It's a new era for whisky in India as millennials and women are keen on new experiences and tastes: Guirec Danno of Distell

The Indian economy is developing rapidly and the middle class is expanding at an unprecedented pace with millions of new consumers emerging every year, this is why the Distell Group- that operates in the whisky segment- thought of expanding its operations in India, as per Guirec Danno, Managing Director of its APAC operations. 

Danno, Managing Director, Distell (APAC), shared details about Scottish Leader - a whisky brought in India by AWS global as part of the brand partnership between Aspri Spirits and Distell Group. As of now, the whisky is already available in 15 Indian states, including Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Delhi, among others.

“Because the category that we operate in is whisky, India is the largest whisky market in the world which is mainly dominated by domestic brands. Although there is a very small portion for imported scotch whisky as of now at approximately 3-4%, but it is growing at a very fast rate, almost at a CAGR of over 20% in the past five years and is expected to go even further. So it’s a small but very dynamic category,” he added.

Danno also stated that it’s a new era for whisky consumption in India as the country’s consumers are very much interested in Scotch whisky, so much so, that it is often considered to be an aspiration for millennials who are either new or are entering the category owing to their experiential nature and desire to express themselves with their choices.

“When we conducted a survey around consumer trends for scotch whisky in India, we found out that the consumers were keen on exploring new and modern ways of consuming it rather than preferring the stale and old ways of consuming the same,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sumedh Singh Mandla, CEO, AWS Global and VBev, also said that the vision since inception had been to get new trends to the country and work with like-minded brand partners to grow the market share while thinking ahead of the curve, instead of just getting anything to the market.

He also pointed out that whilst having a pan-India distribution that goes beyond main cities to smaller cities as well as the Indian subcontinent, the most important factor for the company has always been the vision of wanting to understand what are the best trends happening in the world and get them to the Indian market.

Commenting on what are some trends that the alco-bev space is witnessing in the country today, Mandla stated that things are really changing rapidly in the Indian market as more and more people are now travelling abroad.

“Earlier on, it was mostly for business or education, but today everyone wants to go to foreign countries for vacations and even for destination weddings. So to say, the people in the middle class and upper middle class segment also aspire to have at least one international trip, if not more, every year,” he pointed out.

These international outings widen the experience of people in terms of newer tastes and products and owing to that the demand for imported liquor has also increased in the past few years.

In Danno's views, one of the major emerging trends in the alco-bev space in India is that while younger consumers are increasingly eyeing newer experiences and great tastes, whisky - which was earlier seen as a male-dominated category - is now seeing high interest and discussions from women (nearly 35% as per the company’s survey) of late.

Commenting as to how the growth journey has been for them so far, Mandla emphasised that the primary goal was to get the distribution right and it has been achieved in India. 

He stated that the second goal for the brand is to create education of the brand in a sense that it goes to the channel partners first and then to the consumers because awareness is one of the major challenges and at the same time very crucial for players operating in the alco-bev space.

Mandla also went on to point out that what’s unique about Scottish Leader apart from its taste is its pricing. “It’s only when the consumer tastes it, we will be able to try and convert them from any other brand or category and that is the primary focus for the brand as of now along with generating more awareness, visibility and trials,” he stated.

Mandla also went on to clarify that the Scottish Leader’s primary target audience is younger consumers or millennials rather than the traditional age groups.

“Many a times what happens is that people in the age groups of 35-50 years are often married to a brand and are not very keen on exploring new brands which makes it very difficult to change their preference,” he opined.

Upon being questioned as to what happens on the advertising and marketing front of the company since the alco-bev category is forced to work under various restrictions by the law and also ASCI Guidelines, Mandla replied that the company typically focuses on having a 360-degree spectrum for the brand marketing and that most of their activities are in the BTL segment.

“We already work extensively in the HORECA channels, and, as of late, we are also becoming a part of most major consumer activations that are happening in the country in terms of cocktail mixing weeks which have come up as one of the emerging trends - as a lot of work in the alco-bev space happens mainly at the BTL level,” he said.

Additionally, he also went on to point out that banking on its array of new regions and new categories in terms of wines, grapes, etc. which people presumed will never work in the Indian markets, AWS aims to leverage its ranges for on-ground activations and ATL activities too while adhering to the permissible boundaries in the space in India.

“We focus on doing more word-of-mouth promotions for brand as an activation to reach the digital space and also the younger millennial lot for creating brand recall as on ground activations are more time consuming and the alco-bev category isn’t allowed to advertise on mainstream mediums,” he stated.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com