Healthy booze

LIQUOR: There's nothing like a nice oxymoron after a hard day's work

Alcohol brands are getting conscious of your health. For evidence, witness the kind of marketing activity in the market these days. They are trying to nudge you towards their diet variants, lest you end up with paunch from your glass of whisky or pint of beer.

The UB Group has had Kingfisher diet beer for a while. More recent is McDowell's Diet Mate whisky, and the recently launched Romanov diet vodka. And these are not just positioning gimmicks.

The whisky, for example, has some ancient Indian herb called Garcinia, with the claimed ability to burn excess fat and control the cholesterol level. It has been test marketed in Mumbai, and has gradually made its way to liquor shops in about nine states across the country.

UB is pleased with itself for the move. "While enjoying drinking, people tend to neglect the health aspect," observes a UB executive, "so with our diet variants, we have combined both to the best effect."

In categories beyond beer, it is a uniquely Indian innovation. Diet whiskies and vodkas are virtually unheard of in markets overseas, and this is a reason that UB thinks it has a strategic edge "" and opportunity to create a niche to monopolise.

The global liquor major Diageo, which sells Smirnoff vodka, has no plans to launch a diet version. And, on current information, nobody has dreamt of a diet Chivas Regal yet "" though you may think of its current art campaign as a healthy move.

Speaking of campaigns, McDowell's No 1 has done quite well for itself as a brand, lately, and currently claims a share of about 45 per cent in the 80-million-cases-per-annum Indian whisky market.

Even a small fraction converting to the diet variant would make good volumes, and the company says that in the states where it it available, a tenth has already shifted. Given the premium "" the diet version in Mumbai is priced at Rs 360 for a bottle, Rs 30 higher than the regular one "" this is an impressive conversion ratio. "The idea of drinking is changing," says another UB man.