Liquor Brand Targets Women As Data Reveals Increase in Female Spirits Consumption

Liquor brand Sauza’s new video titled “Make it with a Fireman” has become a talking point amount societal circles, as the two stars in it, one a muscular hunk and the other an animal, a beautiful furry blue-eyed kitten, have found many besotted admirers.

However, from a commercial viewpoint, the advertisement reflects a makeover in liquor marketing, which traditionally targets the men. However, this ad is focusing on the females; sufficient proof that companies have realized, there is market beyond their male consumers and hence are shifting from the male-oriented ad campaigns towards a more female-oriented one.

Allison Evanow, founder and CEO of Square One Organic Spirits in San Francisco, and one of the very few female executives in a male dominated spirits industry said, that this shift in advertising is because the realization has dawned that there is a very heavy-percentage of women in the cocktail-drinking community and that it would pay to address them directly, without worrying about what affect it would have on their male customers.

She said, “I believe they are starting to speak more directly to women without the fear that they’re going to alienate the male base. There’s more advertising that is either targeted to women or at least is not quite as male-dominated.”

The ad shows a stunningly attractive spokesman, wearing a firefighter’s uniform. He is holding a bottle of Sauza Tequila in his hand. He speaks in French to his cat, and his shirt keeps vanishing revealing a well-toned muscular body. As you watch it, it soon dawns that is not your normal liquor advertisement.

Sauza’s change in shift was prompted by statistics that showed that women consumed margaritas and that quite a lot of the tequila went in to their margaritas. “So you just look at that and you go, ‘Wow! We should really be talking to this demographic,'” says Kevin George, chief marketing officer for Beam Inc., which owns Sauza.

Sauza’s digital campaign first explored the female market, through suggested recipes for ladies parties but the fireman’s ad, created by Euro RSCG Chicago took it into a new sphere, like saying, welcome to the club.

The success of this ad has ensured that there are other ads to follow, in similar vein. The company says that many of their other brands also have a good fan following amongst women. They include Red Stag Bourbon, launched in a black cherry flavor in 2009 and in honey tea and spiced versions this year, along with Skinny girl Cocktails and Courvoisier Rose.

“Marketing spirits to women is something that we think is a big opportunity,” says George.

Kiki Braverman, cofounder of the San Francisco chapter groups such as Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails, which has chapters in several major cities said that she loved the Sauza ad, especially its novelty and hilarity. “I LOVE that a guy is the sex object,” she says.

However, she feels that the campaigns should take the concept a little further beyond the cocktail circuit. “What about women like me? Professional women with families who neither party the night away nor dream of being rescued by a 22-year-old fireman, but who really do enjoy a good drink with their meal — and who actually have money to spend?” she asks.