Callaway, Reversing Youth Push, Goes 'Coastal' for 35-to-55 Women

Brandweek,  July 3, 2000  by Theresa Howard

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After an unsuccessful push toward a younger demo, Allied Domecq Wines is renaming its Callaway table wine brand Callaway Coastal and adding spiffy packaging and a $6 million ad campaign to reposition it for women age 35 to 55.

The initiative, which reverses several years of positioning the 5-SKU line as "Wine for whatever," per the tagline, includes a shift in grape sourcing to the cooler inland coastal regions of Santa Barbara, Monterey and San Luis Obispo, at a time rival UDV has moved its Glen Ellen brand upscale. Volume for the $7-10 premium-price category rose 12.8% in 1999, per Gomberg Fredrickson.

TV, print and radio ads in select markets via Open Minds, Laguna Beach, Calif., along with POP, this October will introduce "Coastal Standard Time." The first two ads each feature an outdoorsy scenario in black and white, with a color product shot plus preview of "wonderful wine moments" Coastal Standard Time can deliver. A CST clock suggests the appropriate daypart for each wine occasion.

CST represents "the idea of a relaxed lifestyle and setting your own time zone said marketing director Ruth Souroujon. "For us, it is ownership of `coastal.'"

One ad shows four feet dangling from a hammock with the copy: "May we suggest a crisp chardonnay with your stud-muffin?" For a couple hiking on the beach, "May we suggest a smooth Merlot with your sunset?" POP via Earley & Earley, Half Moon Bay, Calif., espouses, "It's a matter of style" against laid-back imagery that also touts a CST clock.

TV ads, exclusively on A&E, suggest, for instance, "Enjoy a crisp chardonnay with A&E Biography" with CST set at the 8 p.m. broadcast time. Print ads run in A&E's Biography Coastal Living, Cooking Light and in metro dailies positioned alongside horoscopes, TV listings and the crossword (good with a "crispy Chardonnay").

Labels, neck bands and POP are all color-coded by varietal to eliminate the chance of any confusion in making the selection.

"Instead of making this a simple brand extension we have repositioned the whole brand," Souroujon said.

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