Liquor companies are outdoing each other with promotional offers in their bid to woo customers.
Consider this: Over the next six weeks, if you visit any of the restaurants at one of the Taj Hotels in the city or other hi-end restaurants and order for two cocktails or drinks made with Pinky Vodka, a premium Vodka from United Spirits Whyte and Makay portfolio, you will also get a gift from Satya Paul of Cufflinks worth Rs 1,000. If you prefer whisky, then try the single-malt scotch whisky selection from Jura. Besides promoting the brand with special priced trials at the hi-end restaurants, United Spirits is also gifting Greg Norman t-shirts for consumers who order 3-4 drinks of Jura.
“This is a complete value-value offer where the gifts value is equivalent to the drinks value of the bill,” says Anant Iyer, business head, Luxury Brands, United Spirits, who is looking at building on customer gratification and awareness by surprising his customers with gifts from hi-end brands.
It’s not only gifts but also innovation that alcohol manufacturers are experimenting with to boost falling sales volumes at restaurants. For instance, Beam Global Spirits and Wine ran a campaign with Hard Rock Cafe for promoting its Souza Tequila. Customers ordering two shots of Souza Tequila got a free Tequila Ice Candy. “Such campaigns popularise the product, create great word-of-mouth publicity, and are well received thus garnering greater market share,” explains Harish Mulchandani, managing director and chief executive officer, Beam Global Spirits and Wine.
However, liquor companies are not really feeling the slowdown in the economy as they report a robust growth numbers. “India has reported the highest growth for Diageo globally at 42 per cent during June to December 2008,” says Asif Adil, managing director, Diageo India.
The world’s no 1 Scotch whisky is running a promotional offer that gives you a chance to win a Mercedes-Benz C-Class 200 Kompressor on purchase of Johnnie Walker products worth $58. “Good promotions increase volumes by atleast 50 per cent,” says Adil. And, for a promotion that is offering a Rs 40 lakh Mercedez as a price, “We expect sales to be atleast 4-5 times (Rs1.5 crore to Rs 2 crore) its value,” says Adil.
