Jägermeister: We don't know who came up with the Jägerbomb

As reported by The Morning Advertiser ​(MA​), Jägermeister – which currently distributes to around 70,000 outlets in the UK – announced the launch of Cold Brew Coffee​ to the on and off-trade in September.

It’s hoped that the new brew – which contains Jägermeister’s blend of 56 herbs and spices, cold-brewed Arabica coffee and a hint of cacao – will help the drinks giant reach consumers seeking a different taste profile to Jägermeister original's aniseed flavour and will eventually account for a quarter of the company’s sales.

“About four years ago we started looking at taste profiles and trends in the market and coffee was in massive growth," Goodwin told MA​. "We found that 51% of Millennials drink coffee daily and not just instant, there are thousands of craft coffee shops in the UK. There's definitely an overlay of the same consumers liking coffee and liking Jägermeister.

“We spoke to about 4,000 consumers over the past four years in the development of Cold Brew and started to see there was real momentum. Espresso Martini is a phenomenon in the UK – I've spoken to colleagues from western Europe and it's just not very big anywhere else, which is quite interesting.”

According to Goodwin, the launch – which was supported by a £2.5m marketing campaign, including national advertising – has seen a “phenomenal” response.

“We had 10,000 comments on LADbible​, 98% of which were positive sentiment from people who can't wait to get their hands on it,” she explained. “We definitely hit the nail on the head in finding that sweet spot of what consumers are looking for.

“We're hoping that it will deliver 15% of our sales in the next three to five years and that'll help us grow."

Consumers look for more than just clubbing

According to Goodwin, the shift from “hedonism” to more responsible drinking or daytime, food-led, experiences presents an opportunity for Jägermeister to sell to consumers outside of late-night trading with the launch of Cold Brew.

“The biggest challenges are really the Gen Z macro trends of health, responsible drinking and social media – they're very aware of their images on social so it's about having good times but control in those good times.

“There are 30% who abstain among 18 to 24-year-olds – that's a well-known fact – but there's still 70% who don't, so there's still a big chunk that do drink and I think those that do still have big nights out, have fun, and let their hair down but they also drink more with food and look for experience.

“In terms of that occasionality, the group moment when you all get a shot together still has a role to play, but what's been really interesting is the coffee after dinner occasion – bringing Jägermeister into an earlier part of the evening.

“In the UK, we don't have a herbal liqueur category and we don't have a digestif category. They have Amaro in Italy, after dinner for example, but in the UK we just don't do that, but coffee is definitely something that people have after dinner. There's that automatic association that you could have it earlier in the evening, which is fantastic for us.”

Jägermeister doesn’t endorse Jägerbombs

While the creation of Cold Brew has been a planned, calculated process by Jägermeister – which thus far has yielded strong results – the origins of night club mainstay, the Jägerbomb, are unclear according to Goodwin.

“The Jägerbomb thing started about 12 years ago and is probably what put Jägermeister on the map,” Goodwin explains. “It didn't come from us because we can't promote it or endorse it, and we won't, because of responsible drinking – we sign up to The Portman Group – so you will never ever see us actively support or promote Jägerbombs, that's very much driven by our customers who wish to do that. 

“It did sort of help years ago – though it wasn't driven by us – but fundamentally the key thing is if you look at energy drink performance, over the past five years, it's continuously declining and our strategy has always been about establishing Jägermeister as an ice cold shot first and then Jäger Mule and now with Cold Brew.

“Our focus is very much to drink it as it should be, which is neat or even with ginger beer which complements it well."