Smirnoff’s cool extension:

They don't make brand extensions more successful. Smirnoff Ice sold 4.7 million, nine-litre cases in the last year. It has a presence in 28 countries and some suggest that it is so successful that it has begun to overshadow its parent brand, Smirnoff vodka.

Andy Fennell, president of global marketing for Smirnoff, claims that the brand started life in exactly the same way as all its parent company Diageo's innovations. "We are always looking at consumers and attempting to understand how we can satisfy them better than any current offerings.

"Then we look at our existing brands and see if we can improve them in any way to fill the gap. If we still feel that there is something missing, we'll consider extending and leveraging the values of an existing brand into a new product. If that doesn't work, we'll consider a completely new brand."

In the case of Smirnoff Ice, the company believed that there was a gap in the market for a drink that would appeal to both beer and spirit drinkers and which contained some elements of each. It also felt that the core values of Smirnoff vodka were strong enough to be adapted into a different form. "It also reassures the trade customers, like pubs and bars, if you extend an existing name," comments Fennell.

The company launched the opaque drink in the UK in January 1999 and the US in January 2000. The American and non-American formats are different. The non-US version (available in the UK) is closer to its parent Smirnoff brand, as it is a vodka-based drink. The American version is a non-vodka malt-based drink, which brings it closer to beer in that market.

Fennell explains: "We were looking for a drink in each market that would appeal to consumers in situations where they would previously have drunk beer or spirits. But the US and non-US version don't taste any different."

Smirnoff Ice is unusual in the ready-to-drink category because it is overtly targeted at men but also appeals to women. Alcopops have traditionally been the domain of female drinkers and the brand's success among both sexes is unusual for the category. Fennell claims that sales also tend to be split equally between the genders, except in Canada, where it is skewed towards male drinkers.

This gender-neutral positioning has been backed up with last year's launch of Smirnoff Black Ice, a reformulated version of Smirnoff Ice. The new clear drink was backed with an 11m [pounds sterling] marketing campaign in the UK. "This version of the drink is designed to convert those beer-drinking consumers who haven't been convinced by the ready-to-drink sector yet," explains Fennell.

It's too early to tell if Black Ice will be a success for Smirnoff, but Fennell's (Any of several aromatic herbs having edible seeds and leaves and stems) insistence...