Vodka Marketing Switcheroo

It wasn't until the new Belvedere IX product launched that I noticed the marketing switcheroo happening with some ultra-premium vodkas. For a while, Belvedere has been running those Terry Richardson photos with Vincent Gallo portraying Belvedere as the vodka of choice for downtown young rich partiers. It was clear they were trying to modernize their image away from a stuffy, "important" vodka into a fun one.

Then they launched Belvedere IX, a product enhanced with ginseng, guarana, acai, and other herbal uppers. Not only is this clearly aimed at the nightclub market, the initial release was only in nightclubs. I love the bottle, but was surprised at the approach.

 

It finally occurred to me that the marketing strategy was to overtake Grey Goose as the club vodka of choice. I don't know the actual numbers, but Grey Goose is probably 90% of all bottle service sales. The Belvedere photo above looks more like it's taking place in a diner than the VIP booth at a club, but the parallels are there. And this product may be the first ultra-premium "enhanced" vodka, or at least the first one with a strong unflavored ultra-premium vodka behind it.

Funnily enough, since Grey Goose owns the bottle service category I guess they feel confident to advertise to a new demographic- the one that Belvedere was aiming for previously. These Cape Cod WASPy leisure activity ads are so low key and not speaking to the vodka's key customers I hadn't even paid attention to them. But it appears to me that they're trying to take their "on-premise" (sold in bars and restaurants and consumed on the premises) brand more "off-premise" (purchased in liquor stores and consumed at home), while Belvedere is doing the opposite.