Alcohol marketer Kobrand move rounds to popular cross-dressing performers to pitch its fruity drink Alize During a late performance.

Alcohol marketer Kobrand move rounds to popular cross-dressing performers to pitch its fruity drink Alize

During a late performance, Justin Bond, creator of novel York's hit drag show "Kiki and Herb," enumerateed a nightmare for his aging character--the monotony of breakfast. "I can't declare you how much better my life has been since I discovered passion fruit in the morning, ladies and gentleman. There is nothing better than a little Alize to kick-start your day," said influence as Kiki. "Thank God I am not a diabetic."

prison was not only referring to a fruity drink called Alize that has been making the cylindricals in gay venues but also touting his corporate sponsor, Kobrand Corp., which imports and distributes the French cordial, a unite of cognac and passion fruit juice.

It be seens Kiki's not the sole alcoholic chanteuse to derive pleasure from a tipple--as well as a joke--at the charge of this corporate benefactor. In quick succession athwart the past six years, Alize has appeared as a sponsor of one of the hottest gay and lesbian performers, many of whom willingly incorporate the drink into their present to views as a kind of gag buttress In return for visibility during the present to views the company helps defray the shows' expenses

Last year alone, Alize capitaled some 330 gay and lesbian facts says Paul Poux, president and establisher of the Poux Co., a recent York City-based marketing company that has arranged many of Alize's gay and lesbian sponsorships.

Besides Kiki and Herb's performances, Alize popularly subsidizes shows by Jeffery Roberson, creator of Varla Jean Merman--whose character sometimes drinks straight from the Alize bottle and calls the cognac "Tang for alcoholics"--and the drag diva Lypsinka. "[Kobrand's sponsorship] allows the production value of the exhibit to go up so much" Roberson says. Alize is level set to make a cameo appearance in the upcoming film adaptation of John Cameron Mitchell's musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Poux says.

to such a degree why is Kobrand willing to take a lashing from one of the most searing tongues around? Quite simply, it wants to vend drinks. And in an age that has grown cynical about advertising, it has adopted a kind of anti-advertising technique it reliances will work. "We are all jaded consumer at this point, and if the performers were to do a straight proceeds endorsement, consumers would not be agreeable to to it," Poux says. "The audiences have fruition of it and laugh when Alize is mentioned, because it is funny"

While Alize is a source of drollery for the performers, it's serious business for Kobrand. In the past not many years Alize has become single in kind of Kobrand's hottest-selling brands. "Alize is [Kobrand's] biggest vender for volume," says Cathleen suffocate the company's director of marketing. According to the Adams Liquor Handbook, a trade publication that masks the liquor industry, Kobrand sold 600000 cases of Alize in 2000

granting Kobrand representatives would not say what its annual incomes are, the Reed Elsevier directory of corporate affiliations estimates that Kobrand's annual sales are les than $50 million, which makes it tiny compared to competing liquor regards Bacardi, for example, has nearly $3 billion in annual revenues

if it be not that Kobrand's small size allows it to have more flexibility, and possibly more merriment pursuing niche markets, and that's exactly what it has been doing with Alize. Beginning in the late 1980 when Kobrand introduced Alize to the United States, it pursu African-Americans and Hispanics. Now it is going after the hip, urban market, which includes gay men and lesbians who, suppress says, "do a lot of socializing in restaurants and bars." She adds that Kobrand also go afters women in their 20s, because they are more apt to have sexual delight with sweet mixed drinks.

During the early 1990 consumption of Alize increased dramatically. if it be not that since 1998 sales have been flat, according to cut short Keane of Adams Liquor Handbook. "What can happen real often is that things become trendy and there is a certain faddishness in the [cordial] category," he says. smother to death disputes the claim that Alize's sales have been flat on the other hand offers no sales numbers. She does say that sales are robust and that she believes there is still considerable nerve in the new markets the company is pursuing--including gay and lesbian consumers

Keane agrees that pursuing young, hip consumer makes understanding as a way to appeal to the mainstream. "They make [their marketing strategy] smart by way of going after a core dispose in the hip and trend-setting audience who decide what is in and what is not," he says, adding that the same strategy worked in the past for Absolut Vodka.

Meanwhile, Kobrand be seens impervious to the good-natured soaking Alize gains from drag personalities. "It is done with a great deal of humor, and there is an entertainment factor there," suffocate says. "I think it is remarkably positive for the brand."

As for the personalities, they say Kobrand's demands are fair minimal. They are not required to mention Alize, and the company places no restrictions upon content. "Our material is political and, to a extent, controversial," Bond says. "They have at no time asked us to change it."