In a conversation with BrandWagon Online, Ruchira Jaitly, chief marketing officer, Diageo India, talks about the evolving advertising and marketing trends in the alcohol-beverage industry. (Edited Excerpts) 

How has the alco-beverage industry evolved over the years?

Due to Covid, a lot has changed in the last couple of years. I think people have discovered new ways, occasions and contexts to prioritise what they want in their lives. All of us have gone through a shift, whether we like it or not. Every time you step out now, whether to  watch a movie  or on a shopping trip or a holiday whether we like it or not, some of our behaviour is being prompted by everything that we had gone through in those two to three years. What has not changed is consumers wanting elevated experiences. And  the occasion and context have become even more relevant. 

The whiskey and gin brands in India have grown over the years, backed by  the launch of a clutch of home-grown brands  How do you see this? Where do you stand in  the competition? How do you see the action moving in that space?

Premiumisation has turned out to be a large trend, which still continues. Additionally, it has been fueled by three big things – first, more UHNIs (ultra-high-net-worth individuals) and HNIs (high-net-worth-individuals) in India than there have ever been due to which India is becoming the fourth largest producer and will be the third largest economy in the world. The second thing that’s happening is the tremendous growth in the salary of white-collar salaried employees over the last 10-15 years. Thirdly, content has become the king post-Covid. We all accessed content that told us about lifestyles globally.

Indians are not only looking at consumption across the world but they are also increasingly being confident and proud as we are an emerging superpower. Today, India is seen as the biggest growth driver in the world. For total beverage alcohol, India has always been one of the largest consumption scale markets. But not the largest consumption as the per capita consumption is much lower. 

As India is a growth economy, new brands and flavours are being rolled-out. For example, Diageo has recently launched Don Julio, Johnnie Walker Blonde, which is attracting new kinds of consumers. 

When it comes to marketing, Johnnie Walker has created its position in the market. However, the industry is only allowed  surrogate marketing wherein content plays a big role. How do you plan on marketing and advertising?

We actually  create our marketing strategy on two parameters -firstly,  we believe in brands with purpose. So, what you call surrogate marketing is actually purposeful brands and marketing for us. For instance, Johnnie Walker talks about diversity and giving an enabling platform to people who don’t have a voice to be able to promote or be more socially inclusive in a diverse society. 

Our current project with Aravani where we work with the transgender population and bring their stories alive on walls with art across the country. For Signature, our purpose is to bring sustainability. In order to bring sustainability, we are recreating mangroves in Orissa. Moreover, we shot the ad film on a carbon-neutral platform. 

The second part of the marketing is experience , and this we create through collaboration with our brand at parties of celebrities. We want to showcase that  celebrities are experiencing the brand. This is something which is a big part of our marketing strategy that we don’t bring out in the media. For us, this is also a source of collecting data as we get to know about the preferences of the consumer. 

How do the faces (brand ambassadors) play its role in driving consumers?

I think faces are important because they give people something to hold on to and affiliate with. But equally, when those faces do things that you can associate with them as being purposeful, it makes it not just relevant but deeply meaningful. So, I think that this is a shift that you’re going to see because consumers are becoming more conscious and are moving to brands with conscious values. Additionally, consumers nowadays don’t want to pay more for those brands as they believe that brands should be more socially conscious. 

We have got Ayushmann Khurana on Signature, and John Legend on Johnnie Walker. The reason is not because he’s won every single award but also because he’s a champion of diversity. We even got a mixed-gender cricket team as the faces for the Royal Challenge at a time when it was not necessarily important. In our latest creative, we are celebrating vitiligo, plus size models along with Virat. I don’t think there is any either or to the thought that we use celebrities for visibility. 

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