What have we got here then?!...

Upon my daily perusal of Brand Republic, I stumbled across some Tia Maria activity and I've got a bit nostalgic. One of our first projects on my postgraduate diploma was a Tia Maria re-brand, which we presented at Vizeum. I think Tia Maria is a fantastic on-trade brand and this can be seen in it typically being a bar staple in around 80% of venues. I do think that as a brand it has suffered in recent years, with consumer perceptions of it as a mature, uninspiring and lack lustre drink, which is rarely a drink of choice. But in having that standing in the on-trade as it does, and in being part of a strong holding company, Tia Maria are always in a position to change this.

Targeting young females, SATC types, the aspirational, the lifestyle assertive is a great start for the brand. Once it was dark and mysterious, now, in shedding some light on the brand and its associations, it can really enter people's drinking repetoires once again and truly be relevant to an audience which it could never really relate to in the past.

I am not sure what I think of sponsorship as a primary activity since their 'mysterious' positioning (bearing in mind, this is the first activity I have heard of in years, so if they have carried out anything else, I do apologise). It's good to develop those new associations with a defined audience in order to bolster new brand values, but I can't help thinking something stronger is needed to get the transformational messages across.

Nevertheless, well done Tia Maria. I salute you!