Whisky, DJ, bartender from Diageo just an SMS away

This New Year it may make sense to party at home with your friends as Smirnoff will send you a disc jockey (DJ) and bartender free-of-cost, for customers in Mumbai, New Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR), Kolkata and Bengalaru.

Customers planning to party at home simply need to SMS Diageo to avail this offerings. The company is planning to rollout commercials that will provide the numbers for the SMS. Diageo will then connect to its fullfilment centre (a retail outlet or stockist) who will take the order for the party and provide the customer with a DJ and bartender.

Smirnoff, a brand owned by British liquor major Diageo, is offering the services under its ‘Party at Home’ offerings. There’s a catch, though. The customer should order at least 15-20 cases of Smirnoff (Diageo’s vodka brand), which costs around Rs 6,500 per case or products like Johnnie Walker scotch whiskey, Baileys liqueur or others in equivalent value terms.

“We are doing a soft launch right now and are in talks with our trade partners. By next week we will roll out a communication campaign through our retail partners and advertising agencies,” says Santhosh Kanekar, marketing director of Diageo.

The move follows the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai and the overall low-consumer sentiments due to the global financial crisis. This, the industry expects will impact the celebrations this year at hotels, restaurants, clubs and bars (known as ontrade).

“We expect on-trade celebrations to see a sharp decline of 20 per cent. However, this will be offset with an increase of 20 per cent in retail sales,” he adds. To counter this, Diageo has decided to increase its focus on retail sales by rolling out an initiative, ‘Smirnoff Party at Home’. The company is also tweaking brand promotions to focus on the point of purchase or retail (of-trade) sales.

Since the government has started issuing licenses for a longer period in states like Delhi, Punjab and Rajasthan, liquor stores are creating better shopping experiences and investing more behind shopping experiences. Shopper insights are a very big play for us as a better shopping experience leads to a better basket, explains Kanekar.

A person may just decide to switch to a more premium brand as he is getting services at a very good price, says Kanekar, adding: “Developing such programmes will become critical in times when people are looking for value.” The company piloted these service through select Johnny Walker stores after which “the turnover of these stores went up by 10-15 times showing the impact of offering such value-added services”.

India is an important market for Diageo. For the year ended June 30, 2008, the Asia-Pacific region witnessed a 2 per cent growth. India contributed to 32 per cent of this growth. The rest was accounted by countries including China and Australia.

(With inputs from Suvi Dogra)