*By Kim Chyan, Vice President of Marketing at Flaviar, Inc.
The premium spirits market in 2025 is paradoxical: booming in brand count yet constrained by inflation, shifting consumer spending, and tariffs that disrupt global supply chains. Consumers are trading up—but only for brands that earn it.
For new or emerging spirits brands, this means the challenge isn’t just making great liquid—it’s about carving a distinct, desirable brand in a saturated and fragmented space. Success hinges not on scale, but on strategy: how brands are positioned, tell their story, and design their presence both online and offline.
Claiming Space: How to Carve Out a Brand People Actually Remember
In a crowded category, vague positioning is invisible positioning. Without a clear point of view, brands become just another bottle on the shelf. A strong positioning helps attract the right audience, create emotional stickiness, and align internal decisions from pricing to partnerships.
Seedlip provides a great example of brand positioning. It’s positioned not just as a non-alcoholic spirit, but as “what to drink when you’re not drinking.” This reframing allowed Seedlip to own the sophisticated no-proof occasion, rather than compete directly with gin or vodka.
So how can other brands do this?
- Find a whitespace
- Identify emotional drivers
- Craft a positioning statement
Use Competitor Mapping to Find Whitespace
Whitespace refers to unmet needs, underdeveloped areas, or untapped opportunities in a market that a new brand can uniquely fill. It’s the strategic “open space” where competition is low or absent—and where a brand can carve out a distinct, ownable position.
Think of it as the opportunity zone between what competitors are doing and what the audience is craving. It’s not about being different for the sake of it—it’s about being different in a way that’s relevant and valuable to the audience.
Identify the Brand’s Emotional Drivers
Is the brand about rebellion, ritual, or refinement? Emotional drivers are the deep, often subconscious needs and desires that motivate people to choose one brand over another. In spirits branding—where many products taste good and the differences can be subtle—emotion is often the deciding factor.
“Rebellion, ritual, and refinement” are three core emotional territories that premium spirits brands often tap into. They help define a brand’s tone, attitude, and cultural relevance.
- Rebellion: Challenging norms, going against the grain, offering a bold alternative to the expected—whether in taste, design, origin story, or marketing tone.
- Ritual: Offering tradition, ceremony, or a moment of grounding. These spirits are about connection, routine, or celebration.
- Refinement: Representing sophistication, elegance, and taste. This is for those that appreciate craftsmanship, rarity, or status. This is the “premium” play in its purest form.
A great example of this is Teramana, a brand that meets its audience with the rebellion driver. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s tequila disrupts the idea that celebrity brands can’t be real, community-first, or affordable and premium.
Craft a Positioning Statement
After a whitespace (your market opportunity) is identified, along with an emotional driver (rebellion, ritual, refinement, or others), the positioning statement becomes the bridge between insight and execution.
A positioning statement is not a public-facing tagline or slogan — it’s an internal tool that defines a brand’s unique space in the market. It combines who they serve, what they need, and why a brand is the best choice—in one sharp, focused sentence.
The Five Key Components of a Positioning Statement
- Audience – Who is the target customer? Use specificity for demographics, lifestyle, mindset, etc.
- Need/Insight – What unmet need, tension, or desire do they have?
- Frame of Reference – What type of product is being introduced, or what category is it playing in?
- Benefit – What core value or experience does the brand deliver?
- Reason(s) to Believe (RTBs) – What facts, features, or emotional truths make this benefit credible?
An example of this in action:
For mindful drinkers seeking more intentional social rituals, Solstice Mezcal is the ceremonial sipping spirit that creates meaningful connection through tradition and time—because it’s small-batch distilled by indigenous producers and tied to seasonal cycles and storytelling.
✔ Audience = Mindful/socially conscious drinkers
✔ Need = Craving meaningful moments
✔ Frame of reference = Sipping mezcal
✔ Benefit = Creates connection through ritual
✔ RTBs = Seasonal cycles, indigenous production, small batch
Storytelling: Build a Brand People Want to Share
Consumers today don’t just buy what a brand makes—they buy why the brand made it. A good story turns a brand from a product into a platform. A great story turns a brand into a movement. Especially with younger consumers, brand values and personality often matter as much as taste.
Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey tells the story of Nathan “Nearest” Green, the first known African-American master distiller. The brand not only honors his legacy but has built an entire education and entrepreneurship platform around his name—turning a powerful historical narrative into modern brand equity.
Here’s how to start building a story customers will want to share:
- Use a story to communicate not just how the brand is made, but why it exists.
- Translate that story into videos, social posts, tasting scripts, and sell sheets.
- Build founder-forward narratives into PR and influencer seeding kits.
A brand story is not about its origin alone. It’s about what the brand stands for in the world.
The spirits world often defaults to storytelling that focuses narrowly on origin: where the spirit is made, how it’s distilled, who founded it, or which region or tradition it draws from. While origin is important—especially for establishing credibility, craft, and authenticity—it’s only one piece of a compelling brand narrative.
A modern brand story goes beyond where it came from to say something meaningful about where it’s going—and what the brand believes in.
In 2025, consumers (especially Millennials and Gen Z) aren’t just buying products—they’re buying into values, worldviews, and culture. They want to know:
- What does this brand represent?
- What kind of world does it want to help create?
- Does it align with how I see myself or want to be seen?
Visual Branding: Make the First Impression Count
Design is often a brand’s first and only chance to communicate—on shelves, back bars, e-commerce tiles, or social feeds. Strong visual identity builds instant recognition and recall, which is critical when physical retail discovery is limited.
How do brands do this?
- Invest in professional packaging design—cutting corners here can cost a brand dearly.
- Ensure branding is consistent across packaging, digital channels, merchandise, and POS.
- Think in terms of a system: fonts, colors, iconography, and usage rules should be codified in a brand book.
Ask: Can someone recognize this bottle in a photo with the label partially covered?
If not, the visual identity might be too generic. Casa Dragones tequila has mastered minimalism with its crystal-clear bottles, hand-labeled aesthetic, and elegant blue detailing. It signals premium before a consumer even takes a sip.
Marketing: Connect Across Channels with Purpose
Even the best brand needs distribution—and distribution without marketing is wasted shelf space. To build awareness, trial, and community, brands need a strategy that spans digital, trade, and on-premise touchpoints.
Online:
- Instagram and TikTok: Post short-form videos showcasing cocktails, behind-the-scenes, or cultural relevance.
- Email & SMS: Deliver founder letters, seasonal pairings, or early access to drops.
- Influencer seeding: Prioritize bartenders, food content creators, and cultural curators that align with the brand’s values.
Offline:
- On-premise activations: Custom menus, staff training, or exclusive nights help drive pull-through.
- Events: Target premium audiences through pop-ups, art collaborations, and chef dinners.
- Retail programming: Use shelf talkers, digital geo-targeted ads, and sampling to convert shoppers.
The key: Every channel should reinforce the brand’s positioning and personality, not just push promotions.
Resilience: Adapt and Grow Smarter in a Tight Market
2025 isn’t the year to outspend—it’s the year to outsmart. With tariffs, logistics challenges, and tighter distributor bandwidth, nimbleness is essential. Focus on building lasting equity over chasing short-term volume.
Ten To One Rum leaned into premium positioning, founder visibility, and cultural storytelling to build slow, steady growth. Rather than flood the market, it chose to partner with personalities like Ciara and activate meaningful campaigns around Black-owned business visibility.
How to can do this with a new brand:
- Develop limited editions or collaborations that drive urgency and storytelling.
- Partner with premium brands in adjacent categories (chocolate, fashion, cigars).
- Track performance by account, geography, and product to double down on what’s working.
In a constrained environment, brand clarity becomes the most scalable asset. What do we mean by “brand clarity”? It means knowing exactly what the brand is, what it stands for, and how to communicate that in a way that instantly resonates.
Don’t Just Be Premium—Be Purposeful
Premium isn’t about packaging alone—it’s about perspective. In an era when authenticity and emotional resonance are more valuable than distribution muscle, the brands that win will be those that mean something.
When done right, your brand becomes more than a spirit—it becomes a story consumers want to be part of. What will the spirit stand for when no one’s pouring?
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