Diageo
1997
One purpose
When Guinness merged with Grand Metropolitan in 1997, the result was an outstanding portfolio of world-famous brands, including Guinness, Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, Gordon’s Gin, Baileys, Burger King and Pillsbury. But future growth depended on a unified sense of purpose and direction, broader than Guinness’s associations with beer, and Grand Metropolitan’s with hotels.
Everyone's
Working closely with Anthony Greener of Guinness and John McGrath of Grand Metropolitan, Wolff Olins shaped a vision for the new business – that it would be about everyday pleasure everywhere. From that vision, we defined a set of corporate values, a new name and a brand expression. The name combines ‘everyday’ (from the Latin dies, day) and ‘everywhere’ (from the Greek root geo, world).
Celebrating life, responsibly
Diageo has continued to grow as a business. It sold off Pillsbury in 2000 and Burger King in 2002 to focus more sharply on drinks, and is now the world’s largest multinational premium drinks business. Diageo is focused on performance, reporting an operating profit of £1.4 billion at the end of 2008, an increase of 46% since the launch of the brand. Alongside continuous growth it also consistently delivers results for its shareholders whose dividend has increased by 48%. Diageo is committed to ‘celebrating life responsibly’, and it created the DRINKIQ website in 2008 to encourage responsibility among consumers.
