A New Royal Oak look has been the first we have heard from Angostura for a while. They have also changed the look of their flagship brands White Oak and Black Label and created a bold new bottle for 3 of their 4 top brands. This packaging face lift was long over due. But is it enough?
Here are some things they must also figure out:
How to remove the stigma that rum =’s cheap/low quality = rum shop = rum drinker = drunkard = “good for nothing” I’ve never heard a Scotch drinker referred to as a drunkard (or very rarely)- How to differentiate each brand. The bottle change campaign seems to bring all of these three brands together in one big glob, for although the models are different the message is the same. Drink this and you’ll get this. Sex sells for sure. There however needs to be greater sophistication, I think, in terms of how we deliver that message. And most importantly how we interpret it for each of the 3 brands. One ‘sex’ does not fit all. Clearly how we talk to the Royal Oak drinker must be vastly different to how we talk to the Black Label drinker (White Oak and Black Label are conceptually closer)
- How to change Rum’s cachet. Rum needs to get to the stage where it’s OK to be seen drinking rum. Not just in terms of the quality perception, but the cool factor. And maybe that’s what this campaign is going for, making rum cool. But it use of the identical vehicle purely in different colors works for the category but not for the brands. And Angostura does not sell categories
- How to connect to its various targets with less. Angostura will not have Carib’s budget so it will need to do more with less. That calls for them “picking their fights” well. You can only pick your fight well if you know what you want to be. There has to be clear single minded definition of what each brand wants to mean to its flock and then maniacal fidelity to that meaning in everything they do
Sex sells. And it sells even better when you know that your partner is faithful and not available to all.
11 September, 2010, 2:13 am
Wow! You beat me to writing about this rebranding/relaunch. I’m slightly confused and I think the folks at Angostura are as well. Why would you lump Royal Oak with the same brands you have spent years and millions on trying to distinguish it from?
I’m sure that part of the reason has to do with simplifying the production process and reducing costs by using a single bottle design for the four most-produced brands. But what is the cost going to be to your brand in the long run? Isn’t brand value far more…well, valuable?
And, as far as the campaign goes, again I’m slightly confused. “Bold new look”?? I don’t think so. Scantily-clad girls shaving ice? Why?? I think we can do better. It’s just lazy. It’s not even relevant to the product…and it looked like something straight out of a Smirnoff campaign. Lazy!!
Ohh well, maybe the Rum Festival will be more interesting.
12 September, 2010, 12:00 pm
Sheldon well said. I once read that all strategy is about differentiation. And this unification of their brands under the bold label is kind of weird. Even if they wanted to standardise the bottles for efficiencies, which may be a bad thing by itself, they did not have to unify the brand’s images. Perfume and liquor brands, to name 2 categories, spend kazillions on their packaging to differentiate themselves. Maybe the folks at Angostura reasoned that since Royal Oak did not have a strong franchise any way, they had nothing to lose.
On the image front, let’s see what more there is to come. Like you, I’m not impressed with their first communications salvo.
13 September, 2010, 4:39 pm
Well one thing definitely remains constant…Angostura knows how to throw a great party. The Rum Festival was a great idea, decent execution but terribly oversubscribed (i guess FREE is indeed the most powerful word in advertising). The launch at the Oval was hands-down spectacular.
14 September, 2010, 3:00 pm
I think it’s a wrong direction, it seems they’ve classed the high and low alike with this generic bottle and labeling.. obviously cost cutting and gives the feeling of a one song dance.
Personally, I drink royal oak and I like the difference in feel and look… i dunno i think i gonna drink some vodka from now on, lol.
16 September, 2010, 2:12 pm
Ok so maybe there may be some mistakes in the strategy and execution. One thing is for sure though that the new direction seems to be moving rum out of its traditional local culture positioning led by the iconic Nicki Inniss into a younger sexier image led by Wayne Yip Choy. Something tells me that even with the mis-steps that Angostura is on to something here and they just need to sort out their brand differentiation better.