns in their newer formats accepted so well by our audiences. This gives us the confidence to try our newer platforms and formats going forward.

Promoting liquor brands through surrogate advertising has always been challenging. What has been your promotional strategy and how are you leveraging content to engage with the target audience?

Innovative and premium, Dewar’s is a brand that has always focused on creating an enhanced experience for its discerning consumers, thus, becoming an integral part of every occasion and celebration. In line with that, Dewar’s leveraged the food pillar. Keeping the consumers at heart, the brand found its niche with the growing trend of romanticizing whisky with delicious food.

What are some of the consumer behavioural trends that you have noticed in the whisky category with specific reference to scotch brands?

Purely going by the trend, Scotch Whisky is popular among Indian consumers. Previously, it was restricted to occasional drinking, but with a younger and more diverse Indian drinking population testing the spirit, it is undergoing a drastic image makeover led by innovations and better access. Today, our consumers are open to experimenting, and they enjoy their whiskies very differently, be it at a bar or their homes, and they are keen to have a more immersive experience.

Premiumisation is a key trend that the alco-bev industry overall and the whisky category in particular has been witnessing. Consumers are drinking less and drinking better. This shift has been further accelerated post pandemic, where categories like scotch and above have grown whilst most of the other categories had seen decline.

How has the growth story been so far for Dewar’s? What‘s the future looking like and do you plan to bring in innovations in product offerings? 

In line with our efforts to further scale up the premium whisky category and be at the forefront of Innovations, we have a couple of new launches lined up under Dewar’s. Watch out for more details soon.