International Marketing - Case of Southern Comfort

Thèmes abordés

International Marketing, Brand Marketing, Southern Comfort, liquors, american brand, louisiana, SoCo, Marketing Plan

Résumé du document

I decided to analyze and formulate a marketing plan for Southern Comfort because of the strong brand image it has. I didn't know Southern Comfort a month ago, and I was really pleased to discover this brand. When I started gathering information about the brand, I was not expecting such a surprise. Having many friends in the bar industry very well established in Paris, I thought I knew a lot about this market and the products. However it appears that this drink is not very famous in France yet, neither on a big scale in Europe.

By delving further, I realized that Southern Comfort has a really strong image, but does not export its products much. We are going to see how it could be interesting for the company to focus more on Europe, and we will use the model of Jack Daniel's, which is owned by the same company: Brown-Forman.

The company has been created by Martin Wilkes Heron, native from Ireland, who immigrated to St Louis with his family, known as a 'Gateway to the West', since it happened during the Gold Rush (1850 - 1870). Instead of settling in Los Angeles, this future entrepreneur became a bartender in New Orleans. This is where he created his unique liquor, coming from whiskey with blends of peach, orange, vanilla, sugar and cinnamon. He becomes a legend in New Orleans nightlife; the place was already a melting pot symbol. The drink soon became very popular as a gentleman's drink, and cocktails created with this liquor became very popular through big parties: this happened in 1903.

For being so innovative, Southern Comfort was awarded Gold Medal at World Exposition in Paris. MW Heron died during the Prohibition, and the drinks recipe passed on to his successors. The recipe survived the ravages of time and lived a prosperous local life, until the drink became more famous with the Scarlett O'Hara Cocktail during World War II. In 1979, Southern Comfort was bought by Brown‐Forman Corporation, a company of fine quality products such as liquors, wine or whiskeys. Founded in 1870 in Kentucky, the company owns 25 brands of wines and spirits and covers more than 135 countries.

Extraits

[...] In which markets is Southern Comfort performing well, and where would you look to improve? . Cusimano: It's performing well across the board, surprisingly. The US is still our largest market. I think last year Canada had some good growth. The UK, right now, is getting some good numbers and growth. In the last three months it has outgrown its competitors . What is the target market for Southern Comfort and how do you look to engage with your consumers? [...]

[...] As seen this target is mostly among the Generation Y11. Of course customers can be older. They are mostly American, Australian or Irish, and have a taste for whiskey and liquors. What: They will enjoy their SoCo in a cocktail, or as a spirit. Where: Cocktails will be consumed in bars or events (festivals for instance), while SoCo will be consumed as a spirit at home or at private parties. When: At night, party time, ay time of the year. [...]

[...] Besides customers are most likely to discover a new drink when they go out, before buying them for their house. We will then focus on nightclubs and pubs. We are going to identify a few places with a strong Pub or Nightclub population in Paris: Chatelet/ Le Marais Les Champs Elysees Oberkampf Bastille Grands Boulevards/ Opera Blanche These are the places we are targeting, because of the strong concentration of targets, and many big international franchises Marketing Action to Create: Increase Brand Identification In order to increase the identification of the product we need to create easy to identify visual. [...]

[...] We can see that the layout is pretty much the same as the main site, and there is also here a good use of Flash technology. As a critic, I think that both the websites are too local. SoCoMusic could be a program that they implement on every market, in order to promote local rock n roll bands and create a worldwide community. While they created a differentiation process with the “pick your country” tool, I think it would be nice to set the website in different languages, especially for French, Spanish and Chinese. [...]

[...] Southern Comfort, as well as other brands, have done a lot in the past to support New Orleans. We gave back proceeds from all our Mardi Gras sales, and once again, I thought Absolut did a phenomenal job. I thought the package was great, their taste profile was great and I look forward to Southern Comfort and other brands continuing to do that for everybody . What role did Southern Comfort play in the city's recovery after Hurricane Katrina? . [...]