An object of desire

Packaging is an effective part of a brand’s marketing strategy. And with liquor, sometimes the bottle that holds it can be as much a reason to buy it as the drink contained within. The bottle itself can even become a collectors’ item. There are bottles that are rare, luxurious, artistically beautiful, or otherwise interesting — and that means that they’re some of the most sought-after liquor bottles that money can buy.

It’s amazing that we have come from storing liquids in a leather pouch in our early days to creating masterpieces of art that demand a space on the shelf. Subsequently, there is a vast makeover and how today’s world treats alcoholic beverage bottles.  

For the established brands, it’s a great way to gain publicity and utilise limited edition marketing to either create  true collector’s items or simply justify a higher price point. For most of the newer brands it’s a bit of tradeoff.

As it’s not easy getting into the liquor business, they create a bottle that becomes a novelty. This helps generate buzz and get consumers to try their product. Businesses under these segments market their products as limited edition with a killer price tag, which attracts buyers to shell out their wealth and make them feel one in a million.

From a marketing perspective, do these payoffs or is their creation more of a celebration expense? Let’s find out…

Louis XIII Black Pearl Cognac: Louis XIII Cognac is at the top of high-end cognacs. It’s a unique and rare blend of liquor, aged between 40 to 100 plus years, in the Grande Champagne region of France. Though normally the brand goes for around $2,000 per bottle, this limited edition “Black Pearl” is listed for four times that amount. The bottle is  a uniquely coloured Baccarat crystal that reflects and refracts light like no other bottle before.

Macallan Crystal Decanter: This one kind of a bottle is not only a work of craftsmanship but also holds the oldest and rarest Macallan single malt ever bottled. It sold at Sotheby’s for a whopping $460,000 in 2010, making it the most expensive bottle of whiskey ever sold.

Ladoga Imperial Collection: The premium vodka brands are getting into the upmarket bottling row as well. Ladoga created a classy Venice glass decanter for their Imperial collection. The decanter is detailed with 24-karat gold trim and inspired by Faberge eggs; when opened, the “egg” reveals the bottle and four cleverly mounted shot glasses within. The decanters come in a variety of colours, each suitable as a lovely collectors’ piece for any vodka fanatic.

La Collection
Hand-Blown Glass Bottles: This Armenian brand takes its bottle designs very seriously. La Collection features several hand-blown glass bottles representing a variety of animals, including a bull, a horse, and an elephant, plus a few bottles shaped like other objects, like guns, a sword (with sheath), a menorah, and a ladies’ dress shoe. It’s a brand worth collecting just for the unique glasswork alone. Even technology has a part to play. Medea Vodka displays a message on a bottle! The LED display can remember up to six messages as long as 255 characters each. That’s right — each message contains more info than a tweet on Twitter! The batteries last about a year as per the website. Personally, I will rather stick to my humble, Dettol shaped Old Monk bottle. So what’s your favourite bottle?
Ketan Swami is the food and beverage manager at Mars Hospitality