A Multifaceted Approach

Vranken House Mixes Originality, Elegance, Nobility, and Luxury For Champagnes and Wines

By Ron Romanik

The Champagne region of France covers only about 131 square miles, but the Champagne houses there produce about two-thirds of the Champagne that is sold worldwide each year. The Vranken-Pommery Monopole Group is the second largest Champagne player in terms of turnover on the French and export markets, and Vranken has seen significant sales growth over the last two years.

This growth—now 10% of global Champagne sales—has caused Vranken to look beyond their already strong international markets and into a U.S. market still ripe for expansion. With 2006 being the 30th birthday of the Vranken House company, president Paul-François Vranken is investing in new packaging, marketing, and sales initiatives in the U.S. to educate the public about the Vranken brand offerings, all of which are strong on authentic heritage and premium quality.

The brands are king

Since the creation of the Vranken Group, strategic development has been focused on the marketing of international brands, with different and complementary offerings for a range of consumers. President Paul-François Vranken has stressed the group's strategy of developing its brands, which he believes are the cornerstone of the business and still represent an enormous growth opportunity for value.

In a missive published in early 2005, Paul-François Vranken made his company's mission clear: "Vranken-Pommery Monopole's objective is to conquer every Champagne-tasting moment on the five continents with the twin forces of Prestige and Luxury." The company has considerable assets to achieve this goal: one-thousand employees; dedicated sales and marketing teams; subsidiaries throughout Europe and the U.S.; agencies in Japan and South America; and—above all—its continuously strong international brands.

Continuous improvement

The Vranken House has no intention to rest on its laurels. The company keeps updating bottle designs of their core brands and keeps developing new products such as seasonal champagnes, smaller "split" bottles, and new gift boxes and carriers. Paul-François Vranken realizes that the allure of prestige and luxury can be fleeting, so historical heritage is always emphasized: Heidsieck & C° Monopole since 1785; Charles Lafitte since 1834; Rozès Porto since 1855; and Listel since 1883.

All of the Vranken brands have a premium price positioning, but the brand and packaging also carry a heavy load of conveyed emotion. It is this emotion that has led Vranken to carefully refresh their brands with new bottles and boxes that create an enticing allure at any consumer touchpoint. The most distinctive and bold design initiative is the new bottles of the Vranken Diamant line, which have facets reminiscent of a crystal chandelier.

The Vranken House breaks down its Champagne brands into complementary categories:

Haute Joaillerie (High Jewelery) - prestige vintages such as Diamant Bleu

Joaillerie (Jewelry) - high-end champagnes such as Demoiselle

Must (Fine wine juice) - such as the Charles Lafitte 1834 brand

Référence Historique (Historical) - such as Heidsieck & C° Monopole

Vranken has also added several wine brands to their portfolio in recent years, including Porto Rozès port wines, Rosé wines from Domaines Listel, and Pink Flamingo varietals.

STEEPED IN TRADITION

The King of Prussia, Emperor of Germany, issued a royal warrant in 1818 recognizing the high quality of the Heidsieck & C° Monopole Champagne. Even as early as 1895, Heidsieck distributed one million bottles worldwide.

The heritage has remained consistent over centuries, and the packaging for the Gold Top variety was given fresh polish for the 2000 millenium celebrations. The packaging supports the brand's values of tradition and exclusivity.

The popular Blue Top variety has a traditional green bottle with a bright yellow label, and the Premiers Crus variety takes the yellow onto the bottle itself for a more modern sensibility, similar to the new four-pack packaging (next page).

GENTLEMANLY MODERN STYLE

The Charles Lafitte & Cie brand was born in 1848 and rapidly became a benchmark in the world of wines and spirits. Numerous Champagne firms rely on Charles Lafitte & Cie to supply them with their distilled "Esprits de Cognac," which is used in the recipes of commercial champagne.

The latest label update harks back to the festive time of the brand's golden age in the Roaring Twenties. The Charles LAFITTE 1834 varieties are all united in the consistent use of the bright carnival-like stripes in a rainbow of colors. The brand's values emulate elegance, originality, nobility, and adventure, and the packaging conveys a strong identity with great visibility for a fertile U.S. market.

DIAMANT - NEW PREMIUM BOTTLES

Paul-François Vranken has updated his own line of premium champagnes with unique bottles designed by the French House of Baccarat. The Brut, Rose, and Blanc varieties are clear bottles with facets 4-1/4" up from the base that peak in diamond-shaped facets.

The vintage Diamant Bleu variety (du nom le plus rare du monde) is cut in familiar green dark glass with vertical facets 5-1/2" up from the base, which then transition to diamonds and curved facets up through the neck. However, the Diamant Blue bottle design has two smooth areas for the rectangular front and back labels in the lower part of the bottle.

These bottles and the ornate jewelry-style boxes they come in certainly convey a luxurious and rare experience, and a distinctive edge for the U.S. consumer. Vranken's stated ideals of prestige and luxury are clearly evident, as are confidence in the quality and craftsmanship of these premium Champagnes.

RESOLUTELY FEMININE BOTTLES

The Vranken House has developed the Demoiselle vintage brand to overtly appeal to the female Champagne shopper, almost to the exclusion of male consumers. The packaging is meant to convey femininity, sophistication, originality, and elegance.

Style elements are reminiscent of the "Art Nouveau" revivalist movement at the beginning of the 20th century as well as the "Nancy School" of art that immediately preceded it. The label even borrows one of the icons of the Art Nouveau period—the dragonfly.

The Demoiselle bottle is a unique creation that is identifiable among its category competitors. The Vranken House believes the Demoiselle bottle reveals its distinctive personality in harmonious roundness, softness, and lightness. For added softness, Vranken recently introduced new frosted bottles for the La Parisienne varieties of Demoiselle (shown here).

NEW LIFESTYLE CHOICES

The Vranken House has developed smaller versions of nearly all its Champagne brands to mimic or match the equity of the larger bottle shapes. These are key for giving options to U.S. consumers and their on-the-go lifestyles.

Vranken waited until technical innovations allowed the little bottles to produce the same quality champagne as 750-ml bottles before committing the brands to the new package size. This clever gift or carrier package contains four small "split" bottles of Blue Top champagne as well as four expandable plastic cups in convenient storage discs.

COLORFUL EXTENSIONS

The Vranken House has taken the heritage of Porto Rozès and updated it for the new millenium with brand extensions packaged in old-style Portuguese bottles. The Classic Port bottle, varnished and smooth to the touch, came onto the market with grease-proof paper round the neck and a cork sealed with wax.

The latest Colors Collection introduced three completely new and unique products and transformed the brand into a modern, unconventional, and fun space that is very much in the present. The White Reserve, Red Reserve, and Gold Reserve bottles are accessible and trendy, and clearly assert a new identity.