Liqueurs report: Packaging

Experts from design specialist Seymourpowell look at how aesthetics can drive sales

-------------------------------------------------------

AT FIRST SIGHT LIQUEURS IS NOT THE MOST INNOVATIVE AND VIBRANT CATEGORY.

To an outside observer, it has been stagnant for some time. The exaggerated sweetness of liqueurs makes them somehow less noble than spirits, and often that seems to be mirrored in the packaging. Moreover, a high abv content means their destiny is often to be diluted. 

So as brand designers, we asked ourselves, what do liqueurs have to do to be successful and relevant today? What are the exceptions and what do they do differently? What is the recipe for success to make a new liqueur more than a traditional cocktail ingredient but a brand in its own right – or even a benchmark in the spirits category? What makes a liqueur megabrand, with a ritual it can own, and an identity that remains intact even when mixed?

Creating or recreating history

Established liqueur brands have a weighty heritage making them the ultimate reference component, rather than a regular mixable spirit drunk throughout the year. They are not necessarily expressions of their ingredients and most people don’t really know they are drinking a liqueur. They are drinking a brand, and they are blissfully unaware it has category cousins. Liqueurs follow their own code and traditions; the faux nobility comes from brand stories and 100-year-old secret recipes. 

Chambord embodies the archetypal monarchic aesthetic, as if it were an ornament borrowed from the French château, thus embodying its brand DNA perfectly. A 320-year-old recipe, one of Louis XIV’s favourite drinks when he used to visit Chambord, but on the other hand a very feminine and quirky advertisement campaign with the ‘Frenglish’ strapline: Because No Reason. This balance between premium heritage and modern wit gives it some relevance to today’s world – premium but accessible.

However, a liqueur doesn’t have to be around for centuries to be classic and credible. St-Germain Elderflower liqueur was introduced in 2007 by the American Coopers Spirit Co, yet its beautifully crafted bottle design grounds it in 19th century French Art Nouveau in both a contemporary and authentic way. Even the point-of-sale displays, designed to look like fine Empire cabinets more than the usual awkward cardboard gondolas, contribute to the brand storytelling. 

Masculine or feminine aesthetic

All liqueurs contain added sugar and a high abv, yet certain flavours such as red fruit, vanilla, cream and vodka tend to be positioned in a feminine way and others, such as coffee, whisky or spices, positioned for a more masculine market.

St-Germain is made from flowers that are gathered in a time-honoured artisanal way from the hillsides of the French Alps. 

Despite its floral bouquet this liqueur is definitely positioned to go beyond gender stereotypes, as a new classic. If you didn’t know, you would believe it’s been around French bistros forever. Praised by The New York Times in 2009 for having “almost single-handedly invigorated the moribund liqueur category”, the crafted bottle design and branding played a big part in making it a game-changing liqueur. 

The attention to detail in the bottle design echoes the attention to details given to fragrance packaging, where margins are made on the perceived value of the luxurious vessel.

So many liqueurs sit in the feminine space of guilty pleasure. Baileys Chocolat Luxe is clearly about indulgence and richness. In the brand communications the dark bottle is wrapped in gold foil to mimic the opening of a premium dark chocolate tablet, thus capturing very well that known ritual and all its emotional resonance. The bottle itself breathes chocolate indulgence.

The new bottle design for Jago’s vanilla cream liqueur also shows a more feminine and seductive positioning against its more generic original presentation. It now looks more premium, and more generous. The bottle shape is tapered and characterful, unlike the first tall, straight bottle. 

The graphic treatment of the bottle shoulders with delicately interlaced pattern work is definitely a more seductive approach than its stiff predecessor. On its relaunch it went from looking like a generic gender-neutral coffee liqueur to something softer and more indulgent: a reappraisal of the core market ingredients and a complete U-turn from its competitors. 

Mix-up looks sharp

An old classic can also gain nobility by association by blending a premium variant of the liqueur with a more premium spirit. Grand Marnier Quintessence blends grand champagne cognac with Grand Marnier.  

Costing a modest £500 (compared to other limited editions) it is marketed in a very cognac-like, yet modern, crystal bottle, reminiscent of Grand Marnier’s bottle proportions. 

Very beautiful, achieving the brand halo effect, and as far away from affordable liqueur as one can be. Will it make the brand inspirational and boost its stock in premium cocktails bars? Does it reinvigorate the brand and deliver a message of premiumisation? 

The smell of success 

Looking at this from a different angle, and again from the French market, there are many parallels that can be drawn between successful liqueurs and fragrances. Like fragrances, the most successful liqueurs are complex blends of ingredients, elegantly bottled and communicating not the hero ingredients but the brand values.

Unlike the relatively stagnant liqueur industry, aspirational fragrance brands from fashion houses have tapped into the liqueur heritage in a number of surprising ways – Thierry Mugler’s perfume liqueur is a prime example of this.

Mugler took three of its most feminine scents – Angel, Alien (right) and Womanity – and transformed themvia a short barrel ageing. 

The process allows the perfumes to ferment for six weeks in exactly the same oak or toasted cherry wood barrels used to produce fine liqueurs. In their new form, each fragrance reveals new aromas.

This creativity in liquid development might just spark some new ideas.

We should also remember that the hugely successful Hpnotiq was inspired by a blue perfume bottle which its creator saw in Bloomingdale’s. The brand worlds of perfume and spirits of all categories always intertwine.

But shouldn’t liqueurs go beyond what they are made of? Be more mysterious about their recipes? Create something you are drawn to because it’s more than an ingredient? If the product is devised to be diluted, isn’t it more difficult to stand on its own two feet?

You’ve got shelf appeal…

More a case of nomenclature, than category migration, there is a whole new range of brands moving into the liqueur category bringing the aesthetics of their core brand category.

Fireball, the cinnamon whisky liqueur, for instance – it doesn’t feel like a compromise on real whisky. It doesn’t look like the usual whisky liqueurs either, which tend to be a softer shape than the parent brand. 

Fireball ‘whisky’ isn’t a nightcap and its shot ritual certainly doesn’t need mixing. Aimed at younger adults, itlooks edgy and seems to have an irreverent underground pirated heritage. It’s also a very successful liqueur precisely because it doesn’t behave like one. The whole brand aesthetic is contemporary, dynamic and fearless.

Reinvigorating the liqueur market could just be about breaking the rules for packaging and branding. It doesn’t have to be a sub-product for the faint hearted, or just another cocktail component.  

Give it a memorable name, start from an authentic brand story, a product with an unexpected challenging twist, single-minded branding proposition and bottle design celebrating its uniqueness in the boldest of ways to intrigue and attract new consumers. 

As brand designers, we always say you can’t knowingly create an iconic design, as it becomes iconic with time. That being said, you can create something that communicates the brand in such a beautiful coherent way that it feels timeless and has the full potential to become an icon. 

Unless new ingredient combinations are found, a new orange liqueur will struggle to replace a traditional one as the ingredient of reference for cocktails and beyond.  In other words, salvation won’t come from becoming just a competing cocktail ingredient.

There are hundreds of orange liqueurs, but only one Cointreau. 

To a casual observer, the liqueur category seems to have lost momentum; the growing brands are known by the brand name and are not necessarily recognised as liqueurs by their drinkers.   In fact, most of these growing brands have been around for decades.

If, as a brand owner, you want to take on the big brands, then it’s time to move the goal posts with new risqué recipes, new serves, new brands, new designs and new consumers.

Tap into the trends

Powerful universal global trends in food and drink always find their way into the spirits market – right now the obvious home for current trends is liqueurs.  

There is certainly a place for a new generation of liqueurs. Food and drink has moved away from colours and additives, and towards superfoods and provenance. 

It’s all about natural, heritage, and even foraged. This is fertile creative territory for liqueur distillers.

The holy grail would be a new style of liqueur which is perfect just over ice. 

It’s more than likely those in the world of cocktails will inspire the next generation of liqueurs by tapping into the food and drink trends of major world cities.

So, in the not-too-distant future we will likely see a Thai basil and lemongrass liqueur. However, the successful version won’t be branded like that – it will fit into the exotic category and will be served with frozen fresh lemonade. 

We might see bergamot and kumquat liqueur delicately fragranced with jasmine, drizzled into champagne or prosecco.   

The accompanying pack and decorative aesthetic will draw heavily on fresh food and ingredient design codes. Cold pressed juices are setting the soft drinks world alight – liqueurs will find parallels.

So we believe there is still huge potential for new aesthetics in branding and packaging for liqueurs.  

The blockbuster will be non-gender specific, will set a new language… and over time become iconic. That is not to say this is an easy task, but as an old Russian proverb goes: “He who doesn’t risk, never gets to drink champagne.” Or liqueurs, as the case may be.