Piper ready to take on Veuve and Moët
Champagne house Piper-Heidsieck will launch an ambitious redesign next year as part of the brand’s mission to take on Moët & Chandon and Veuve Clicquot.
In an interview published in the December issue of the drinks business, Damien Lafaurie, president of Piper-Heidsieck, laid out his ambitions for the brand.
“Piper is one of the few truly global brands with tangible market presence worldwide – we want to become a genuine alternative to Vueve and Moët.
“They are such strong brands but they’re a safe choice – we want to be the Champagne brand people choose for other reasons than being a safe bet.”
To achieve this, Piper will undergo a dramatic makeover next year to give it a more premium feel, with everything from the bottles to the labels benefitting from redesigns.
As part of the redesign, the house’s flagship fizz, Cuvée Brut, will move from green to brown glass bottles; a change already adopted by Louis Roederer.
Lafaurie has his sites set on millennials, who he will target via a new marketing campaign that runs with the tagline “a dash of seduction”.
“We have a role to play in recruiting millennials. We’re on a mission to target these consumers and be relevant to this audience. We want to convince them that Champagne is not just for special occasions like their Dad’s birthday, but can be a daily celebration that elevates the occasion.
“We’re not only in competition with Prosecco, but with craft beer and spirits brands that are successfully engaging with millennials. As an industry, we have to respond by targeting different moments of consumption and more casual occasions,” he told db.
During the interview Lafaurie spoke candidly about the disconnect in the past between the quality of Piper-Heidsieck and how the brand was perceived by consumers that regularly saw it discounted at supermarkets.
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“Maybe we weren’t brave enough to increase our prices in the past. When you’re faced with big retailers putting pressure on you, you can be a bit weak sometimes. It was a mistake not to talk enough about the quality of the wine. We have to be obsessed with education,” he admitted.
To help Piper in its premium plight, Lafaurie is embarking on an ambitious reshuffle that will see old distributors replaced with those capable of building premium brands in the longterm.
As a result, prices will increase to take the brand to where Lafaurie believes it deserves to be in the market, but any rises will be gradual.
Keen to turn Piper into a five million bottle a year brand, Lafaurie believes its next big market is China, where, he believes, there is a “huge opportunity” for growth.
“China is on the cusp of embracing Champagne and I strongly believe there is a huge opportunity in the Chinese market. You see it already with Moët, Veuve, Mumm and Perrier-Jouët, who are actively investing in the market,” he said.
“Champagne sales are being driven by independent young women who are keen to make their own decisions and are looking for something different to what their parents drink,” he added.
The full interview with Damien Lafaurie appears in the December issue of the drinks business, out next week.
