Pimm’s summer drinks winners as dark nights beckon – Brand Index
The summer of sunshine to which the British public has been treated has presented a wonderful marketing opportunity to brands – especially alcoholic beverage companies – to cash in on consumer desire to have “fun in the sun”.
Pimm’s is a brand synonymous with summer, representing a traditional image of sophisticated alcohol consumption at parties country-wide. But how do other “summer drinks” brands compete against the dominant position Pimm’s hold?
Many cider brands have tried to position themselves as an alternative summer drink, notably Bulmers.
Our Ad Awareness metric reveals if a respondent has seen any adverts produced by a brand in the two previous weeks. Our data shows that until mid-May, Pimm’s and Bulmers were relatively well matched.
Since then, however, we have seen a steep improvement from Pimm’s, contrasting with Bulmers’ starting well, followed by a tailing off. Since the beginning of May, Pimm’s has an average score of 7.9 while Bulmers is behind on 5.0. Pimm’s has reached a high point of 14.1 against 7.6 of Bulmers over the period.
Our Purchase Intent metric can indicate how likely respondents are to buy a product. From the start of May, Bulmers has an average score of 4.4, contrasting with 7.4 for Pimm’s. Both brands may be slightly perturbed by decreases in their scores, however, at a time they would expect consistent purchase intent scores. Pimm’s peaked during this period at 9.5, with Bulmer’s highest score 6.2. With summer drawing to close, both brands will be hoping to capitalise on their current increased presence in order to boost sales before the nights draw in.