Beware The Devil Woman

Currently on a roll, US spirits companies are now using bar-room babes to persuade their punters to trade up to luxury labels. It’s called ‘mentoring’, says Jon Rees

In the US at the moment, you could be sitting at a bar when an attractive woman sidles up, smiles flirtatiously and promises you a sensual experience; and you will be perfectly at liberty to accept without fear of breaking any law. This is the latest marketing technique from drinks companies keen to reach a new and hitherto untapped generation of potential consumers who have yet to discover the delights of their top of the range products. The process is actually called “mentoring”, though it appears to have little if anything to do with providing worldly advice to a promising junior.

However, picture the scene: after a tough day in the office your average Joe is in the mood for something a little special and hauls up at a hip bar in a cool part of town. As he sips his beer and knocks back the peanuts, an absolute stunner, in a low-cut, black dress shimmies over, catching his eye. Just for a split second he allows himself to believe, first, that his luck’s in, and, second, that she isn’t a bloke. From the moment she opens her mouth, though, our man is in no doubt that he is about to be put upon, albeit in a mildly engaging way. This is what she will say: “Welcome to Johnnie Walker Gold Label Pleasures of the Palate. You will experience something decadent, indulgent and sensual: ice-cold Johnnie Walker Gold Label and chocolate dessert.”

Resistance is futile

 How that goes down in the US is still being researched since the programme is ongoing, but one does suspect that the same approach in the UK would be met with guffaws, while surely any self-respecting promotional girl would also balk at such corny lines? That said, it takes a lot for a man to turn away an attractive woman offering him a drink, no matter which country you live in.

What she is offering, in this case, is a chance to sample 18 year-old Scotch that costs around £45 a bottle, and the same scene is being played out in some of the coolest bars in major cities across the US. The aim is to use such techniques in concert with massive, traditional advertising campaigns to persuade consumers to go for what the marketing men call “affordable luxury” so that they order not just whisky, but Johnnie Walker Gold Label, not just vodka, but Grey Goose, etc.

The targets for this treatment are likely to have been softened up first, with bars running cocktail hours, for instance, when just Johnnie Walker Black is on sale, acting as a teaser for the arrival of the premium product when the girls make their appearance. Ivan Menezes, chief executive of Diageo North America, which owns the Johnnie Walker brand, has described the impetus behind the technique as: “They may not be able to stay at the Four Seasons but they can order a drink at the bar.”

In the US, such techniques have allowed the liquor industry, worth an estimated US$15 billion a year, to thrive while its traditional rivals, the brewers, have suffered. American spirits consumption increased by just over 4% last year and just under 4% the year before, which makes this the most successful two-year period for the spirits industry since the 1970s.

Meanwhile, beer sales barely grew at all, up just 0.7% last year, while one of the largest brewers, Molson Coors, reported first-quarter sales volumes down more than 4%.

Ground work

The spirits companies prepared the groundwork for this success back in the mid-1990s. It was then that they decided to break a voluntary ban on advertising on television that had been around for half a century. The television advertisements for spirits, complete with messages urging consumers to drink responsibly, are now carried by approximately 600 cable stations.

The industry has also taken to marketing hard in areas which are usually the preserve of beer companies, like motorsport. After a great debate about whether carrying ads for hard liquor was ethically responsible, Nascar motor racing, the US equivalent of Formula One, now carries sponsorship logos for spirits brands including Jim Beam and Jack Daniel’s. American football, too, is now home to a variety of spirits advertising, while even golf has been touched – Grey Goose vodka sponsors golfer Retief Goosen, which, with a name like that, is clearly a match made in heaven.

Consumers now have a wider choice of alcoholic drinks available than ever before and the brewers are struggling hard to be heard among all that variety. Anheuser-Busch, the world’s biggest brewer and the maker of Budweiser, has launched two new products aimed at wooing those ever more selective consumers. The first is Budweiser Select, which claims to offer a “cleaner” finish along with fewer calories and carbohydrates as a result of specially selected hops and malt. And the second is “B-to-the-E”, an awkwardly named brew, described as a caffeinated beer which also tastes a little of blackberry and cherry and includes ginseng and guarana – this last a popular ingredient in energy drinks.

Beer fight

The brewers are not going to let the spirits companies have it all their own way and they, too, have an extensive network of promotional marketers they can draw on, though in this kind of thing the spirits companies have always managed to stay one step ahead. Indeed, they have become experts at persuading consumers to trade-up and, with spirits, there is always something to trade up to. Mass-market drinks like beer have tended to struggle in comparison.

Returning to our average Joe at the bar, by now happily lured by the siren with her free samples of Johnnie Walker Gold Label. After a while, she offers him some chocolate truffles to eat while drinking the whisky, so next time he’s at a dinner party he’ll know to ask for a Gold Label with his after-dinner mints. Or, if she’d like to come back to his place, maybe he could return her hospitality…

Of such dreams are hard sales made, and at the moment the American spirits market is proving remarkably adept at persuading consumers their dreams can come true.