Liquor marketer Bacardi adds a plus to become more masculine

BANGALORE: Liquor marketer Bacardi may have made no distinction between sexes while positioning its ready-to-drink product Breezer in India a decade ago, but it is certainly pulling out the masculine card with its latest offering Bacardi+. The family-controlled spirits firm says unlike Breezer, Bacardi+ is a large peg of the eponymous rum premixed with either lemonade or cola.

The alcohol category does not typically distinguish between a male or female, but in this case, while the company wants to retain its core consumer, it also wants to expand the base of the other. And to achieve this, it has dropped the name Bacardi from Breezer bottles in recent months, while Bacardi+ carries the company's name more prominently.

"Globally when a product is positioned for men, it tends to attract women consumers too," Mahesh Madhavan, Bacardi's president & CEOSouth Asia, says. "But it's not the other way round," he explains, adding that Breezer was positioned as a unisex product.

"Bacardi+ is a masculine product which is made for the male consumer who would like the product to be delivered to him as a perfect serve," Madhavan says. The product is available in some markets in cans but in India, it is being introduced in grey and black bottles.

With an alcohol content of 8%, it gets positioned closer to the strong beer category in India, which accounts for at least 75% of the Indian beer market. Rivals say that even a small shift of these consumers to Bacardi+ would result in large volumes. At the same time, women consumers may consider it as an upgrade too.

Priced at around Rs 10 higher than Breezer for a 250 ml bottle on an average, it will sell at Rs 75 in Bangalore, and Rs 80 in Delhi. "The margins would be higher because fixed costs such as packaging of bottle, labels and caps do not increase," a senior executive of a rival firm says, seeking anonymity. Bacardi, which also makes brands such as Dewar's Scotch, Grey Goose vodka and Bombay Sapphire gin, had in 2002 popped open the ready-to-drink (RTD) alcoholic beverage category in India with Breezer.

Over the years, the over 1.5 million cases category became synonymous with Breezer as it appealed to younger consumers as a recruit drink. But its lower alcohol content, fruity flavour and colouring led to it being perceived as a woman's drink. The Bermuda-headquartered firm, which is known for its rums, entered India in 1998 and the market is now one of its fastest-growing.