The Challenge

When John Walker found he had a knack for whisky, the largest whisky brand in the world was started in 1819 in Kilmarnock, Scotland, . His son Alexander took over the business after John’s death. He commercialized the business and started distributing the Scotch. He then passed the line down to his sons. At this point, Johnnie Walker Scotch whisky was incredibly popular. The creation of the brand included the Striding Man engraving and the defined square bottles with the diagonal labels. The line was in 120 different countries by 1920. The company was purchased and grouped together with other beverage makers to become the largest reaching alcohol giant, Diageo, in 1997. While Johnnie Walker has crushed the market for Scotch, they have not broken the ceiling. With the variety of products and reach that the company has, the glass ceiling could very well be increasing the level of female Scotch drinkers.

Since Scotch whisky is something mostly enjoyed by men, the desire to entice more women has been there. In 2018, the company faced backlash from the launch of a limited-edition bottle, “Jane Walker.” The bottle was the same blend as the ever-popular Johnnie Walker Black Label, except, featured a Striding Women, Jane. The problem arose when public relations made comments on how Scotch whisky was intimidating to women, hence the addition of the female icon. In return, this irritated the female drinkers the brand already had. Despite the brand’s use of various promotions, the content had room for improvement. They have put money into sponsoring Formula 1 racing, hosting elaborate elite parties, and advertising as part of Mad Men and Game of Thrones. Since the brand’s primary user is older men, the promotional activities in place were meant to target a younger demographic to expand the consumer base. These efforts typically focused on younger adult males; however, by creating more content to target the younger adult female, more women could be enticed to try whisky. With the correct content, then the female drinkers currently taking part would not be offended as they were in the past and more might be interested in joining them. There is no lack of inspirational female whisky drinkers today, Mila Kunis is a strong supporter of Jim Beam. Lady Gaga and Rihanna support Jameson, and Kate Middleton likes Famous Grose. This line up of women whisky drinkers should be inspiring to say the least.

My Move

The marketing goals would be to raise awareness on the brand, enlighten the female demographic to Scotch, and hopefully intrigue enough of a taste. Lately, alcohol sales are primarily targeted to women. Not only women do most of the shopping, but the idea of women drinkers is accepted. It is seen a lot more with pink labels and female posed names to entice more women. This has not worked in the past for Johnnie Walker; therefore, the brand should look into relating content to the female. Social media should be used in a way as to promote women drinkers rather than the current method of primarily cocktail recipe posts. This in turn would inspire women to look into whisky drinking and then Scotch drinking. The theme should revolve around magnificent and inspiring women, not only women who have attained high achievements, but those who are perfectly themselves, because not every girl loves White Claws and Rosé.

Johnnie Walker recently released a second edition of the Jane Walker label. This time, it was an original blend aged ten years and created by the master blender Emma Walker. They praised her for her brilliance of palette and science to create the limited release. The new bottle featured the Striding Woman, Jane Walker, as well as an original black and white label, with magenta font and a similarly colored cap. The campaign is a combination of several of Diageo’s whisky brands and is called “Craftswomen Today.”

To begin, my campaign compliments the Diageo ‘Craftswomen’ campaign. The theme is ‘Pioneer Women;’ however, each platform differs a little on the theme. The idea is to inspire women to be rebellious, to break out of the mold of stereotypical feminine beverages. A woman can enjoy black coffee more than a Pumpkin Spiced Latte, she can prefer boyfriend jeans to tulle skirts, and she can definitely drink whisky over a cranberry vodka. Today, the mold seems a little stronger because of the reach of social media. Societal norms are at a higher pressure than before. Stereotypical becomes normal and accepted.

The blog, “Why Whisky Is for The Independent Woman,” focuses on what a woman who drinks whisky gives off. This is something to be used to inspire. To begin, the title is catchy, features important keywords, “woman,” “whisky,” and “independent,” the first and last being the most important because of the statistics on women. This blog post is not only highlights the fact that women want to feel special and different but that most women are winning already. Controlling majority of the wealth and majority of the decision making makes women independent therefore, exactly the type of people, scotch is marketed towards. The blog post is aimed at finding those inspirational women in themselves. It is trying to look for the pioneer in each woman as herself.

The Instagram quotes are a little different. With these, the idea was to truly push the inspiring women posts and showcase women who will not have their bodies compared but rather their achievements. The idea is centered around women of the past, who perhaps did not get the recognition they deserved. A small historical tidbit is featured in the captions about these women. More so, it was attempted to put a Johnnie Walker spin on every photo by putting a bottle in every photograph. This is Easter Egg marketing. Easter Egg marketing gets people talking and brings them together while building a brand. People love to know secrets and have the opportunity to share them. It feels like gossip without the damage. Due to these same reasons, people are brought together because someone may have to ask how something was done or found. And finally, having these creates a word-of-mouth advertising that was not difficult to get started.

The final component of the social media campaign was a Facebook post. The choice was made to make this about the new Jane Walker by Emma Walker. The aim was to shine a light on Emma Walker and enlighten followers about the newest blend. Putting a new product on the market is always fun for Johnnie Walker because of the followers they already have. Giving a different view on the campaign from every platform offers something new for followers with every app. There is nothing to gain if all the posts are exactly the same, and therefore, allowing for a different post everywhere helps. Cross-posting may save time however; it creates a careless sentiment which would kill the campaign. Just like every network is different, every message should be different, even if just slightly. Furthermore, the networks have different demographics as well. Instagram is notoriously younger, liberal minded people, with majority being women. Facebook is the larger, older network. This is perfect for those people who most likely already take part in Johnnie Walker products. Therefore, the education of the new product seems more fitting on Facebook than anywhere else, and the need for a push for the Jane Walker is important for the women and Scotch campaign.

Johnnie Walker has wanted to apply to women for quite some time. They have made mistakes in marketing in the past, but today is a chance to clear the air. The best move should be to celebrate women and constantly show the world how many absolutely amazing and impressive women have lived, do live, and will live in the world. Women all over have constantly broken barriers, shattered glass ceilings, and changed the world. From people who perhaps get the deserved recognition like Marie Curie to those who slid under the radar like Maud Wagner, women all over are not afraid of life, not afraid of Scotch. It is time that the social media content inspires women, teaches them of the world, of where they came from. With a proper Pioneer Women campaign, Johnnie Walker can walk with women into the future where they lead the pack. Cheers!