Marketing in the News - Hennessy Mixes Things Up

 The article I chose is Hennessy refreshes brand with a focus on versatility by Sara Karlovitch. My reasoning for choosing this article is because it felt like an interesting change. Hennessy is the only cognac I know by name. It always felt like the ‘spy movie villain’ drink. Two ice cubes in a  glass half full is the first image in my mind. The article starts talking about the cognac moving towards being a mixer using five videos. The CMO of Hennessy speaks about wanting the classic drink to spread to the current and future generations. They want to stay music driven in ads moving forward, even using AI for the 50th Anniversary of Hip-Hop. The value proposition of Hennessy I believe is to provide a luxury drink at a still affordable price. Hennessy is trying to appeal to the newer generation in new sets of ads. Instead of releasing a new product, they want to reinvent the versatility of the cognac. Smirnoff does the opposite. They instead release new products by the dozen to fit every category you need. The big challenge I see is reaching the generation they want to. Hennessy, and cognac in general, doesn’t feel like it fits in with the modern drinking culture. Cognac feels like the type of drink you sip and savor, but most people are just drinking 6 white claws because it’s easy. Hennessy is pretty hard to drink, but the seltzer that rules colleges are pretty cheap and very easy to drink. Wanting to advertise the cocktail possibilities is really smart. It makes Hennessy seem a lot more appealing than just being some luxury drink. Hennessy has a firm grip on the market of cognac, especially in the United States. This challenge of reaching a new generation isn’t going to harm them, but it may not be as successful as they hope. This approach is really nothing new. Using marketing to try to grab the younger generation is pretty much what every company is doing. Generation Z is starting to reach drinking age (example: Me), so wanting to grab this new group of customers is what a lot of companies are shooting for. I think the approach is smart, but I feel like it moves away from the people that like Hennessy as a luxury drink. Wanting to be seen as a mixer ingredient feels a little self-sabotage to the luxury aspect. Diluting the taste of a supposed top shelf drink is an interesting move. What I would do is stick with the luxury idea. Hennessy is THE cognac brand for a reason. That reason being you get top shelf stuff for about 50 dollars. It may be harder to drink straight, but maybe that’s the point. Luxury is not cheap, so I think it’s better not to water it down. What I learned is that even alcohol has to change with the time. The luxury alcohol market has to be weird. The best thing I can contribute it to is coffee. There will always be experts, and people who just want to get drunk.