Page 23 - Drambuie case study

Drambuie produced three liqueur products:

1: Drambuie

2: Drambuie Black Ribbon (same secret ingredients,

but with vatted single malts), and

3: Sylk (Drambuie based cream-liqueur).

The new focus was pushing Drambuie as a core ingredient

for mixed drinks, which Parnell thought it was quite well-

suited for, to the 25-30 something in the up-market lounge

space which is currently dominated by luxury vodka brands

such as Grey Goose and Belvedere.

In recent years Drambuie and in particular cream had

struggled with increased competition as larger companies,

such as Diageo, introduced a plethora of alternative drinks

to the marketplace. By the beginning of 2005 cream was

already being withdrawn from the US and as Parnell

observed:

“But the frightening thing was in the previous three years

the whole above the line consumer marketing budget was

all on cream - nothing was being spent on Drambuie."

Parnell