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MARTELL: LOOKS TO FIGHT BACK

Published:  23 July, 2008

By Giles Fallowfield

Martell has launched a new marketing campaign in the UK to win back brand leadership from Courvoisier and help expand the Cognac category. In the run-up to Christmas, Martell is particularly targeting grape brandy drinkers. Although Cognac MAT volume is down 3.2% to 609,000 nine-litre cases to mid 2003 (AC Nielsen MAT May/June 2003 off trade, June/July on trade), brandy is up 1.6% to 1.52 million cases over the same period, notes Crispin Stephens, marketing manager for Martell at Pernod Ricard. Speaking in Cognac last month, where Martell unveiled its new support package for the UK trade, Stephens said: The UK is a brandy market but there are lots of opportunities to get consumers to trade up to Cognac. We feel it is important to educate consumers about what makes Cognac special.' In the on-trade Martell is continuing with its Arand Ambassador programme as well as giving away 1,000 Christmas hampers in a promotion with Mitchells & Butler. Working with the supermarkets, who now account for 65% of off-trade sales, it is also trying to segment Cognac more clearly within the brandy category on the shelf. Stephens declined to predict how severely retailers' might cut the shelf price of the mainstay VS style, which has a regular price around 17.99.

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