Beverage brands can use halo from wine, spirits to market brandy
In Rabobank's new report about the U.S. brandy market, the New York-based financial services company identifies a clear market gap in what logically should be the segment’s strongest price segment — premium brands. Between the value, low-growth end of the brandy spectrum and the fast-growing, super-premium Cognac end, there is a potential opportunity for spirits companies to tap into the growing appetite for premium spirits among sophisticated, affluent U.S. consumers, it suggests.
The premium brandy gap, in Rabobank's view, stems from the U.S. view of Cognac and brandy as separate categories, each with its own niche set of consumers, it explains. Domestic brandy (non-Cognac) is a price-sensitive segment with lackluster sales, and this segment’s consumers tend to be older, white and less affluent, it notes. Cognac, on the other end of the spectrum, holds a strong position in the African-American market, and price growth of super-premium Cognacs is outpacing the market, it says.