For example, its Patron brand generated a lot of sales with e-commerce channels using Amazon’s Alexa Skill. With the skill, users have the ability to ‘Ask Patron’ and get cocktail recipes and facts about tequila. Since launching in 2016, the ‘Ask Patron’ skill has attracted 100,000 users and been rolled out to additional platforms, such as Google’s voice assistant. It is projected to attract 500,000 more people in making Patron cocktails at home.
John Burke, global chief marketing officer at Bacardi and president of Bacardi Global Brands, is still cautious about its brands using voice platforms. His concern is well founded. A recent survey by Episerver shows that just a few of the 4,000 online shoppers polled use voice-assisted devices to buy brands.
“For us, there are more pressing areas we see than voice, you need to be in play with these emerging trends and experimenting, but still remember the business you’re running and making solid plans on the areas you focus on,” Burke says. “But the big lesson [from Patron's voice skill] was around how people search—it was a different intuition.”
