New cream liqueur aimed at the crème de la crème

When he was a young executive with C&C nearly 20 years ago, David Phelan was given a piece of advice on the drinks market from an American wholesaler.

"He said, 'David you're not in the liquor business, you're in the entertainment business'. I never forgot that," says Phelan.

Judging by the marketing of the latest creation from his newly established Scion Spirits Company, Phelan hasn't forgotten that advice.

The company, which he set up with Adrian Walker and David Gluckman, all of whom have extensive experience in both the Irish and International drinks industries, has launched a new super premium cream liqueur, Coole Swan.

The drink derives its name from the William Butler Yeats poem The Wild Swans at Coole and inspired by the imagery and imagination of the poet, Phelan and his colleagues have taken what could be described as a fairly innovative approach to its launch.

Film director Mike Figgis has been brought on board to create a series of short films titled "Coole Stories". The films will celebrate the Irish art of storytelling and feature people swapping interesting, unusual and entertaining stories. They will appear on Coole Swan's myspace page at www.myspace.com/coole_swan.

"We decided to take a very innovative route when launching Coole Swan. The internet is now a natural and everyday way to meet and talk to our consumers in a very relevant way, and on a global level, which is very exciting. The combination of the talent of Mike Figgis and the worldwide popularity of myspace gives us a really creative and non traditional way to talk to our consumers."

The films are all part of the packaging and marketing of the cream liquor that will be targeted at an upmarket, mobile clientele.

But why an Irish cream liqueur? A quick perusal of the shelves of off-licences and duty free shops in airports would suggest there is no shortage of the beverage, such as Baileys and Carolans. "We recognised that there was a genuine gap in the super premium category for a superior cream liqueur," says Phelan.

"Our goal was really simple. There is an awful lot of choice in many categories in terms of gin, vodka, tequila, rum, but for cream liqueur category, in terms of the premium and super premium end of the market, there wasn't as much choice there. There was really only one major brand and there are other very fine brands but in terms of the premium added-value to the brand leader, there wasn't really many operating in the market."

But a small, fledgling Irish company taking on the might of the major international drinks companies sounds like an uneven contest.

"That's if you are going against them directly. We are creating a different category within a category. We are actually creating a different segment so we are not necessarily going into the territory that everyone else is in. The product will be selling at approximately 40 per cent above the brand leader."

That all adds up to one fairly expensive drink. Much like a well-worn haircare product, it seems that Coole Swan will be consumed by people because they're worth it.

"If you look at what's going on in the market today, there has been a huge change in terms of people's attitude to food and drink and what they're looking for. I say its premiumisation. In markets like the US, UK and Ireland, our tastes are developing all the time with affluence. With more cash people are more discerning," says Phelan.

More than €1 million has been invested in the brand, with roll out plans to include a further €2 million investment. Enterprise Ireland is also backing it as a high potential start-up.

It may seem like a tall order, but Phelan is confident he can pull it off. In fairness to him, he's been here before, albeit with a different product. As co-founder and former managing director of Castle Brands, he was the man behind Boru Vodka, a completely new Irish vodka.

"We had a great idea but it was probably considered a little strange at the time - Vodka from Ireland. The ideas that you think that are a little bit out there or strange are sometimes the most obvious," he says.

The global cream liqueur market is 10 million plus cases a year, but Phelan is not talking market share yet.

"It is really more distribution targets in terms of where we want to be in the market. We do need to be a bit patient with it, we need to get rotation and turnover in the product and all our spend will be on getting the product into the mouths of our consumers as soon as we can and we are confident they will stay with it."