Bacardi's bet on marketing through experiences

John Burke has been a regular visitor to India over the past decade, but ‘unbelievably’ this was his first time at NH7 Weekender, the music festival sponsored by Bacardi, where Burke heads global marketing. Bacardi has been the chief sponsor of the festival over the past decade, in line with its philosophy of connecting with consumers on a cultural level.

“Every market has different regulations around content censorship or access to media, so we’ve learnt to adapt,” says Burke, referring to how they handle Indian regulations that don’t allow alcohol brands to advertise directly. “The key thing is we build brands which have cultural meaning for consumers and flexibly use channels to communicate in different markets,” he says. The company is using insights from the market to understand what are the moments when the brand has a higher relevance to consumers, and as a brand, how it can add value to make that occasion better.

Burke, who has spent over 25 years with Bacardi moved up to heading marketing globally two years ago when former India chief Mahesh Madhavan took charge at the Bermuda-headquartered company, synonymous with white rum worldwide. India is among the fastest growing markets for the company globally, growing in ‘high double-digits’ for many years.


Last year marked an important milestone for Bacardi, with the company becoming the largest international spirits retailer in India by volume with rums crossing 2 million cases while the ready-to-drink portfolio, driven by Breezer, has sold to 3 million cases, said Anshuman Goenka, India marketing head for Bacardi, positioning the company as one of the fastest growing multinationals in the country.

India is also fast emerging as a hub for new initiatives. Burke says that a lot of learnings from the Indian market are now being implemented in other countries, like ‘1862’ a content creator collaborative hub it set up in Mumbai. This has helped the company partner with content creators and influencers across platforms and connect with consumers. “We put in some incremental investment into the market to try and learn, and now the approach is to codify the things that work out and turn those into best practices,” he says. Similar labs are now being set up in Eastern Europe and Latin America.

Over time, he’s seen his role – and the broader CMO function – evolve to more of a mentoring and coaching role, working with teams on how they can implement their plans rather than focus on the actual brand campaign. With social and digital marketing, it’s no longer about spending a year finalizing the one big TV commercial but being much more responsive to conversations taking place in the market.

Bacardi uses social listening as a key aspect of framing its go-to-market strategy, using artificial intelligence to code conversations and be culturally relevant. For instance, last year it launched Dewar’s in an already crowded blended scotch whiskey market in India. “We did a lot of social listening on Instagram and saw that the food culture was changing and becoming much more informal,” says Goenka. The company then created ‘The Doers Club’, which provides a gourmet street food experience, coupled with Dewar’s cocktails to bring a culturally relevant experience to consumers.

Globally, there is a move towards health and wellness, one fallout of which has been people abstaining from, or completely giving up alcohol. Burke says that there are a few things that have happened within this space. Spirits as a category is much more flexible to provide lower alcohol solutions to meet the consumer need to moderate their alcohol consumption. “Also, they are drinking less, but drinking better, so we are building a more high-end premium portfolio with the acquisition of Patron (tequila),” he says. The third, is to innovate and create new products. The company is currently testing Martini Dolce 0.0 sparkling wine. “It is a wine like product which meets the consumer need to drink something non-alcoholic, but adult,” he explains.

In India too, there is a shift towards premium brands within the portfolio like Grey Goose and the recently launched Bacardi Ocho. Goenka adds that the market is now ripe for them to bring in their scotch portfolio with the trend towards premiumization picking up pace.

Looking ahead, Burke is focused on implementing the company’s ten-year strategy with an end goal to double the size of the business in that period. “The focus is on the value we’re creating for consumers in their lives and becoming the world’s leading premium spirits house. This is based on four pillars – making bold bets, reignite marketing, winning in on-premise and disrupting future moments that matter,” he says. This is what the company is super focused on trying to deliver for the consumer, and India, he says, will only grow in important for the company.