Evolution of drinking patterns picks up pace

Spirits trends are shifting more frequently today and although they last longer than the fashion industry’s six-month cycles, categories are evolving at similar rates to other lifestyle sectors.

Bacardi recently appointed Akiko Maeda into the newly created role of vice president of fashion

According to insight from Spiros Malandrakis, senior alcoholic drinks analyst at Euromonitor International, the alcohol industry falls within the lifestyle category and as such follows similar trend patterns as would be found in other industries.

“While trend cycles tend to last longer than six months it is becoming an indisputable fact that drinking patterns evolve much faster and more frequently than they used to,” said Malandrakis.

“Alcohol is first and foremost, a lifestyle industry. In other words, the drivers of change are aspirational and start with symbolism and the semiotics of style.”

He continued to explain how many consumer choices are formed off the back of celebrity collaborations with specific brands, from Iggy Pop and Sailor Jerry to David Beckham and Haig Club.

Furthermore, he added it was Bacardi’s most recent statement of creating the role of vice president for fashion that “formalised the affair”.

“From the ‘Mad Men’ effect making Old Fashioned cocktails suitably fashionable once again to immaculate fashionistas sipping Aperol Spritz shortly before it became the ubiquitous, pop culture and the zeitgeist provide the cues for both industries’ future directions, positioning and core message,” he explained.

“Bacardi continues being primarily focused on mature western markets where value offers the safest avenue for growth and fashion is – or at the very least is perceived to be – very democratised and relevant to a mass audience.

“The success – or failure – of the [VP for fashion] role will be closely watched by all major players. After all, they might join the party at a later stage, fittingly and fashionably, late.”

However, Malandrakis stressed the importance of not applying a “simplistic” approach to the evolution of consumer preferences from once spirit category to another.

He said: “The on-going shift from vodka to whiskies – or the proliferation of Bourbon within that whiskey stable in terms of current market dynamics – should hence not be analysed through the simplistic perspective of flavour profiles or even macroeconomic developments.”