With ambitious plans for global growth, spirits company Edrington wanted to increase its contemporary premium offer. Understanding consumers across different markets would be fundamental and an initial innovation and consumer insight stage was undertaken.
This identified a common insight: a brand appealing to a younger, discerning, knowledge seeking audience and aligned to a positioning evoking ‘a sense of liberation and freedom’ could have massive potential.
In a bold move, rather than creating a new brand as planned, a forgotten expression within The Famous Grouse portfolio, Naked Grouse, was relaunched as a standalone brand.
‘Natural’, ‘Open’, ‘Spirited’ and ‘Liberated’ brand values were used as criteria for every touchpoint including the brand mark, packaging and visual brand assets and a contemporary premium whisky, with a distinctive personality – living Naked – was born.
Naked Grouse’s new image resonates with consumers across different markets from the Nordics to Taiwan, and they’re willing to pay more for it. Despite the risk of breaking free from the parent brand, it is now one of the fastest growing whisky brands increasing 17% in value in the year after relaunch. 21% volume growth significantly outpaced market growth of 9% and UK distribution leapt 267%.
