A question of taste
Rum is a tricky category. For some it is a highly mixable drink comparable to vodka – albeit with slightly more flavour – that goes well in a hundred different cocktails. For others, it is a refined drink to be sipped appreciatively for its intrinsic qualities that could hold up against any whisky or cognac out there.
If you were to ask most consumers in bars or clubs to name a rum, they would probably come up with the name Bacardi. The erstwhile Cuban brand has established its name so powerfully that sometimes Bacardi is even considered to be a category of its own. And for Andrew Notcutt, senior brand manager for Bacardi Global Travel Retail Division, travel retail certainly is an important channel. “There is plenty of potential in the category given the authenticity of rum as a product,” he tells Frontier. “Consumers are increasingly discerning; they are not choosing any white spirit but are seeking brands that appeal to their interest in authenticity.”
Rum connoisseurs might dismiss Bacardi as a rum without finesse, but Notcutt is prompt to point out that every bottle is made with infinite care, despite the fact that it is one of the largest distilled spirits in the world. “When Don Facundo Bacardi, formerly a Spanish wine merchant, made his start in Cuba, rum was generally brownish coloured and not very good. Don Facundo experimented for ten years, and finally came up with the product today known as Bacardi Superior.”
The process through which the sugar cane goes before it is bottled and sold under the symbol of the bat is lengthy and time-consuming – sugar cane selection, fermentation of the molasses, distillation, five charcoal filtrations, and ageing that goes from one year to as much as 12 years in American white oak barrels. And if Superior is not premium enough, there is always Bacardi 8 – launched in Cannes in 1997 – which is bottled directly out of the barrel and is a blend of rum aged at least eight years.
Of course, for other rum producers, eight years does not even represent their lowest premium offering. The line-up of products from Industrias Licoreras de Guatemala, for instance, starts with the Ron Botran Solera 12 years old and goes all the way up to the Ron Zacapa Centenario 23 years old. Although the company has other more standard products, it is the premium and ultra-premium categories that offer the best prospects for growth, according to Walter Aguilar, travel retail manager worldwide for Industrias Licoreras. “We have some fantastic products for the standard segment, but we do not see the growth and potential for them within the best duty free operators,” he tells Frontier. “They look for quality, luxury, higher ticket per invoice, passenger, and that’s what we deliver.”
Credibility, uniqueness, dedication
Aguilar sees the rum category divided into three main groupings: standard, premium and ultra-premium, and his eyes are firmly set on this latter section. “Growth potential within the ultra-premium is very high,” he explains, “as it is an entirely new concept within the industry and it is more for single malt and
cognac consumers.”
The secret of success for Aguilar has all to do with “credibility, uniqueness and dedication.” Each rum producer will have its unique way of creating its rums, with their jealously guarded recipe and special yeasts applied to the fermentation, different distillations and ageing conditions. Of course, each will appeal differently to consumers. But in the highly mobile environment of duty free shops, it is the eye-catching display and what the companies do to attract more attention that will make a difference.
Take Bacardi for instance. They recently created a special promotion on board Carnival Cruise Line’s ‘Fun Ships’ in the Caribbean, which involved the chance for customers over the age of 21 who bought a Bacardi Mojito to be entered into a prize draw to win a trip to Miami where the movie Miami Vice was being filmed at the time. Moreover, if adult passengers on the cruise liners bought a Bacardi Mojito when they were designated as the ‘Drink of the Day’ by Carnival, they could also win credit for the cruise. “This resulted in sales of over 7,000 Bacardi Mojitos per week,” states Notcutt.
Approaches to communication are bound to be very different from one company to the next. And travel retail is all about bringing the brand to travellers and thereby increasing brand exposure and recognition. “Travel retail is very important to our company,” Notcutt stresses, “especially when it comes to premium and super-premium brands – for instance, as far back as 1997 travel retail was the channel selected to launch Bacardi 8.”
Bacardi also established its Global Travel Retail Division as a standalone unit at the beginning of last year and has been growing the team since then. And for Industrias Licoreras, too, travel retail features prominently in its business development plan. “It’s key to our worldwide expansion and image status as with all luxury products,” says Aguilar. “We have a first class team in place in order to service and innovate within the travel retail industry and it is really delivering first class results.”
Of course, many challenges remain, not least the need to grow the category as a whole and strengthen it against the onslaught of other spirits, such as single malt whisky and vodka. It will also depend on how successful individual companies prove to be in recruiting consumers into the category.
“The challenge is creating, not competing at the moment,” Aguilar enthuses. “Any other company that goes into this segment will help create the category.” n
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