Marbled sheets aside, paper is not the material that comes to mind when I think of luxury. But Diageo is betting that I’ll change my mind when I see a sleek matte black bottle of Johnnie Walker. Starting in 2021, Diageo will package Johnnie Walker whiskey in paper. It’s a clever play on Diageo’s part to position itself as a leader in mass-market sustainability, with an upscale twist. As of 2019, 45% of consumers between the ages of 18-34 say that it’s extremely important to purchase goods produced in an eco-friendly manner (Toluna, 2019). And as these customers accrue wealth to spend on luxury products -- or treat themselves to luxury items here and now -- offering sustainable packaging could be a key way to capture their immediate spend, and long-term loyalty.
Pepsico will also debut similar paper packages, but I’m interested in Diageo because it’s chosen to introduce the bottle with one of its best-known, premium lines (they’re not starting with J&B or Johnny Walker red label). Consumers are already habituated to soft drinks coming in paper. Most Americans have had either a juice box or a carton of milk or a coconut water in a Tetra Pak. We understand that soft drinks come in soft packages.
Alcohol is different. At the high-end, it’s packaged in thick glass. At the budget-level, it’s hidden away in shiny aluminum cans and plastic bladders in cardboard boxes. Regardless of how much we spend, these (mostly) special packages imbue alcohol with a sense of occasion. These containers aren’t everywhere, because what’s inside isn’t an everyday drink.
The aluminum can is an exception, and I believe that’s a major reason why canned wine quickly became a $45 million business, while sales of canned cocktails and hard seltzer grew 80% between April 2019 and 2020, is such a notable trend. While beer has an easy-drinking, soda-like reputation (especially light beer), wine and cocktails don’t, especially in the US. Putting wine and cocktails into a glorified soda can strips away their fancy appeal and aims to recast them as quotidian as a Diet Coke or a Bud Light.
Following through on this reasoning, we could argue that the same will happen when you pour whiskey into a paper bottle. This thread of logic could dissuade companies like Pernod-Ricard and Gruppo Campari back from developing paper bottles. But Diageo has meticulously crafted its paper package to retain the high-design ethos of a glass Johnnie Walker bottle. The matte black paper has light embossing details around the title, the name is printed in sleek silver at the same askew angle as on the glass version. Thanks to the contrast of the silver ink on the black background, you can see the gentleman logo more clearly. The current mock-up has soft rounded edges, a subtle nod to the beveled face of the standard glass bottle. And while the silver screw-top feels industrial, it’s no worse than the flimsy aluminium cap on the current bottles. Instead of debasing whiskey into a common liquid, the packaging argues for paper as a luxury touch point.
But in order for it to leave a one-off switch and follow in the steps of canned wine and canned cocktails, people will need to actually buy the product. Will Millennials and Gen Z consumers bite? While 73% of Gen Z and 68% of Millennials are willing to spend more on sustainable products -- compared to 42% of Boomers -- they’re also more likely to embrace semi-sobriety. How they practice that “semi” long-term could influence fate of paper alcohol bottles. The container’s eco-conscious cred could convince younger drinking age consumers to purchase Johnnie Walker over whiskey encased in bloated glass. Given the fact that Johnnie Walker black is typically considered a prestige product, the very prestige could be what drives other consumers to embrace the paper bottle.
Yet the relative rarity of these purchases could mean that customers choose to stick with the bottle format that they know and feel to be prestige. Paper might sing out sustainably-minded, but is that what young consumers are looking to signal about themselves from their bar cart? If people aren’t buying it for their home bar, will restaurants buy them? The paper won’t glow from a back-lit bar as current bottles do. This paper bottle is more utilitarian, it’s no longer a piece of decor.
This tension will be interesting to watch unfold, yet in my opinion the threat of low-adoption shouldn’t be enough to stop companies from experimenting with paper. The question is simply finding the appropriate occasion to introduce the paper liquor bottle so it catches on at all levels of the industry. If it’s not prestige whiskey, maybe mid-range gin? Or a cheeky bottle of Baileys? Mid-range, biodynamic wine could be another interesting option, especially for varieties that people are already habituated to purchasing in a box. Whiskey is a clever start as it signals the intention for paper-as-luxury, but I’m not convinced it will end up in the mass-luxury space. Niche luxury, or mid-market liquor seems to me an easier sell.