The Edrington Group owns and produces some of the best known Scotch brands in the world including Cutty Sark, The Macallan, Highland Park, and perhaps best known of all, The Famous Grouse (Famous Grouse).
Since it was first developed in 1896, The Famous Grouse brand has been at the forefront of innovation within the Scotch whisky industry. The introduction of a cask finished range, the highly successful The Famous Grouse Malt range and a stunning new packaging design for The Famous Grouse Finest continue to demonstrate this commitment to on-going innovation.
Cammax Limited’s senior personnel have been working with the Edrington Group for nearly 20-years, providing a wide range of IT systems including touch screen and bespoke kiosk software solution. The Famous Grouse brand team raised an exciting new proposition. Market research had shown that there was an excellent opportunity in the personalised labelling market and this was a market that the Famous Grouse brand was in a unique position to maximise upon.
“The biggest challenge was how to produce personalised labels easily and efficiently – and without compromising on the integrity of the brand.” George Hollas, Cammax, explains: “The Famous Grouse logo is famous the world over. It was really important that any labels printed had to remain true to the clarity and accuracy of the colours contained within the existing logo. Clearly they need to be adapted to be personalised, but for this to work effectively then the quality of the colour has to be absolutely spot-on.”
There was a further challenge. Famous Grouse had spotted two distinct opportunities in this market. The first was an on-line service for both one-off purchases and for larger direct marketing programmes. This could be handled at HQ. However, the second and potentially more exciting opportunity was for personalised labels at kiosks: “Because of our experience with bespoke business solutions we were asked by Famous Grouse to develop a tailored kiosk solution. So, if the consumer is in duty free at an airport, for example, he or she can go to the kiosk, follow the touch screen instructions to print off a personalised label – a birthday greeting for a spouse for example – and the take the label and the whiskey to the counter where the assistant simply covers the existing label with a unique personalised label” said George.
All of this meant that George and his team, working closely with Famous Grouse, developed their own personalised labels software application to meet the challenge. Three versions of the product were developed as follows:
Each version has been a resounding success to date, providing a rapid return on the project investment within a few months of launch.