D'USSE $275 XO EXPRESSION LAUNCHED IN MAY 2014

D’ussé Cognac XO comes after the VSOP.

Two years after launching the D’ussé Cognac brand with a VSOP quality, Bacardi is extending its product line depth by applying an upscale brand stretch.

Note the technical terms, i.e., upward and downward product line stretch, product line versus SKUS, product line width versus depth versus length.

When creating a luxury line or luxury brand, one has to always consider these issues of brand stretching. Now the important matter is: where to start from?

. Middle, then down, followed by up.
. or High, then middle, then low.
. or lower, then middle, and then high.

It depends if the brand carries a true luxury authenticity, the process should be Higher, middle and then lower.
If the brand is building on popularity and milking democratization for the sake of building Brand Image, then going from low to high make sense, i.e., business model of 'masstige'.

D’ussé XO, produced at the Chateau de Cognac (Otard) by maître de chai Michel Casavecchia, is made from a blend of eaux-de-vie aged at least 10 years. Bacardi introduced the XO to a small group of journalists and mixologists in New York last last May. Bacardi plans to cover 11 states in the USA by the end of the summer.

Bacardi has sought to position D’ussé as a modern spirit that can draw drinkers from both inside and outside the Cognac category, and says the VSOP ($45) has succeeded on that front in the early going.

Cognac D'Usse VSOP by Bacardi

With D’ussé’s new XO, Bacardi has taken an aggressive stance in staking out the brand’s ultra-premium credentials, price-positioning it significantly above the XO Cognacs of competitors like Hennessy, Rémy Martin and Courvoisier.
Retailing at $275 a bottle.

Source: dusse.com