Johnnie Walker Embraces Feminine Side to Woo Women Drinkers
February 26 2018 - 4:14PM
Dow Jones News
By Saabira Chaudhuri
Diageo PLC plans to roll out a female-branded version of its
Johnnie Walker scotch brand called Jane Walker, the latest move by
the liquor giant to woo female drinkers.
Diageo, the world's biggest spirits maker, on Monday said Jane
Walker, a limited-edition version of Johnnie Walker black label,
will go on sale starting next month. The company, which also owns
Smirnoff vodka and Bulleit bourbon, has revamped the iconic Johnnie
Walker logo for the first time in over a century to show a woman in
boots mid-stride tipping her hat.
The marketing stunt comes on the heels of a Diageo campaign
called #LoveScotch, which has splashed pictures of attractive young
women drinking Scotch together across billboards, social media and
magazines in dozens of countries.
"We realized we should be successfully and actively marketing to
women," said Diageo's chief marketing officer, Syl Saller, in an
interview with The Wall Street Journal last year. "That's been
really positive for us particularly in categories that would have
been considered more masculine, like scotch."
The share of U.S. whiskey drinkers who are women ticked up to
29.6% in 2016 from 28.2% in 2010, according to Nielsen.
"As whiskeys have expanded and experimented with new flavors,
such as honey, maple, cinnamon and apple, it has helped attract
more women to the drink," said Danny Brager, who heads Nielsen's
U.S. beverage alcohol practice.
The female-branded Johnnie Walker bottle will be available
across the U.S. at $34 for a 750 mL (about 25 oz) bottle, the same
price as the regular Johnnie Walker black label.
Johnnie Walker for decades marketed its scotch mainly to men. A
1988 ad for the scotch brand reads: "He loves my mind. And he
drinks Johnnie Walker." The caption was incongruously accompanied
by a picture of the backs of two women in bikinis on a beach.
"They were ignoring the key money spenders and decision makers,"
said Izzy Pugh, a cultural insight director at London-based
creative marketing consultancy Kantar Added Value who has advised
Diageo on its marketing. The spirits maker subsequently found that
women are in charge of 80% of disposable income, said Ms. Pugh.
In recent years, Diageo has shifted gears to make its products
more attractive to women. "The way we do that is not by making
things pink. It is by being very inclusive in our communications,
targeting women and men with our communications," said Ms.
Saller.
To develop its Haig Club whisky brand, Diageo in 2014 teamed up
with David Beckham, after research showed the footballer appealed
to both men and women. A recent TV ad for Haig Club, narrated by a
woman, rattles off the rules dictating how whisky should be drunk,
including that "whisky is a man's drink." The accompanying images
show both men and women drinking whisky.
Diageo a few years ago began using Christina Hendricks -- who
played secretary Joan in TV show "Mad Men" -- as its Johnnie Walker
ambassador. The company has also taken a more grass roots approach,
partnering with groups like Women Who Whiskey -- which describes
itself as an experimental whiskey club for women -- to sponsor
whiskey and food pairings for brands like Bulleit bourbon.
Julia Ritz Toffoli, who founded Women Who Whiskey in New York in
2011, has worked with other whiskey makers like William Grant &
Sons Distillers Ltd. and Brown-Forman Corp. on similar events.
"They're really trying to include women in their programming," she
said.
Beam Suntory Inc. last summer sent out Facebook posts marketing
its Maker's Mark bourbon for Mother's Day saying "Lasts longer than
flowers. (Maybe.)."
The alcohol industry's new focus on women isn't uncontroversial.
Public-health researchers and campaigners point to physiological
differences that make women more vulnerable to harm from alcohol
consumption than men.
Women the same size and weight as men are more likely to become
drunk off the same amount of booze because female bodies have more
fat and less water, according to the National Institutes of Health.
This means alcohol produces a higher blood alcohol level in women
than in men.
"We have to be very careful not to stigmatize women but they do
have different risks and they need to be highlighted," says Suzanne
Costello, chief executive of Dublin-based nonprofit Alcohol Action
Ireland. "The impact of alcohol is harder on women than men but
people have forgotten that."
Diageo said for every Jane Walker bottle sold, it would donate
$1 to organizations championing women's causes, up to $250,000.
There will be advertising support in print publications such as
the New Yorker and Time magazine. The brand will also feature at
events such as the coming Women In Film Pre-Oscar Party, toasting
all female Oscar nominees.
Write to Saabira Chaudhuri at saabira.chaudhuri@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 26, 2018 15:59 ET (20:59 GMT)
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