Liqueurs Brand Champion 2021: Malibu

Malibu’s quantity gross sales soared 14.3% final 12 months

The pandemic helped increase demand for do-it-yourself cocktails as customers had been pressured to remain indoors and recreate the bar expertise at dwelling. As such, curiosity in liqueurs has risen, and customers have stocked up their dwelling bars with completely different substances.

One vivid star of the class was Pernod Ricard’s rum liqueur Malibu, which walked away with the title of Liqueurs Model Champion 2021. The model continued its upward trajectory, recording 14.3% development to 4.4 million instances in 2020.

Malibu’s ‘spirit of summer season’ positioning has helped brighten the temper for customers through the pandemic, in response to Monica Jungbeck, Malibu’s head of name artistic. The model unveiled participating social media campaigns, together with the influencer‐pushed #CoconutChallenge, which requested customers to create dance movies on visible platforms comparable to Instagram.

“Malibu introduced a little bit of sunshine to customers and gave them a platform to expertise and share summer season vibes, even when they needed to be shared just about,” says Jungbeck.

Moreover, the model’s redesign in 2019 helped construct momentum. “Our distinctive and distinctive white bottle and palm tree logotype are two of essentially the most recognisable visible property within the drinks class,” says Johan Radojewski, Malibu’s vice‐president of promoting.

“Our redesign was geared toward strengthening these to make sure higher standout on shelf and, in fact, constructing on the consistency that has been essential for Malibu’s design from its inception within the late Seventies.”

Radojewski additionally notes that the model’s recipes on the redesigned label helped place Malibu “in step with latest developments in the direction of lighter and extra refreshing drinks and cocktails”.

Whereas the UK and the US stay Malibu’s key markets, the model has additionally seen “encouraging” leads to South Korea and Brazil.

Malibu may also launch its newest flavour, watermelon, within the UK following its debut within the US.

As well as, the model has moved shortly to develop its presence within the burgeoning prepared‐to‐drink sector, says Arnaud Malinconi, Malibu’s model director. “We’ve got accelerated in recent times, with improvements and vary extensions like Malibu Piña Colada throughout Europe and the launch of Malibu Splash within the US final 12 months.”

Malinconi provides: “We’re assured that we now have the recipe for achievement from a model, communication, portfolio and innovation standpoint to proceed constructing on the momentum we now have.”

Trying throughout the remainder of the class, the one different model to report a double‐digit enhance was Inventory Spirits’ Żołądkowa Gorzka. The model rose by 19.3% to 1.8m instances, its third 12 months of development.

Diageo’s cream liqueur model Baileys noticed its gross sales decline for the primary time in 5 years, dropping by 4.6% to 7.1m instances. In the meantime, orange-flavoured liqueur Cointreau slipped by 7.8%, and Pernod Ricard‐owned espresso liqueur Kahl.a rose by 3.2%.

South African drinks group Distell declined to supply 2020 figures for Amarula liqueur, which noticed its gross sales drop by 13.5% to 1m in 2019. The agency was affected by a number of alcohol bans in its dwelling market.

Liqueurs (figures: million 9l-case gross sales)