There are many trends shaping the alcoholic beverage business in 2023.
The last several years have been good for the international spirits industry, with record sales and profits as the world has emerged from COVID-19-induced lockdowns. 2023 promises more of the same. To get a handle on the major trends impacting the spirits industry in 2023, I recently sat down with Adam Spriggs, US director at Thirst. This Scottish creative agency has helped build some of the biggest brands in the international food and beverage sector.
Founded in Glasgow in 2015 by managing director Chris Black and creative director Matt Burns, Thirst has worked on some of the world’s favorite food and beverage brands, including Brewgooder, The Botanist Gin, and Innis & Gunn. Their current client list includes global craft brewer Brooklyn Brewery and outdoor pizza oven giant Ooni.
According to Spriggs, these are the most significant trends shaping the spirits and packaging sector in 2023. These trends are occurring against a backdrop of rising interest in low-alcohol and no-alcohol beverages, especially among Generation Z. While that phenomenon is significant, it has not yet prevented the industry from racking up record sales and profits.
Adam Spriggs of Thirst branding agency at their Glasgow HQ. Photograph © Martin Shields
Premium Makeovers For Value Brands
Premiumization has been a significant revenue and profit driver for the spirits industry over the last two decades. That trend will continue, according to Spriggs, but it will increasingly focus on the premiumization of value-priced brands.
Per Spriggs:
Premiumization’ of offerings within all CPG categories is a continuing trend as shoppers view food and beverage products as economic opportunities to acquire affordable luxuries.
However, we expect consumer spending to gravitate toward more economical offerings with the continued rise of inflation. This presents a ripe opportunity for value-oriented brands to lean into this positioning while incorporating design cues, new storylines, and production finishes that suggest a quality standard that rivals more expensive alternatives.
A New Era Of Nostalgia Enters Center Stage
Nostalgia has been a recurrent theme in spirits marketing. According to Spriggs, however, the increase in the buying power of Millennials and Gen X entering their prime earnings years will drive a shift to era-specific symbolism in brands’ design and marketing efforts. Per Spriggs:
Brands will try to unlock nostalgic memories of this generation’s 80s and 90s upbringings. We can already see this in entertainment programming with the popularity of shows such as Stranger Things and Cobra Kai.
Enabling consumers to relive their childhood is a powerful purchase driver that can be unlocked through aesthetic symbolism, creating experiential time capsules digitally and in real life, and partnering with celebrities and icons from those eras.
Localized Adaptation
In a world where marketing trends are increasingly global, Spriggs feels that “unique, regionalized, adapted offerings that don’t just promote a ‘western aesthetic’” will become more prevalent in 2023.
Spirits consumption has always had an aspirational character. Typically, those aspirations revolved around assuming a modern, i.e., western lifestyle. But Spriggs believes that the aspirational nature associated with spirits consumption will have an increasingly local character rather than a generic western one.
According to Spriggs, “this is also an opportunity that will be especially leveraged within the Global Travel Retail (GTR) space.”
Mindful High-octane Drinking
Promoting wellness will become an increasingly common theme in spirits marketing. According to Spriggs:
Riding the wave of wellness and mindfulness, people are looking for ways to improve their mental well-being through consumables. From CBD and cannabis drinks to adaptogens and lo-no alcoholic beverages, people want a new buzz from their drinks while enhancing their well-being.
Despite the ever-evolving legal constraints around mind-altering ingredients, key markets from North America to Europe are paving the way for a fruitful category that will bring a new dimension to flavor and function.
Waste-free Wishing
Less wasteful and environmentally friendly, and sustainable packaging will become an important selling feature in the future, according to Spriggs, adding:
With consumers becoming more economical about what they buy and wanting to minimize waste, sustainable-led propositions will feel like a permissible counter-current to flashy propositions. Values-led buying is moving from a nice-to-have to an expected hygiene factor, but it will become an actual value added for those brands that do it well.
In conclusion, notes Spriggs:
While challenging for brands operating at a global scale, there are many points of impact to be considered, from process, distribution, ingredients, packaging, or even paying back to a cause.
All these factors will shape spirits marketing in the year ahead.