Halewood International is hoping to revive its Red Square vodka with new liquid, updated branding and flavoured NPD.
From this week, the brand has switched to a 100% grain vodka that is distilled seven times and filtered five times, while the label has been redesigned with a deeper shade of red and more delicate lettering.
The supplier is also rolling out two 20% abv spirit drinks - Red Square Toffee and Red Square Sloe - made with the same grain spirit as the original vodka. They will have the same rsp as Red Square Vodka: £12.99 for a 70cl bottle.
Halewood said the updates were intended to provide some of the premium connotations consumers increasingly expected, without altering its position as a mainstream, mid-priced vodka. The flavours had been chosen to bring something new to the category, offer a point of difference and encourage consumers to reappraise the brand.
Halewood is supporting the launches with a £1m marketing package that kicked off with sponsorship of the Liverpool International Music Festival over the August bank holiday weekend. The push will continue with nationwide sampling events, advertising, social media and PoS activity.
“The past three years have seen the vodka fixture become stagnant and as the category has matured, levels of genuine innovation have fallen,” said Halewood International marketing director Richard Clark. “As a result consumers have moved on to other spirits in gin and whisky.
“We are aiming to drive greater creativity and innovation with the reintroduction of this brand, and create genuine excitement within the category.”
Sales of Red Square are down 12.4% to £17.3m [Nielsen 52 w/e 25 April 2015]. Vodka as a whole is up 2.9% to £1.18bn, thanks largely to the 7.9% growth seen by Smirnoff, which accounts for 38% of the category.
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