Rémy Martin named Supreme Brand Champion

The Spirits Business has awarded the Supreme Brand Champion 2016 accolade to Rémy Martin, reflecting the Cognac brand’s emphatic return to growth.

Leading the category’s resurgence, Rémy Martin’s nine-litre case sales soared 15.15% to 1.90 million in 2015, reversing steep declines posted the two years previous.

While the brand still ranks behind rival Martell in total volume sales, Rémy Martin’s bold strategic moves and compelling marketing campaign, One Life/Live Them, gave the brand an edge in The Brand Champions stakes.

“Success comes from the clear positioning of Rémy Martin at the higher end of the market, illustrated by the radical choice of Fine Champagne Cognacs made almost 300 years ago,” said Augustin Depardon, executive brand director at Rémy Martin.

“Thanks to extensive education programmes, consumers are learning to appreciate the quality and the difference that Fine Champagne is bringing.”

A renewed focus on driving the value, rather than volume, side of the business saw Rémy Martin move away from the VS bracket altogether. Instead the brand has focused on on “above VSOP” 1738 Accord Royal in the US and Club in Asia.

“These have proven a huge success,” Rémy Martin CEO Eric Vallat told The Spirits Business. “We’ve been growing by 50% in the US, so [growth] might have been anecdotal in the past, [but] it is now a product that is contributing to overall volume.”

While it is too early give a detailed analysis of the One Life/Live Them campaign, unveiled in October 2015 starring actors Jeremy Renner and Huang Xiaoming, Depardon is confident of its efficacy.

“The campaign is one key element of our strategy that puts the client at the vert heart of what we do,” he says. “It has been supported by a full sell-out action plan as well as a reset of our priorities of the product range.”

The Brand Champions 2016 has been published in full in the June 2016 edition of The Spirits Business, out now. Data will be made available online in the coming weeks.