Tomatin Whiskey Repositions its brand

        Tomatin Whiskey Repositions its brand as not just a whiskey but a family tradition

 

    “Malt Whisky Tomatin Wants to Be Your New Family Heirloom” This title instantly jumped out at me while browsing through the articles in marketing news site AdWeek, personally I’ve always had a fascination with Whiskey and whiskey culture so I found myself curious as to what this brand could possibly do to standout in a market oversaturated in all manners of Scottish, Irish, American, and Canadian whiskeys of all ilks, let alone become my new family Heirloom, a rather bold statement in my opinion. Like anything with a staunch following, most whiskey consumers tend to have their preferred brand and are rather set in their ways, as such gaining any market share can be rather tough for a company especially considering the number of competitors claiming to offer superior product numbers in the thousands. To this end Tomatin Whiskey chose to go in a different direction. As stated in the article they are attempting to rebrand as a generational whiskey to coincide with their 125th anniversary, this is a fairly unique in a market that often chooses to go with more of a solo adventure motif as we can see in this add for Talisker Whiskey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh_h-2y3tg4. This is directly contrasted by Tomatins embrace of a more wholesome, less dramatic family angle. The second main point stated in the article is how Tomatin is trying to corner a younger target demographic with them metaphorically passing the torch from the grandfather to the granddaughter in this heartwarming ad they recently put out as their first in this new step for the company: https://vimeo.com/676343130. This leads into the third point of the article being their planned layout of this ad campaign in the UK starting on a syndicated television roll out followed by a Youtube, and Facebook roll out intended to capture more international eyes, with the goal being to place themselves as the premiere authentic generational Highlands whiskey. This ties into the value proposition of this company, or at least the direction they are trying to steer towards as more than just a whiskey, but an authentic Highlands experience to be shared with future generations of your family. This is likely aimed at overcoming the image many whiskeys have come to embody, that being a far more lonely single aesthetic one devoid of family and love, a veritable single person drink, to be enjoyed alone. Tomatin is of course trying to rebuild this as a drink to be enjoyed with your family and loved ones and to embody warm memories of life. To this end I find this ad to be rather successful at instilling those heartwarming memories, as stated earlier this is a rather unique approach for the alcohol industry as a whole, with ads generally steering away from family settings opting for more of a solo or young friends aesthetic, to this end this campaign is rather new and refreshing unlike older more derivative whiskey campaigns. As to whether it appeals to the younger buyer persona it targets, that's hard to say as it is too fresh a campaign to see any sales number increases or decreases of any note, but in my personal opinion I would say yes. This campaign embodies a sense of adventure and heritage that I believe many young people in the 21-30 range strive to embody these days. Personally there is little if anything in this campaign I would have changed, I found it to be a finely built 30 second short tale that not only featured the product being sold prominently, but also a warm sense of family most would find appealing. Unfortunately there is one drawback I found and that was their roll out over primarily Television and facebook, especially considering the younger demographic they are trying to appeal to. If I had any say, I'd try to push towards a roll out on streaming platforms such as Hulu, Paramount, or Netflix as opposed to legacy television. That being said this Ad campaign raised my personal awareness of the product, and I believe it will for many others as well. I wouldn't be surprised if Tomatin sees much higher sales numbers in the months to come as they release more ads of this type.

    

    

    If you would like to learn more about this company and their story you can find it on their site here: https://tomatin.com/our-story/

Article: https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/malt-whisky-tomatin-family-heirloom/