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The year 1975 saw the launch of a new liqueur, which not only revolutionized the liqueur market but also established trends which affected the whole spirits industry. The brand was Baileys Irish Cream, manulactured in Ireland by Gilbey's of Ireland, a division of IDV. Baileys was unique in two major ways:
(1) It was the first cream liqueur, using real double dairy cream. The world had seen nothing like it--but lost no time in copying it. Balleys lookalikes sprouted in dozens of international markets, id the cream liqueur sector was born.
(2) Another characteristic was even more influential. Hitherto, liqueurs had typically contained 40 per cent alcohol by volume--the standard proof for full-strength spirits. Baileys, however, is 17 per cent proof--the strength of a dry sherry. The effect on the drinks market has been crucial. The subsequent wave of liqueur-style products (sometimes known as "mixer spirits" since they are seldom drunk alone) are surly marketed at well below 40 per cent Malibu, for example, is 24 per cent, and Archers Peach Schnapps 23 per cent).
Bailey's sheer palatability, together with the accessibility of its low proof and concomitant low price) brought it instant success. Within eight years it was the world's top-selling liqueur. The problem for other marketing companies was how to compete with it and, two years ago, this problem arrived on our doorstep.
We are a new product development (NPD) consultancy, and Derek Roberts, the NPD director of Bass, is one of our clients. Bass had the technical capacity and know-how to produce cream liqueurs, and wanted us to help them to develop a brand of their own, to compete with Baileys. This was ironical, as it was we who had developed Baileys in the first place. At least this meant that we knew our enemy.
We knew that the dozens of previous competitors to Baileys had essentially been "me toos". Some had offered national variants--such as a base of Scotch whisky instead of Irish whiskey--but this was missing a point. Baileys was not trading on its Irishness, but on its creaminess. As it could not be outcreamed, all its competitors filled. All the world's cream liqueur markets tended to settle into the same pattern--Baileys as brand leader, plus a second brand...