By Paul Wootton in Queenstown

Liquor Marketing Group (LMG) is planning the biggest single trade initiative it has ever run as it embarks on what it calls a “game-changing strategy” for the Bottlemart retail brand.

The initiative, which kicks off in February next year and will cost more than $1 million, will focus on a single brand in the beer category, as LMG seeks to reposition Bottlemart as the brand of “fun”.

Giving an objective appraisal of Bottlemart at the recent LMG conference in Queenstown, New Zealand, Bob Talbot (pictured), CEO of M&C Saatchi Melbourne, outlined the brand’s plans to differentiate it from its competitors and make it relevant to a specific consumer audience.

“A key weakness with Bottlemart (as well as its competitors) is that Bottlemart is not well understood,” Talbot said. “The brand image is fuzzy and lacks focus. Customers do not understand what the brand stands for.”

Moving forward, Bottlemart would no longer be a brand that was “all things to all people” but would focus on two consumer groups LMG researchers had labelled ‘Party Animals’ and ‘Beer is Best’.

“Bring those two segments together and we find we’ve got a segment that we call ‘On-the-go Brand Champions’,” Talbot explained. “They buy famous brands, have a narrow drinking repertoire but are happy to switch within that repertoire, and they tend to purchase spontaneously.”

The new Bottlemart would “reflect and celebrate their lifestyles,” he said.

“First and foremost, Bottlemart must be a fun brand,” Talbot concluded. “It becomes a fun brand by showcasing the famous brands that we know they seek out and love. We become fun by putting forward ‘new news’, by being contemporary and in tune with their fast-paced lives, by setting trends and getting talked about.

“We do that with big promotions that stand out from the pack and link media activity to in-store activity to amplify the message. We promote the excitement so they feel that by not going there they might be missing out.”

Elements of the new strategy would be seen in the marketplace from November, Doug Misener, CEO of LMG, said. But the first major marketing initiative, which he described as an “interruption strategy”, would begin in February.

“We’re partnering up with a major brand and that partnership is already signed and sealed,” he said, although he wouldn’t reveal the name of the brand.

“It’s about creating a huge event,” Misener added. “We hope that will be the first in a series of interruption-type events.”

The Shout Team

The leading online news service for Australia's beer, wine, spirits and hospitality industries.

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