Marketing

Executive Summary:
Seagrams is a Canadian alcoholic beverage company founded by Joseph E. Seagram in 1857.

Currently, Bronfman family owns 32% of shares in it and the rest is controlled by Pernod. It sells
famous liquor brands like Chivas Regal, Crown Royal, Absolut and Captain Morgan in more
than 150 countries. The perspective of the company as stated by them: To create long term
growth for our share holders, by serving our communities with integrity; by recruiting, guiding
and developing the highest quality people with the high standards; and by making and marketing
competitively senior products to consumers throughout the world.
The marketing of alcohol is highly monitored and regulated all around the world. Seagrams
marketing strategies are highly appreciated because they hit the bulls eye by following all the
regulations in each of their campaign.
They used surrogate mode of advertising for marketing their products. They targeted specific
type of people for each of their products. They changed their marketing methodologies very
frequently.
Seagrams also had their presence in music and entertainment industry, through which they had
an opportunity of marketing their beverages indirectly. Their marketing strategy was different for
each country. In India they made use of cricket for their campaigning and in U.S. they were
advertised by celebrities.
Seagrams was once the number one marketer and producer of alcoholic beverages.
Introduction & Company Overview:

The Seagram Company Ltd. is a Canadian distiller of alcoholic beverages. It was founded in
1857 in Waterloo, Ontario as a distillery and Joseph E. Seagram became its owner in 1883. The
company was then named as Joseph E. Seagram & Sons. After the death of Joseph E. Seagram in
1919, Samuel Bronfman, founder of Distillers Corporation Limited acquired Joseph E. Seagram
& Sons and continued operating under the name Seagrams.
Although the main products of Seagrams were alcoholic beverages, the company always tried to
diversify itself over the years. It acquired major stakes in Conoco Inc., an American oil and gas
producing company. It was DuPonts single largest share holder. It managed entertainment
ventures like Music Corporation of America, PolyGram & Deutsche Grammophon.
Presently, Seagrams beverages business consists of over more than 250 drink brands along with
some high profile brand names. It also controls Seagrams entertainment business.
The key people since evolution were Joseph E. Seagram, the founder. Bronfman family, who
acquired and controlled Seagrams for almost 72 years till 2000. Vivendi acquired Seagrams
entertainment division. Pernod Ricard and Diageo acquired beverage division in 2000.
Over the years, Seagrams many assets like headquarters in Montreal; Distilleries in Waterloo
were broken up and sold. It lost the name as the worlds largest producer and marketer of spirits
and wine.
Presently, Seagrams is headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. The American headquarters is in
New York City. Its products are marketed in more than 150 countries worldwide.
Marketing Framework:
Marketing drinks which are consumed by more than 87.6% percent [1] of people who are 18 or
older by following all the regulations is what makes alcohol advertising very difficult. In fact,
alcohol advertising is one of the most highly regulated forms of advertising.
Seagrams has one of the most effective marketing strategies. Its campaigns target the right
people without appealing to people under the legal drinking age. It targeted people with
particular taste for each of its product.
Because advertising directly on the alcohols taste is banned in many countries, Seagrams used
tag lines and packaging to influence people. For example , if we look at Fig.1 The tag line says
Its wet and its dry gives us an impression that the wine inside is cool and targets people who
like their wine to be cold. In Fig.2 we see the tag line Common Interest, which already gives
us a feeling that its widely accepted and tastes good. Fig.3 can be seen as the perfect example
for Seagrams target marketing. Advertising bottles with different colors with different flavors
even provokes non-native wine drinker to taste it.
Seagrams always evolved itself with respect to the alcohol consumers tastes. And it was
successful in conveying it the public that there is something new which compelled them to
consume it.
It revolutionized the alcohol advertising in 1986 by making Bruce Willis act in its T.V.
commercial for its wet and its dry Song. From then on, Seagrams products were always
advertised by movie actors or music stars in it. Seagrams marketing strategies changed from
country to country. Well specifically deal with Indian marketing strategies.
In India, the regulations for alcohol advertising are very much different when compared to
United States. In India advertising of the direct alcohol is banned. Therefore, the companies use
surrogate advertising techniques. They advertise other products like club soda or music cds in the
name of the brand so people start associating with the actual product of the brand, like whiskey.
Seagrams marketing strategy in India is quite simple. After defining its goals, it segmented its
products based on the target audience. There are 5 core products of Seagrams in India and the
following three are marketed: Imperial Blue, Royal Stag & Blenders Pride.
After segmenting, Seagrams started creatively advertising these three products in all channels
(Social media, TV, Boards). Imperial blue was launched targeting people of age group 25-35.
They used the caption Men Will be Men, which became a huge hit. These ads were so creative
and the people from the right age group enjoyed watching them. Seagrams even released a film
on this name. Imperial blue was heavily advertised during the World Series hockey in 2012.
Royal Stag targeted people from middle income group and Seagrams did a fine job by using
cricket in marketing this product. India is crazy about cricket and this product was marketed by
cricket gear and by sponsoring cricket matches. It roped in famous cricket players like M.S.
Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Jonty Rhodes and many more. The product was advertised by Famous
Bollywood stars like Shahrukh Khan and Saif Ali khan. As a result of this, Royal Stag Enjoyed
27% market share of the total liquor and spirits in India.
Blenders Pride was mainly advertised by organizing fashion shows on its name. The tag line
Smooth and Smoky is used to promote this product. The campaign created a stylish image for
blenders pride.
Seagrams intelligently made a choice of marketing products which are of medium price only. As
a result of this, most of the revenue in India was generated by sale of these products only.
Looking at the marketing strategies of Seagrams in Indian market, it can be inferred that it was
very quick in changing the marketing style from time to time. Capturing the audience attention
without actually advertising a product was aptly done by Seagrams.
Marketing Trends:
Using the JWT intelligence trends for 2014, we analyze the marketing strategies of Seagrams in
India.
Immersive Experiences:
As alcoholic beverages cannot be advertised based on their taste, Seagrams marketing strategies
were not able to provide any immersive experiences. But still, they were able to set an image
about the personality type of people who drink Seagrams alcohol. For example Men will be
Men. Make life larger is some of the tag lines used in this process.
Do you speak visual?
Seagrams ads were basically a visual treat to the audience as celebrities acted in them. In Fig 4
we see both the stars with the tag line. Although the ads didnt speak about the taste or
composition of the alcohol, they always grabbed the audience attention due to the stars and
composition of the ad.
The age of impatience:

Seagrams products were readily available in all the wine stores. As all the products targeted
specific audience they were correctly stocked up based on the population type in that particular
area.
Mobile as a gateway to opportunity:
There are many sites where in we can order alcohols via internet and there is mobile pay option
as well, which makes it easy for the consumer. As of now, there is no such option available
wherein the consumer can order Seagrams drinks via mobile.
Telepathic Technology:
This trend is not applicable to the products of Seagrams because testing of alchol in public is
banned
The end of anonymity:
Seagrams asked people what they feel about their drinks and it started to give a personalized
reply to all those messages. This kind of activities make people feel that the brand or the product
is attached to consumers.
The other four trends raging against the machine, remixing tradition, proudly imperfect and
mindful living are not applicable to the alcoholic beverages. When compared to the marketing
strategies of its competitors, Seagrams strategies are more creative and successful.
Appendix:
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Bibliography:
[1]http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-health/overview-alcohol-consumption/alcohol-facts-andstatistics
[2] http://seagramcoolers.com
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PolyGram
[4] http://heidicohen.com/7-step-marketing-framework/
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_advertising
[6] http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/seagram-company-limited/
[7] http://www.slideshare.net/Joe60420/seagram-in-taiwan
[8]http://www.marketingmag.ca/brands/brick-brewing-takes-seagram-coolers-to-new-markets46200
[9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Stag
[10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Blue_%28whisky%29
[11] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrogate_advertising

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Executive Summary:

Seagrams is a Canadian alcoholic beverage company founded by Joseph E. Seagram in 1857.

Introduction & Company Overview:

The age of impatience:

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