Despite some of the very recent trading challenges, the US remains the dream market for spirits companies and brands. It offers a bredth of popular categories, increasingly knowledgeable and informed consumers and a myriad of brands ranging from mainstream pricing to super premium and beyond. 

Whilst Asian markets in particular are responsible for significant super-premium+ sales, the US offers a range of brands at this price point across nearly all major categories, with volume as well as margin. 

Given this environment the US remains market to crack in order establish the scale necessary to deliver an attractive ROI (back in the day brands such as Belvedere and Grey Goose simply could not have been launched in any other market). 

The dilemma for super premium brands looking to expand beyond the US is to understand if they can ‘break the code’ and build attractive volumes, or just accept that key influential cities such as London, Berlin, Shanghai and Singapore are more a part of the brand’s international PR and comms strategy instead. 

Each category has its own challenges in this respect.  

Super-premium versions of vodka outside of the US have struggled to convince consumers of the extra value they offer beyond packaging, and marketing. 

Tequila, although in growth is still struggling in the rest of the world with lingering ‘bad experiences baggage’ and a lack of education and confidence of investing means a bar call is hard to land for brand, even if certain serves are gaining pace. 

Whiskies such as Bourbon & Rye can only achieve any super-premium volume within the US. 

The key might be local intel. Understanding what represents ‘premium’ at a market level, what cultural trends can be tapped into, which need to be avoided? Can a product be versioned to an extent to drive more appeal and resonance? One to ponder…