AmDemBeef

Webmaster

Privacy Policy
Terms & Notices

wpe7.jpg (52737 bytes)
May 2001 Issue

Spin the Bottle
Beefeater boasts a bold spirit that stands out --
but will this gin get lost in the crowd with the Gen X set?

In all probability, we've seen more Gen Xers bungee jump, skateboard, and snowboard on TV ads than all of those actually living the supposed "Xtreme lifestyle" out there in the real world. This eclectic human subgroup, living in voluntary group-homes, mainlining caffeine, wearing daring outré fashion, and growing their hair into dreads, have suffered any number of such gross generalizations since marketing executives first discovered this wpe8.jpg (26866 bytes) disquieting rejection of standardized commercial culture and E-Z emotional cues. But there's one place we all do meet: the bar.

Not that we can properly identify Gen Xers as a bunch of drunks, but one needs only look at the positioning gambits of any number of marketers of distilled spirits in the past 10 years, as the generation hit legal drinking age, to see where the activity is in the business. Gold-laced liqueur shooters, neon-adorned on-premise (in-bar) dispensers, special glassware -- all are intended to grab the attention of consumers predisposed to new things and impulsive buys in the dimly lit, after-dark environs. And it is to these younger patrons that Allied Domecq (AD) is trying to sidle up with the broad stroke makeover of its Beefeater gin.

"Unfortunately, over the years, the brand got a bit dusty," says Phil West, senior brand manager for Beefeater. "The perception of it was, 'This is my father's gin.' Our question was, 'Can we update that iconographic value to appeal to that younger, 21 to 34 consumer without losing the brand's heritage?' Our competitors have tinted bottles, but we were very adamant about going to a clear bottle, because we're so proud of the juice inside."

With fewer media outlets available to liquor companies, the bottle has become the most valuable frontline tactical weapon in the industry, namely because of where it resides: the back of the bar. This is where brands such as Absolut, Bombay Sapphire gin, and Goldschlager have made their imprints on a market that's often difficult to impress. Though occasionally locking down into brand preferences, Gen Xers have taken to more of what David Morrison, president of young adult research and marketing consultancy, TWENTYSOMETHING Inc., calls "brand surfing". Morrison defines Gen X consumers less by what brands they click to and more by what they're open to. It is a predisposition, he says, conditioned not only be a dearth of sacred cows, but also by an entry into the alcohol market's stage one -- beer -- in the years of wildfire proliferation of sub-brands and microbrews. Trying new and different products by dint of what new and different labels show up on the bar has become second nature to them.

"What is comes down to every time is, what kind of impact does it make five feet away?" says Morrison, who has consulted for United Distillers, Seagram, and Austin Nichols. "Is this thing, when you put it in a bar, with neon lighting on it, going to jump out at you and scream, or not? Absolut does. Bombay Sapphire does. Aftershock does, with its bottle frosted at the top, then grading down to a starker red, to augment the cinnamon base of the product inside. You see that and say, 'What is that? I gotta try it.' And there's the fun. That's key here. It's social -- about fun, experimenting, adventure."

Liquor consumption, in general, has declined for 20 years, largely due to ostensibly more responsible middle-class lifestyle assumed by nesting Boomers, who have always fancied themselves a "cool" generation, even as they bought into "the system". That irony is not lost on the next generation.

"You've really got two kinds of people playing this game," says Morrison. "You've got those that went the career route -- investment banking, dot-commers still out there. They're working 80-hour weeks, and at the end of that particular day, there's not a lot of time for carousing. So when they get the time, all that discretionary spending gets condensed into the relative few moments. They're going to order out and take home more, and they're indulging themselves more."

On the other side of the equation, this generation saw the end of the 'Ozzie and Harriet, join-a-company-for-life, move-up-the-ladder' career path, and with all of the downsizing of years past, they checked out of the system, says Morrison. Thus, two different people end up at the same bar and, at some point, the same brand. Anybody can shoot a comely model, stamp their logo somewhere adjacent and say, "Hey, we're young and cool now." The new Beefeater bottle, however, serves as packaging-cum-advertising that lives in the heart of Cocktail Culture. Meanwhile, its careful adherence to maintaining its classic, storied brand equity, even in the context of the makeover, sprints toward the indulgence-surfing Gen Xer. As Morrison says, brand loyalty is hard to come by in this market, but AD has at least put itself back into contention for all of us discerning slackers.

* * *