Andrea,

Great topic. My wife and I enjoy a few beers at our local tavern every Friday night. Truth is: I am more fascinated by the shapely bottles sitting on shelves. But not enough to drink what's inside. My guess: Changing packaging is not the answer to increasing tequila drinkers of either gender.

For starters, drinking is a social experience for most not a drinking experience. We want to be part of the in-crown or our crowd or whatever crowd appeals to us. So unless and until tequila's brand image becomes romantic, adventurous, dangerous, or any number of "ous's" that say "cool" and relevant to "the" crowd, its growth will remain stagnant.

How's this: Invent a low-calorie tequila that is fortified with caffeine. Call it AgaveTrim, claim it's a weight loss miracle, and BOOM! You've got hoards of skinny, drunk, insomniac women hooked on the product. ;]

You are overthinking this. I'll bet most tequila is consumed in margaritas at bars - where the consumer never sees the bottle.

And you are underthinking this. Women are so stupid that they will drink any old tequila as long as the bottle is pretty? Why not add shiny beads and mesmerize them completely?

Sexy, 'pinked-out', tequila?
Tequila has always been known for its bite. I wouldn't even want to play with this alcohol in concept development.

My first choice would be Rum. Vodka is VERY played out, and come on: Rum is carribean! Who doesn't like beaches & sand, mambo & salsa. Now that's romantic and aspirational.

"The liquor of summer nights/Accumulates in the bottom of the bottle." (John Ashbery)

So I'm guessing the distillers haven't hit Spring Break recently?

All of this fits general cultural cluelessness, which would be offensive if it weren't so comical.

Appropriating, misreading, and abusing cultural practices into gendered consumer activity makes for a doozy of a copy.

For a load of how uncontrollable this gets, try this press release-masquerading-as-lifestyle-article:

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/couriernews/lifestyles/481439,3_5_EL25_TEQUILA_S1.article

And for all the news you'd ever want to swallow:

http://www.topix.net/drink/tequilla

P.S. I say stick with Herradora Amatitán for the Añejo, Reposado, and Blanco (warning- this one's 92 proof)...

Anita - the word "mesmerize" is perfect! Perhaps the beverage industry studies have shown that all it takes to sell booze is for women to be mesmerized by the packaging? That may be a one-time trick, but you don't gain loyal customers that way. So, is it worth all that front end budget and effort to get women to try your tequila once or twice? Hmmm..

LOL @ Shelley - very nice.

I think since women are alreay almost half of the tequila drinkers, there shouldn't be much change in packaging and the look and feel of the brand. Maybe they should try to tout tequila as the drink that unites men and women with a common goal - to wake up with a massive headache (I knew what you were thinking...). It's a fun drink that lets men and women let loose for a minute and enjoy a shot or two. It's not masculine or feminine - it's unisex.

Also, as Anita pointed out, margaritas are the most common tequila drink, so maybe it's the margarita that should be marketed to increase tequila sales.

Daniel, Anita, Mario, (and Shelley of course) are onto something that jibes with insights a bartender turned beverage distributor friend once shared with me.

There are two types of tequila drinkers: people who actually like the stuff and people who''ll drink it in anything.

The "good" (i.e. 100% agave) variety hits a premium market through shots. The "bottom shelf" (i.e. mostly sugar) goes into the "itas" and "tinis" drinks.

The assumption was always push the sugar on the women, the real stuff for the men.

The deal for Whites: always push the cheap 100% stuff and "experimental" brands for the loud patrons, the premium stuff for quiet patrons. If they had money, the good stuff regardless (the trigger: slipping it into their familiar "bland masculine" or "tired fruity" drinks, saying it would lend "spice" and "flavor").

The deal for non-Whites (non-Hispanic): say they were trying something, "Whites just didn't get" with a wink (cf Thunderbird, Champale, etc.)

In this light packaging matters about as much as a sprig of parsley to keep to worm company. It's all disturbing *sigh*...

People usually tend to deal with brands as real people. Tequila was always associated with fun, crowd, wild sort of things (and the morning headache of course …)
The trick is that they are building a whole new perception and a whole new personality. I agree with Andrea that it seem fun and clever on the short run but the odds are that it will alienate existing male customers on the long run. Moreover, existing female customers who order tequila for the sense of fun and crowd will like the new touch but will eventually loose the motive.

Having worked in marketing with the folks at Cuervo International for 10+ years, I can definitively tell you that the tequila marketers are not completely stupid. The vast majority of tequila sold in the US is "on premise" (consumed in restaurants/bars). And an overwhelming majority of sales there are "well" purchases (people ordering a 'shot of tequila' rather than a 'shot of Cuervo'). That's why in looking at the numbers, you'll find some pretty high sales volumes for brands like Aristocrat and Wolfschmidt! As marketers, we didn't even think about pretty bottles. We focused our attention on the decision makers at the bars and restaurants and got them to upgrade to "premium wells" that carried the Cuervo brand rather than Aristocrat tequila. They in turn used that in their restaurant/bar marketing. We also focused on large chains such as Chili's, etc. and worked with them on branded menus, signature drinks and in some cases, exclusivity. In one fell swoop and with little marketing dollars, we were able to get Cuervo into the hands (and throats!) of both the men drinking the shots AND the women drinking the margaritas. Pink tequila bottles? I think not.

Having worked in marketing with the folks at Cuervo International for 10+ years, I can definitively tell you that the tequila marketers are not completely stupid. The vast majority of tequila sold in the US is "on premise" (consumed in restaurants/bars). And an overwhelming majority of sales there are "well" purchases (people ordering a 'shot of tequila' rather than a 'shot of Cuervo'). That's why in looking at the numbers, you'll find some pretty high sales volumes for brands like Aristocrat and Wolfschmidt! As marketers, we didn't even think about pretty bottles. We focused our attention on the decision makers at the bars and restaurants and got them to upgrade to "premium wells" that carried the Cuervo brand rather than Aristocrat tequila. They in turn used that in their restaurant/bar marketing. We also focused on large chains such as Chili's, etc. and worked with them on branded menus, signature drinks and in some cases, exclusivity. In one fell swoop and with little marketing dollars, we were able to get Cuervo into the hands (and throats!) of both the men drinking the shots AND the women drinking the margaritas. Pink tequila bottles? I think not.

good point Andrea cos I feel that women who ocasionally drink tequila do it for the fun of doing strictly male stuff cos there are with men.

For an awfully long time, strategic marketers/product developers like Prism have been learning that in most consumer sectors--including wines--brands that blatantly shout "WOMEN" are usually rejected by women. A S Prisant, COO, Prism Ltd.