What the hell are Whisky producers doing? Or to be more accurate, what are their marketing people doing? There was a recent survey carried out by AC Neilsen for Scottish Licensed Trade News (SLTN) that ranked Scotland’s leading on-trade brands. It then distilled these brands into categories and the spirits brand chart surprised me the most, as scotch, the tartan nation’s own product, barely charts in the top 20, and this is telling of how little touch with reality the Scottish whisky industry is.
It is unsurprising that The Famous Grouse ranks second in the spirit chart, after Smirnoff, but Whyte & Mackay is only 8th, after American whiskey Jack Daniels (6th) with Scottish Leader (13th) and Bell’s (16th) coming in below Southern Comfort (11th). We then don’t see another whisky until Black Bottle appears at 24th, lower than products including Sourz Apple, Archer’s Peach Schnappes and Malibu for crying out loud! The first single malt comes in at 27th with Macallan 10 year old, closely followed by Highland Park 12 year (28th).
This is frankly gross negligence on behalf of the single malt Scotch Whisky industry, as we have a product of world wide acclaim, and we cannot convince the natives of the country in which it is produced to drink the stuff!
Producers need to get potential customers trying the stuff and liking it. We need a revolutionary idea that will make whisky appeal to the Peach Schnappes and Vodka drinking Scots and it’s apparent that nobody can put together an advertising campaign that attracts new whisky drinkers.
Answers on a postcard…
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