Glenlivet’s Whisky Crisis

In every crisis there is danger – and opportunity.

Whisky-maker Glenlivet found a way to stir up a little positive PR around a recent grocery store pricing mix-up.

Recently, Scottish grocery store Morrison’s website listed bottles of Glenlivet Caribbean Reserve Single Malt Scotch Whisky for just £2.50 – a steep discount from its usual £36 price tag.

Whisky-lovers jumped on the deal.

Many ordered multiple bottles, only to later have their orders canceled.

Morrison’s put out a reasoned (if uninspired) statement on the botched booze listing.

“To comply with legislation around minimum unit pricing for alcohol, any orders which included the affected product would have had the item cancelled from their basket. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

Glenlivet saw an opportunity to get creative.

Spotlighting a Single (Malt) Customer

Glenlivet took out a full-page ad in the Yorkshire Post offering a personal apology to Anthony Silson – one of thousands of customers with a canceled order.

The ad strikes the right tone with the right subject. It praises Silson (a teacher) for his excellent taste and chides him for his opportunistic purchase of 10 bottles of the whisky. It pokes fun at the severity of the disaster. It even manages to make it perfectly clear that this was a Morrison’s error, not a Glenlivet one.

The ad was followed by a social campaign to track him down (#FindAntonySilson)

When a crisis hits, one of the first questions a brand should ask is “do we own this?”

In Glenlivet’s case, they didn’t own it. As their ad states, it was a clerical error on a grocery store website. And as corporate crises go, this one is pretty low-stakes.

But with a little quick creativity, Glenlivet turned a pricing error into a bit more goodwill for its brand and its booze.