Chivas Regal Gets a Makeover:

Chivas Regal, the high-end Scotch whisky had many years of success since its inception in 1801, but began declining during the 80’s and 90’s until a Frenchman by the name of Christian Porta acquired the brand in 2000 from Seagram for 2 billion (pounds).

During the 1960’s and 1970’s, Chivas Regal had such a powerful presence in the market that people would ask for a “Chivas on the rocks”, instead of a “Scotch on the rocks.” But after these decades, Chivas’ image started to falter and lost market share to its main competitor Johnnie Walker Black Label, owned by Diageo. In 2003, Mr. Porta made small, subtle changes to the packaging and went into an aggressive 45 million (Euro) advertising campaign in which Chivas used its new catch line, "This is the Chivas Life". These commercials featured scenarios such as: traveling without a destination in mind, sailing a yacht and ice-fishing in Alaska. The new commercials and catch line were obviously trying to target younger consumers with this more “extreme” kind of message to it, whilst trying to maintain its older customer base: "The objective of it is to attract younger people, rejuvenate the brand and increase Chivas's approachability” says Porta.

In 2003, Chivas Regal’s sales increased by 7%. Although this number isn’t significantly large, it is a great improvement over the 1% - 3% sales drop per year that began during the mid-1990s. “The early signs show that with the new campaign and the new packaging we have reversed its decline". The image decay and then subsequent sales slump, seemed to come from neglect by Seagram, probably due to the fact that they must focus on many products and not just Chivas. What this brand needed was exactly what it got, a single non-corporative owner, with new ideas that could meticulously buff-up Chivas’ image and give it new life.

Adam, Amy, Braden and Fabio