Be it the annual office party or a get-together with your gang, Bacardi is the brand that seems to steal the show. High five to the homies who know what we’re talking about. And to all the teetotallers out there who only know Bacardi by its music festival, we hate to break it to you, but it’s also the largest privately held liquor company with a history of producing the most awarded rums, cocktails, and beers. Um, wait a minute! Did we just burst the myth bubble of the innocent ones who really thought that Bacardi makes music CDs? You bet we did, so we’d request a two-minute silence for them, please.
Origin
So, now that we’re done with the myth-busting session, it’s time to get down to facts. Bacardi was founded in 1862 by Facundo Bacardí Massó in Cuba and has been a family-owned business for around seven generations. Facundo Bacardí had revolutionized the rum-making process back in the time to create a cleaner and lighter form of liquor which later went on to be known as the Bacardi Rum all over the world.
In 1910, it became the first Cuban multinational company by expanding its operations to Spain and the United States. Bacardi has its headquarters in Bermuda and is recognized worldwide with an approximate sale of a whopping 16 million! No wonder that it’s the world’s number one liquor brand of superlative quality. And as if all of this wasn’t enough, Bacardi has around 200 brands and labels under its umbrella.
Casa Bacardi
Known for its distinctive and quirky marketing strategies, Bacardi has recently taken another step forward in the direction and has launched “Casa Bacardi”. Casa Bacardi is a platform that aims to unite diverse cultures with creativity and celebrate the freedom of individuality. This platform is an extension of Bacardi’s global campaign that promotes and encourages people to live in the moment. Undoubtedly, Bacardi’s approach in terms of marketing and advertising has constantly been changing for the good. The strategies majorly focus on educating the masses, especially the drinkers, to shift their focus from wines to more sophisticated rums like Bacardi because of their premium quality. The brand also intensely relies on word of mouth through its marketing campaigns, world-class consumer services, and effective customer relationship management.
Bacardi’s Marketing
It’s a well-known fact that alcohol and liquor companies have a hard time advertising in countries like India where the direct or indirect promotion of alcohol, tobacco or any other intoxicant is strictly prohibited. Hence, brands like Bacardi are forced to disguise themselves and make advertisements revolving around far less controversial and completely different topics. So, for instance, we see ads for Tuborg Sodas and not for Tuborg Beers. Similar ads have been made by brands like Carlsberg, McDowell’s, and Imperial Blue.
Bacardi has been prospering into the music world to promote its rum with various music festivals and ventures like the NH7 Weekender. This probably also explains the “music CDs” ad that we’ve seen for many years.
Targeting the Indian Millennials
The creative marketing team of Bacardi has clearly identified the target audience, the Indian millennials, and personalized their strategies in a way that is most appealing and attractive to them. This is so because the youngsters in India are earning well and are keen to try out new things, especially in the big urban cities. Do you know that one person in every group who is always up for something new? Yes, that person represents their target audience. Now, the people who are already consumers of whiskey, beer, or gin have always had various brand options to choose from.
However, the rare rum-consumers haven’t had much to experiment with due to the limited knowledge regarding it. So much so that people still consider it as a cold-weather drink despite its all-season nature as a beverage. However, through its interactive and thoughtful promotional strategies to create awareness, Bacardi has been winning hearts, and millennials from all over India have started upgrading their tastes and preferences related to their liquor consumption. Bacardi is inevitably the future of the youth brands if it keeps on expanding itself at the same rate as it is doing now. Without a doubt, it will become the next big thing for Gen-Z.
