HENNESSY IS 98th ACCORDING TO INTERBRAND TOP 100 BRAND

Interbrand Logo

Source: https://www.thespiritsbusiness.com/

by Nicola Carruthers

9th October, 2018

Hennessy (no.98/100), Jack Daniel's (no.84/100) and Johnnie Walker (no.97/100) have been ranked among the top 100 most valuable global brands on the Interbrand Best Global Brands 2018 list.

Brown-Forman-owned Jack Daniel's - which was ranked 84 on the list - moved two places down from last year to make it the highest-ranking spirit brand for the third year in a row. Interbrand valued the brand at US$5.64 billion, up 6% from 2017.

Diageo-owned Johnnie Walker made the list at 97, falling by one place from last year. Returning to the list for the ninth consecutive year, Johnnie Walker was valued at US$4.73bn - up 7% on last year.

A new entry to the list was LVMH-owned Hennessy Cognac at 98, valued at US$4.72bn.

Smirnoff vodka, which is also produced by Diageo, dropped off the top 100 list after ranking at 97 last year.

The spirits brands are three of six alcohol brands to make the list, which also includes beer brands Heineken, Budweiser and Corona.

"I'm very proud to see Johnnie Walker recognised by Interbrand as one of the 2018 Best Global Brands," said John L Williams, global brand director for Johnnie Walker.

"Johnnie Walker has been the world's most popular Scotch for more than 60 years - a true global giant, and yet one that is crafted by a small team of 12 whisky masters with the finest malts from the four corners of Scotland.

"It's an incredibly exciting time to work on this iconic brand - we've just unveiled White Walker in collaboration with HBO and Game of Thrones, and are hard at work in preparation for a new Johnnie Walker brand experience in Edinburgh."

The ranking is based on three key components that contribute to a brand's cumulative value:

1) the financial performance of the brands and services,

2) the role the brand plays in influencing customer choice,

3) and the strength the brand has to command a premium price or secure earnings for the company.

See the FULL LIST at INTERBRAND

CELEBRITIES ENDORSING OR OWNING SPIRIT BRANDS: HOW AND WHY?

Celebrity Fame and Booze

Recent sale of George Clooney's Casamigos tequila to Diageo has stirred a great deal of publicity.

The spirits giant spirit company paid US$700m for Casamigos to start with, and Diageo will potentially pay an extra US$300m based on the brand’s performance over the next 10 years. And recently, Casamigos announced getting into mezcal as well.

The media entertainment does not pay as much as it used to and celebrities have to find new ways to increase their revenue besides through their original craft.

Thus, using their fame they make appearances, endorsements, more concerts, ... etc... anything they can leverage their brand with. Now, because of social media growth as a mean of communication, people are more influenced than ever by publicity celebrities make or just simply generate. No need to buy tabloid magazines anymore. Just follow them on Twitter!

Consequently, endorsing or owning part of a wine/beer/spirit brand has become a recourse to increase revenue for celebrities.

Read about 21 celebrities with their own alcohol brand here.

Reference: Ranker News

DRAKE LAUNCH AN AMERICAN WHISKEY AS THE FIRST SPIRIT OF A SPIRIT LINE UP

 

Drake Virginia Black Whiskey

After George Clooney Tequila Casamigos, which he sold to Diageo for 1 billion dollars singer Drake is getting some ideas.

Diageo is set to pay $700 million initially, with the potential of another $300 million based on the tequila's performance over 10 years, according to CNBC.

Drake the Canadian rapper whose chart-topping hits have won him many Grammy Awards and Billboard Music Awards among other prizes launched in June 2016 Virginia Black Whiskey with ex-banker Brent Hocking and beverage marketing firm Promixo Spirits.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXwCKKHgG6k&w=560&h=315]

Virginia Black is now available in Burundi, Ghana, Ireland, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, and Zanzibar, as well as the UK and Canada, where it first launched.

Source: Virginia Black Whiskey

EXPERIENCING LUXURY WITH PORSCHE EXPERIENCE CENTER

Experiencing and consumer experiential marketing are becoming the big words in business these days.

I ran into the Porsche Experience Center in Los Angeles (USA), which just opened in February 2017. What an experience! If you are into cars, sportscars and more so into Porsche, you need to check this place.

Porsche Experience Center

There is another Porsche Experience Center in Atanta (Georgia-USA), which is older.

Porsche Experience Center

The Porsche Experience Center offers driving lessons in the current Porsche for sale in their catalog, so you get to really test drive the car before you buy it. There is also sort of a museum of older race cars which you can see and touch, versus some behind a glass window being worked on as you would buy. There is also a boutique with Porsche accessories such as neat watch, clothing, books, etc. and 2 restaurants: one for a quick bit and a gourmet seat down style.

Porsche Experience Center

I cannot wait for them to open their doors for people to come with their Porsche to drive on the track!

Source: Porsche

BURBERRY IS RAISING THE BAR FOR LUXURY MARKETING

Burberry is celebrating its 160th anniversary this Christmas with a short film telling the story of Thomas Burberry, the man behind the iconic trench coat.

Burberry Pattern

Directed by Academy Award winner Asif Kapadia, this short film has the scope and scale of a blockbuster movie trailer, indeed.

After watching the 3.30 minutes I was looking all over the Internet for more story of this soon to come movie ... to find out this was just a commercial.
Well done!

Spectacular. Burberry has just raised the bar for luxury brand marketing.

Source: Youtube

MY LUXURY MARKETING BOOK IS NOMINATED FOR BEST BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR

The creation and consumption of luxury brands is one of my favorite interest.

I am very inspired by luxury artisans and the craftsmanship necessary in making authentic luxury products.

Last year in 2014, I was able to co-author a business book titled "Marketing du Luxe: Stratégies innovantes et nouvelles pratiques" which is a book written in French about the management of luxury companies. I wrote the chapter about the creation and maintenance of luxury brands.

Luxury Marketing Book published in 2014, Marketing du Luxe

I am happy to report this book was recently nominated for the "Prix Académique de la Recherche en Management" which prize is recognizing the best business books of the year written in French.

The book is available at:

http://www.amazon.fr/Marketing-luxe-Stratégies-innovantes-nouvelles/dp/2847695761

http://livre.fnac.com/a6863376/Eugenie-Briot-Marketing-du-luxe

http://www.editions-ems.fr/livres/collections/regards-sur-la-pratique/ouvrage/320-marketing-du-luxe.html

Enjoy this video which illustrates how Christian Dior crafts a handbag. A real wonder, Astonishing!

https://youtu.be/ixBYyTYZvYQ

New Brands, Revived Brands and The Angry Birds!

There are over 1000 brands of Cognac that have been created since the foundation of cognac about 500 years ago. There are about 400 brands still existing and many of these brands have existed for a long time, and even they have been in the same families for centuries.

Recently, new brands have come up. The main reason: the democratization of cognac, that is cognac is not anymore just an elitist old man’s drink, but now an artistic, entertaining, hype, and gucci-gucci spirit worldwide. The ascension and development of cognac brands have significantly changed and perhaps insidiously cognac is becoming a mass-marketed product like yogurt and detergent with I call the "deluxury concept".

The good news is that cognac is still made the ‘good old way’. Or at least pretty much. It is not hand picked anymore ... but this is OK. Distillation in pot stills are now longer using manual mechanism and wood or coal but computerized automated systems ... but this is OK too. Ugni blanc grapes are used 99.99% of the times instead of folle blanche or colombard ... not such a big deal.  Vineyards are using modern pesticides, herbicides, and so called proven chemicals ... Not too sure of this one. Aging, storing, selection of wood barrels, assembling, bottling, ... are still pretty much the same.

So what is so different now? A good deal of attention has been on branding & rebranding, positioning and else. Marketing is muscling in!

Five Basic Brand Strategies

1)  Therefore, new brands have been created: Cognac Alizé, Cognac Conjure... even Cognac Gucci! But more significantly, a huge number of brand extension have been launched: Hennessy Black, Remy Red, ... and Courvoisier Rose.

2)  Old brands have been revived: Bisquit, Comandon, ... and recently Mestreau from Cognac Grosperrin.

The cognac industry has seen some product line extensions with the creation of mixed drinks based on cognacs: Hpnotiq, Meukow Vanilla, ... and more recently Courvoisier Rosé.

3)  And in some clever way the know-how nested in the region of Cognac has revealed brilliant creations and business ventures using that experience for the benefits of new products: Grey Goose Vodka, Ciroc Vodka, Citadelle Gin, ... and more recently Monteru Single Brandy.

4)  Certain brands have even developped  'brand extensions' with for instance Courvoisier Edition Imperiale perfume.

Courvoisier Edition Imperiale Perfume

5) I leave you to guess what the ‘Angry birds’ could be!

angry-birds