Hyping sales in flat categories - marketing liquor and pet foods - Food Merchandising for Non-Food Retailers supplement - editorial

Hyping sales in flat categories

At first glance, you might think there is a world of difference in the pet care and liquor categories, both of which are profiled in this issue.

After all, liquor, in its most positive light, is commonly perceived as being a luxory or a raward to be indulged in by zestful and sophisticated human beings after completing some strenuous task, or as a prelude to some romantic adventure.

Pet care, on the other hand, conjures up images of frolicking cats and sprited dogs. The food is there to nourish pets that are, for many owners, substitute children or surrogates for human friends. The toys and accessories are there so we can indulge, pamper or reward our pet children/ buddies.

However from a merchandising standpoint, the pet foods and the liquors have a lot in common. They are both multi-billion sales categories that have a user/buyer base of several hundred million.

Both segments today can be said to have reached maturity, and in the case of distilled spirits, the category is actually declining in sales.

The challenge then that both pet food and liquor buyers face is how to build incremental sales in two relatively stable categories.

Buyers say there's only one solution and that's new product innovations.

"You can get growth even when sales in the category are flat,' says our buyer, "but you have to go to the trouble of looking for those new innovative items.'

In the pet food category, treats are a strong growth area and so are cat foods and kitty litter.

In our report on pet care in this issue, we include a list of some new innovative pet accessories that buyers say have done well in their stores this year.

In liquor, as you can see in our special report also in this issue, the growth areas are the wine coolers, the fruit flavored wines, the fruit flavored cordials and specialty drinks, and the low calorie beers and wines. In beer, imports are also a strong growth area.

In looking for brands to stock and advertise this fall, therefore, keep these buzz words in mind for liquor merchandising: healthy, refreshing, low in calories, low in alcohol, fruit flavored or carbonated.

In new product marketing, some of the things to watch are the following: Stroh Brewery is introducing a malt based, citrus flavored cooler called White Mountain Light. The brand has about 150 calories or about one third less than leading coolers.

Anheuser-Busch also has a low calorie cooler out under its popular Dewey Stevens Premium Light label. A $20 million ad budget helped the brand wind up ninth on IMPACT's list of Top 10 coolers in 1986, its inaugural year.

It's also interesting to note that the only real success in the distilled spirits category in the past two years has been the DeKuyper Original Peachtree Schnapps liqueur.

Last year, IMPACT says, DeKuyper's sales surged 38% in a down category, primarily because of expanded distribution on the Peach Schnapps. Buyers confirm it is a great seller.

Stroh is also adding a peach flavor to its White Mountain line, and Brown-Forman is doing the same for California Cooler.

Beverage buyers should also watch the Anheuser-Busch new flavored soda introduction, Zeltzer Seltzer, which Busch says is similar to wine coolers, in that Zeltzer Seltzer is "some thing utterly new in the world.'

There's no alcohol in Zeltzer Seltzer, but it does come in six popular fruit flavors including this year's hottest flavor: peach.

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