Background
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The biggest distiller in the world Johnnie Walker is all set to take the Chinese drinkers by storm.
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It will try to woo Chinese customers with its 1910 edition whiskey and will boost it up with special bottle designs and packaging.
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The campaign is being run by Diageo Plc. from a converted French villa in the Shanghai district.
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Customers will be invited upstairs to be introduced to the finer points of distilling with a taste of the actual product.
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The Chinese market at present favors drinking of cognac which accounts for 66% share in the imported liquor market. Whiskey accounts for only 29%.
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The Diageo project is designed to increase demand for whiskey.
Whiskey in the Chinese Market
Trevor Stirling, an analyst from Sanford C Bernstein based in London says that Cognac has come under a luxury consumption class of alcohol consumption in China for the last 70 to 80 years. Diageo has ownership of one third the alcohol unit in China, LVHM Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA. There are however, limitations in the agreement for expansion of the brand in the region.
Spokesman for Johnnie Walker, Gilbert Ghostine said that it is easy for consumers to convert to whiskey as it is mixed with other drinks and is even drunk with chilled green tea.
