Thoughts on the Sagatiba Sale

This week, in the midst of an earnings announcement that proved that people will find money for a drink in a crappy economy, drinks giant Gruppo Campari announced that it is buying Sagatiba for $26 million. Campari was Sagatiba's distributor in Latin America. 

As I've been telling cachaça marketers for some time now: If you can't figure out how to make cachaça a world-class category by 2014 (Brazil's hosting of the World Cup) or 2016 (the Olympics), then please, for the love of God, find another career. Global spirits companies like Campari have the resources to see what the possible opportunities are, especially as all eyes will be fixed upon Brazil over the balance of this decade. I hope this means that they'll put some strong marketing muscle behind the category. 

As readers know, I find Sagatiba Pura good-not-great though I think that Velha shows great promise. Preçiosa? Never tried it, though the prices it has fetched at auction have been the source of some entertainment.

One thing is for sure: I spend a good part of my day job talking about the importance of having the right brand ambassador in an increasingly networked world, and Sagatiba's John Gakuru is without a doubt the hardest working one I know.

Now... Is there going to be a Sagatiba Calendar? :)

Don't worry, ladies. The good folks at Campari have Benico del Toro for you.

Top photo credit: Wellington Silva

Comments

[Felipe]

Hello Phil, my name is Felipe and I agree with you: The World Cup is our chance to make cachaça a world class destillate. I want to invite you to see our work in Mapa da Cachaça (www.mapadacachaca.com.br and guia.mapadacachaca.com.br). All the best
Felipe

[Georges Lacombe]

Very nice Blog you have! I am from Rio de Janeiro too, and I have assembled a blog on Caipirinha to teach some friends how to prepare one. However I notice during my "research" that in YouTube you can find lots of recipes of caipirinhas. I posted several of that videos in my blog with comments if that videos is a fair way of preparing caipirinha. In fact my blog found several interesting crazy ways people use to prepare caipirinha and several variations, some ok and some really amazing. I hope you check there!