AgTalk | We look at ourselves as a luxury company: Moët Hennessy's Gaurav Bhatia

India is a complex market, and for products like liquor its even more difficult to reach out the consumers following the stringent advertising codes and ethics. But certain brands have managed to cut out the special place in the hearts of the consumers. Gelnmorangie is one of them. On the occasion of the launch of their new initiative Unnecessarily Well Made Creation by Dilip Chhabria, the Single Malt Scotch Whisky brand brouth together heritage and contemporary art. Adgully caught up with Gaurav Bhatia, Director, Marketing,  Moët Hennessy India, part of the world’s leading luxury conglomerate LVMH. 

 

Following are the excerpts of the conversation. 

 

 

Gaurav Bhatia (GB): It’s less about the initiative and more to celebrate things that are what we call ‘Unnecessarily well made’.  Being part of a luxury company which prides itself of craftsmanship, innovation, beauty and heritage of a brand that is from the 1800’s we are celebrating qualities of iconic brands like Glenmorangie which we belie are unnecessarily well made. Thus as a metaphor for that we are using another contemporary icon who is a maestro in his own field of cars and designs particularly to a level of obsessive art. So we believe that it’s a tribute to both brands – Glenmorangie and Dilip Chabaria.

 

 

GB: Though we don’t talk numbers, however I shall be delighted to say that we today, globally we are being recognised as the foremost single malt whisky’s of the world, in India, we are part of the top three list. Numbers is hard to speak but quality wise i think its one of its own in its spin. The innovations to the brand have been tremendous. Our goal is to convert blended scotch – whisky drinkers to experience the world of single malts and I believe that Glenmorangie is the perfect brand to jump start into that.

 

 

GB: One thing I would like to make clear is that single malt whisky’s are not and old man’s drink anymore!  Its all about holding on to our core values, but reinventing a brand and a product to make it contemporary, elegant, relevant and highly differentiated between the current audience.  We understand that the target audience today is highly critical of quality; we don’t have time for mediocrity. I believe that Glenmorangie has well superseded its goals to really appeal to such an audience. If one looks at the bottle, its very contemporary, modern, edgy, but doesn’t lose out on its heritage value of being an honest single malt.

 

 

GB: We completely follow the rules of Indian advertising and do not believe in soliciting consumption of alcohol. We believe in spreading awareness, and do that largely through events. We create lots of retail merchandising, in retail shops, airport duty free stores, and present at all the big key bars of the country.

 

 

GB: Firstly, Glenmorangie is not a liquor, we look at ourselves as a luxury company, and even as brand values, we do not compete in the malt category. We compete in the lifestyle category!

 

With eight years in Advertising on Madison Avenue and several clients like AT&T, Kraft and Sony under his belt, Gaurav Bhatia traded-in 900 plus bars in Manhattan to move back to Mumbai in 2006 to become part of the Luxury story in India. Bhatia has worked closely with Suzy Menkes of the International Herald Tribune to demystify Luxury trends in India and has been invited to contribute as Guest Writer for key publications such as The Economic Times, The Times of India, DNA, Business Standard, Business Today, Vogue India, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, L’Officiel among others. He has been featured on CNN International, NDTV, ET Now,Bloomberg UTV – to celebrate, debate and increase awareness of luxury brands in India. | By Ankita Tanna [ankita(at)adgully.com]