TAMPA, Fla. -- Diageo is testing ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktails in 12-oz. cans with the same alcohol content as most beers, AdAge.com reported.
A Tampa, Fla.-area test involves four brandsCaptain Morgan & Cola, Smirnoff Vodka & Lemon-Lime Soda, George Dickel Whisky & Cola and Seagram's 7 American Whiskey & Lemon-Lime Sodaand participating retailers said early returns were strong, AdAge.com said.
Diageo reportedly has indicated that it intends to expand the test to a larger geographical area, and to a fifth cocktail [image-nocss] featuring Crown Royal whiskey.
We see [RTD cocktails) as an untapped category, a Diageo spokesperson told the news outlet. We're anxious to see how consumers react to them.
While RTD cocktails are largely absent from the U.S. market, they've been widely accepted in certain overseas markets. In Australia, for instance, Beam Global Wine & Spirits sells seven million cases of Jim Beam Bourbon Whisky & Cola each year, a significant percentage of the Beam brand's Aussie sales, according to the spokesperson.
Despite that success, however, the marketer has not aggressively marketed the RTD product in the United States, choosing instead to focus on its signature bourbon. But Diageo's apparently successful test so farit is expected to run until next springcould potentially pave the way for a much larger RTD spirits presence here, a move that would serve as another offensive by spirits distillers into beer's traditional domain, said AdAge.com. It is also likely, however, to spur complaints by advocacy groups that pre-mixed cocktails may have appeal among too-young drinkers.
Like beer, these new products are about 5% alcohol by volume and come in 12-oz. cans, meaning they can be sold alongside beer in convenience stores, gas stations and beverage depots. With beer's share of the alcohol market falling to 51.6% from 55.5% since 2000, and spirits' share having climbed to 31.8% from 28.7% during the same period, any innovation that cuts into beer's portability edge will be viewed warily by brewers, the report said.
It extends the occasions [spirits] can penetrate, and in that way it's a threat to beer, alcohol-industry consultant Brian Sudano, managing director at Beverage Marketing Corp., told the website. It opens up picnics and beaches and even some concessions.
He added that RTD cocktails pose as much risk to traditional spirits as they do to beer. If the quality is there, you can just buy the [RTD] and not buy the spirit, he said.
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