Dikshit has spent over two years in Diageo and one of his recent successes includes the on-premise activation of VAT 69. This activation brought to life the rich heritage of VAT 69 and recommended to the consumer how it is best enjoyed. In a conversation with Jagadeesh Krishnamurthy, Dikshit traces the evolution of the brand and the marketing strategies employed for the same. Excerpts from the conversation.

Trace the evolution of brand Vat 69 in India. How has the brand communication evolved over the years?

VAT 69, arguably, is the first scotch brand to land in India. While we do not have any archival records to prove it, but going by when the brand expanded across continents, i.e. Around 1930s that is when the brand landed in India as well. Hence, it has been in this space of premium scotch whisky for a long time now. This has given us a solid and loyal consumer base. And, Bollywood was also not too behind with a lot of screen characters romancing the brand in the movies.

For quite a few years, Diageo has not talked to its consumers about Vat 69. However, we have not seen a fall in the consumers adoring our brand. In fact, it has been growing just because of the quality. The makers of Vat 69 appreciate this fact and in the past two to three years there has been a slow and steady span of attention for the brand. It has always been a consumer's brand rather than a brand where a company has been pushing it. At Diageo, we have positively increased our focus on the brand, and we have started communicating the legacy of the brand. We tell them the story of how the brand Vat 69 was born and then we tell them how to appreciate the product by recommending food accompaniments.

Considering the sector you operate in, which has a restrictive communication space, how do you communicate to your audiences?

Unlike other sectors like FMCG products, you advertise on traditional mediums, the housewive interacts with the brand at the retail store, there is a certain recall she has and she buys the product. The product can be advertised across all mediums, and she might have been communicated about the brand through several sources like her neighbour, see a TVC, etc. What is different for scotch drinks is the high level of engagement that the consumer has, with the brand. There is a very high level of involvement of the consumer romancing with the glass in his hand. He sees his own personality being reflected in the brand that he consumes. All that is uniqu to the product. Hence, it makes a lot of sense for us to invest, not in terms of money, but in our mindspace to address that.

What is the profile of consumers being targeted for the brand? And, how long are you planning to extend the current campaign which was kicked off in March 2010?

One will be amazed to know how scotch drinkers have started becoming younger. The stereotype of a grey haired gentleman relaxing on a cane furniture in a club, completely relaxed in a colonial kind of setting, is fast being replaced by a guy who is really impatient for success. A guy who is really competent, knows what he has and consumes only the best quality stuff. That is the new guy in the scotch drinks category. This transformation is truly representative of the economic growth of this country. It is true not just for scotch drinkers, but age groups across sectors, including club memberships and premium cars and watches, are going down. Thus the age group is rapidly shifting downwards. At Vat 69, we have not yet started communicating to that segment of the audience.

Over the past few months, our focus has been on the on-premise activations. The known activations has been to discount your brand, give a free gift, lottery, etc have been the usual run-off-the-mill promos. We decided not to follow this, and decided to communicate that Vat 69 has got a huge legend behind it, and the brand stands for quality. If you want to appreciate the brand these are the recommended food accompaniments. This is the simpl thing that we are doing, and has been effective till date.

Is this the first on-premise activation for the brand Vat 69 in India?

Sometime back, at a smaller scale, we had a special blend for commemorating 125 years of the brand Vat 69. That had a larger focus on off-premise. On-premise, with this present scale and a clear-cut communication plan, this could possibly be the first campaign. Possibly, in the scotch drinks space, I would argue that this is the first of kind on-premise activation which are away from the freebies and lottery kind of promotions.

In terms of Return on Investment (RoI), on-ground promotions have never been measured effectively for a particular activity. So, how is Diageo evaluating the investments for this?

I will not be able to reveal much about what the RoI is, but on how we track these. There are two things. One are sales figures for that given night. Other is depletion levels at the locations. What the outlet sells in an outlet is tracked by agencies like Caffeine in Mumbai, Hyderabad and others. They put in a lot of efforts to get the sales figures to us on the same night of the activation from all the outlets where activations were held. In Delhi, Pune and Kolkata, we have other agencies to track the same. At the same time, we make an attempt to track the imagery score moved. For that we hire professional agencies to measure the same. Then there is another parameter of how much did Diageo sell at every outlet.

Are you looking at taking your on-premise engagement campaign beyond the metros and Tier-I and II towns?

In India, we have a good spread of income across towns. You will have excellent pockets with such people. However we want to optimise the way we go forward. We want to take our steps in a calibrated way. To this, I don't think we will be taking Vat 69 right up to a Tier III town for a one-to-one engagement with the scotch drinker, for which we will stick to Metros, Tier I and II towns.

Going forward, are you looking at engaging your consumers at non-consumption locations like airports?

As a brand, we will not do that. We would completely stick to the spirit of the Law. It is not the loopholes in the Law, but in the spirit of law that we respect.