Core brands receive primary marketing focus - ST

Brandweek, June 21, 1999 by Gerry Khermouch, Theresa Howard

Among the majors, Seagram generally stood pat, but as 1999 reached its midpoint, rumors abounded of further consolidations via mergers or marketing alliances, with Seagram often put at the center of the rumors. Despite the scuttlebutt, the company remained true to supporting its brand portfolio by unveiling integrated, music-related marketing programs for Crown Royal and Chivas Regal, which embarked on a multi-market tour themed around swing music. The program linked swing meister Brian Setzer, who appeared in Chivas print ads, with a roving swing mobile that provided dance lessons for street side participants. Crown Royal tagged its name to a 40-city country music tour with "Crown Royal Untamed & True," a program that reappears this summer.

Winemakers, following the lead set forth by the spirits companies, also are trying to woo consumers from the low end of the legal drinking age.

Dangling a more contemporary version of the once-hot single-serve wine cooler segment, marketers reenergized the category with more wine-like packaging offering fruit-infused Chardonnays and Zinfandels in 750ml bottles to increase consumption among White Zinfandel drinkers and to bring new consumers into the fold.

Canandaigua, which hit the top 10 with two brands, Almaden at No. 5 and Inglenook at No. 7, set the standard for fruity-flavored wines with its launch in spring 1998 of Arbor Mist, which this year already had drawn scads of imitators, including an entry, Wild Vines, from wine category leader E&J Gallo.