Crown Royal is a whiskey (in their case, whisky) brand that has impressively achieved the greatest trick in the spirits industry over the last couple of decades: Pricing itself as a relative bottom-to-mid-shelf brand, while retaining perception as a “premium” brand in the eyes of the center slice, everyday consumer demographic it targets. Seasoned whiskey geeks? They don’t typically think much of something like Crown Royal; in fact they’re not likely to think about the Diageo brand at all. They’re chasing cask strength bourbon and sherry bomb single malt scotches. They’re not the Crown Royal demo–the demo is the occasional drinker who wants the perception of luxury (the velvet bag!) without paying too much for it. Someone who wants a whiskey they can just as easily mix or easily drink neat if they want to look cool in front of their friends. I feel like that’s the consumer base the brand had in mind when they were designing the new Crown Royal Single Malt Whisky, and in truth I think they might have pulled off exactly what they were going for.
