Spirited Insights: Diageo's Shweta Jain Shares Trends In 2023 & Strategies For 2024

In this exclusive interview with Shweta Jain, Chief Business Development Officer, Diageo, we delve into the intricate dynamics of the luxury spirits industry, exploring how Diageo has navigated the evolving landscape in 2023. Jain sheds light on the exciting trends, digital strategies, experiential initiatives, and challenges encountered by Diageo in the luxury and craft market. Moreover, she offers insights into Diageo's commitment to sustainability and its relentless efforts to expand its market presence. As we look forward, Jain provides a glimpse into what consumers can anticipate from Diageo in the coming year.

Excerpts:

What notable trends have you observed in the luxury spirits industry this year and how has Diageo adapted or capitalised on these trends?

We are seeing a very exciting repertoire expansion when it comes to affluent or aspiring affluent consumers, where there is huge sensitisation to occasions and within occasions, how can they experiment, explore, and at the same time, have their preferred spirit, cocktail or even rituals around it. That's the most significant trend we are seeing in the overall lifestyle category. The same consumer is interacting with different categories, subsegments and subcultures.

For instance, single malt was very dominantly associated with solo drinking occasions, we are seeing a significant expansion in the kind of varietals that the consumers want to try. We're also seeing that single malts are participating hugely in easy, sociable, casual occasions.

Secondly, there is a deeper role ‘boomtowns’ are playing in premiumisation. So premiumisation is not relegated just to top cities or the top end of the consumer set, which is very steep. But equally, we see more and more consumers in boomtowns now entering premium categories much faster without waiting to be a certain age or reaching a certain milestone of income threshold.

Considering the increasing digital landscape, how has Diageo utilised digital platforms to engage with consumers and promote luxury and craft offerings?

Everything that we do in Diageo is hugely accentuated on responsible messaging, as well as within the defined parameters of using that medium. I think the amazing part of digital is that it allows for experiences to be shared. I think the shareability has led to more and more people actively engaging to make the latest rituals or trends their own.

For us, it's not just about the experiences that our brands and ourselves are at the centre of. The digital and social world has made it extremely shareable and extremely replicable. What you experience in a great bar, the desire to replicate it at home is what digital and social have made easier for consumers.

Digital also means that more and more people can enjoy the stories or the culture that we are telling and creating. That is the big insight that we used on something like Walkers and Co. The heart of it is digital and social storytelling.

How has Diageo focused on enhancing the consumer experience in terms of experiential initiatives throughout the year?

One of the biggest things we did in the post-pandemic world is that we reimagined retail experiences around our category. The retail experience around our category was transformed by the teams in Diageo. We reimagined, how we can make it easier for consumers to discover newer brands, narratives or better ways of interacting with our category. We have started working very closely with our partners and the customers on that end.

The landscape itself in India has completely changed. You now have the world's top 50 bars coming in India and featuring from India. We've got ‘boomtowns’ which otherwise would have very limited food and dining experiences. A lot of growth for our partners in the FNB spaces comes from there.

We are upskilling the FNB community through platforms like ‘World Class’. The program teaches them how to run their bars and how to run their serving rituals.

We have also partnered with ‘Echoes Of Earth’ and other platforms as well. With representation, we are enabling more and more women to participate in the bar community through various platforms.

What challenges did Diageo encounter in the luxury and craft market in 2023, and how were these challenges navigated?

Regulatory challenges and more still exist, and we share that pain with other categories from luxury. We are having progressive conversations to make sure that Indian consumers are not deprived of anything best that the world has to offer because we all have to navigate a lot of regulations, duties and structures. We are having constructive conversations across the board, with partners, regulators in states, etc, to make that access for Indian consumers easy.

What sustainable practices has Diageo implemented in its portfolio this year?

We were at the forefront of removing cartons from all our premium and above segments. On a larger part of our portfolio, we are working with local communities on water regeneration. I will take the example of our brand, ‘Godavan’, which finds provenance in Rajasthan. We've worked on sustainability with that brand, the entire process of making ‘Godavan’ is completely water-positive. We have worked with the state governments and the Bishnoi community on sustaining the habitat of the Godavan bird because their population had fallen below 100. Now, with all our joint efforts, there are double-digit eggs that have been hatched and the population of the bird is slowly but steadily being maintained.

Can you share insights into Diageo's efforts to expand its market presence during this year?

We've added new innovations and we've expanded portfolios. We've got a couple of big innovations that have hit the market, including ‘Johnny Walker Blonde’. We've been very successful with the introduction of ‘Royal Challenge American Pride’. We've introduced ‘Johnny Walker Cities Edition’, which was a collaboration with an artist who imagined the cities of the future, London and Mars is a collectable edition. We've introduced flavours in ‘Baileys’ and ‘Tanqueray’. We've started our journey for tequila with ‘Don Julio’. I can go on and on, but all in all, we are committed to not depriving Indian consumers of the best of anything that is hitting the world and we have started bringing it in real-time to India.

What can consumers expect from Diageo in the coming year?

We will continue to bring our innovations and our culture in a big way. ‘Aravani’ is just one collaboration, ‘Black Dog’ collaborated with Trevor Noah a few weeks back. Keep us on the watch list, both on the cultural side and for bringing our Indian as well as global innovation. You will keep hearing stuff from our end.