Normally, the marketing gurus will tell you, you don�t mix your brand with another. It has the potential to distract your customers and have your brand �contaminated� with the less desirable traits of your �partner� brands.
But for global whisky icon Chivas and luxury fashion brand Fabiani, theirs is a marriage made in marketing heaven.
Chivas, distributed by the Pernod Ricard group, is all about �exuberant luxury� while Fabiani (a chain of upmarket fashion stores owned by the Fabian family) regards its marketing motif as �luxurious passion�.
In an unusual marketing co-operation, the two brands have set up what they have labelled a unique �shoppertainment� experience. Four chic, cutting-edge Chivas bars have been built in the four key Fabiani stores around the country †at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, Joburg�s Melrose Arch and Sandton City and Irene Mall in Pretoria.
Patrons can enjoy a complimentary glass of Chivas as part of their shopping experience. But even though experience is sponsored by an alchohol company, teetotallers or those not in the mood for a tipple are also catered for. Chivas@Fabiani also offers coffee, cappuccino or espresso, all courtesy of the Nespresso coffee machines that are integrated into the bars.
The ultra-modern bars also feature plasma screens on which looped fashion footage is screened. These screens are an excellent marketing tool in that the videography was taken at the Chivas-sponsored Fabiani Fashion Show at the 2009 Audi Fashion Week.
In addition to fashion, advertisements from the Chivas �Live with Chivalry� campaign are interspersed throughout.
The screens are part of the window-dressing in stores, and are effective in drawing the attention of passers-by, emphasising the partnership between the brands.
Wayne Merris, Chivas marketing manager for Pernod Ricard SA, says: �We don�t feel there�s any risk or confusion in the message; rather a co-leveraging campaign where both brands benefit by communicating their association with each other.�
Importantly, for Pernod Ricard, says Merris frankly, collaboration with a cutting-edge luxurious men�s retail label helps represent Chivas �as the contemporary, luxury global brand that it is, as opposed to the historical stigma that the brand has had in the past of being an older man�s whisky�.
He adds: �The message is clear. Like Fabiani, Chivas is the whisky of choice of the discerning, upwardly mobile, younger consumer †the new generation of captains of industry in South Africa.�
Feedback from customers has been so positive that the stores will shortly be launching Friday evening get-togethers at the Chivas@Fabiani bars for small groups of their top clientele, by invitation only.