Winning with wines in the Pacific region

Katie Gee, senior brand manager at Pernod Ricard Pacific Travel Retail discusses the importance and recent success of the wines portfolio in the market

Katie Gee Pernod Ricard Pacific Travel Retail

“The wine category is a very important part of the Pacific travel retail business as it allows us to build and extend our brands in the domestic market and showcase our most premium products, as well as our innovations within the Pernod Ricard wine portfolio.

Travel retail allows us to reach the most affluent domestic travellers and engage them with exclusive products that are not available in the domestic market.  Additionally, we are able to connect international travellers to our local brands providing the perfect gift or memento to bring home as a taste of their travels.

In particular, we have noticed an increasing number of Chinese travellers visiting the Pacific region each year with a strong interest in Australian and New Zealand wine. Chinese consumers are an important group for us to attract as we know they are looking for unique, high quality products and have trust in our brands, due to the genuine heritage and long-standing success.”

Key Markets

“The largest market in the Pacific is Australia duty free with the Sydney and Melbourne airports being quite important.  In addition, New Zealand duty free is a significant contributor along with the domestic market business in Pacific Islands such as New Caledonia, Fiji and Tahiti. 

Australian and New Zealand wines are a focus for us being part of Pernod Ricard Winemakers, with key brands including St Hugo, Jacob’s Creek and Church Road. We are also seeing some retailers looking into international wine offerings which we are monitoring in order to assess opportunity to win for our other brands such as Campo Viejo and Kenwood Vineyards.”

Successful activations

“St Hugo Vetus Purum was launched last year in direct response to a demand for luxury wine in the travel retail market. This travel retail exclusive product provides a halo for the St Hugo portfolio and provides a rich brand story that resonates with consumers and authenticates its premium positioning. 

Products like St Hugo Vetus Purum allow us to demonstrate the winemaking expertise of our brands, gives credibility to our wines with both customers and consumers, and improves the overall perception of the wine portfolio to both domestic and international consumers.

The desire by travellers for exclusive products in duty free underpins our launch this month of the first Travel Retail exclusive range for Jacob’s Creek – Expedition. This range of premium red wines was developed to celebrate the journey of the winery’s founder, Johann Gramp. The range will launch exclusively in Pacific and Asia travel retail.

One key Travel Trail initiative we are trialling for Jacob’s Creek Expedition is a digital campaign targeting Qantas Frequent Fliers with forward international flights from Australia booked on dates aligned to coincide with the launch of product on shelf and in-airport activity.

From this initiative, we will analyse the types of consumer, where they are travelling and their response and engagement to the campaign.  We intend to use the learnings in a second phase to target the highest value customers with the greatest propensity to purchase.  These learnings will assist us in understanding more about the wine consumer’s Travel Trail journey and ensure we target the right travellers, with the right message, at the right time, and ultimately drive sales of our products.”

14 October 2015