Rosemount gets back in vogue;
They have changed the shape of the bottle, added a sophisticated sauvignon to their mainstay cheeky chardie and are even marketing the idea that wine should be served on the rocks. But perhaps the biggest challenge facing Fosters’s marketers is convincing a younger generation that Rosemount is the tipple of the trendies. New television advertising trumpeting its sponsorship of Australian Fashion Week appears on screens tonight. Rosemount is into the second of a five-year, multi-million-dollar naming rights deal, and its $8 million marketing campaign aims to go beyond the fashionistas to a wider market. The ads are the latest but perhaps most high-profile element of a campaign aimed at putting the once-mighty brand back on the map. Since Foster’s acquired it from Southcorp for $3.7bn three years ago, along with a swag of other brands including Lindemans and Penfolds, Rosemount has underperformed, leaving investors impatient for a return. Sales are increasing in Australia and Britain but are flat in America as cash-strapped drinkers turn to cheaper brands and old stock stubbornly hangs around shelves. Foster’s insists, though, that when Americans see and taste the relaunched lines, they like them. It is the gains that it has made in Australia that Foster’s is talking up as evidence that it is working. Sales of Rosemount have grown 55 per cent in value and 37 per cent in volume in the three months to the end of March on a like-for-like basis, according to Nielsen ScanTrack Liquor data. The overall wine market grew 4.6 per cent in value and shrank 1.8 per cent in volumes in the same period. Sydney Morning Herald, April 28.
