Suntory's Kaku Highball makes whisky a dinner drink — market grows again

By 2008 Japan's whisky market had shrunk for 26 straight years; young drinkers saw whisky as too strong and a poor companion for food. Suntory's Kakubin was the top-selling whisky, but the category itself was dying.

Stop selling whisky as a strong drink for old men — reframe Kakubin as a cheap, crisp highball that goes with food, and make it easy to pour perfectly everywhere.

Suntory pushed the 'Kaku Highball' — Kakubin, soda and ice — through TV commercials starring actress Koyuki, and equipped izakayas with highball towers and servers that pour a consistent drink like draft beer. It signed up 5,000 restaurants in 2008 and around 50,000 in 2009, then launched a canned Kaku Highball for convenience stores in October 2009.

Kakubin shipments rose about 30% in 2009 to 2.2 million cases, restaurants serving highballs quadrupled to about 60,000, and Japan's whisky market was expected to grow for the first time in 11 years. The highball became a standard izakaya drink and a blueprint for reviving other drink categories.

By 2008 Japan's whisky market had been shrinking for 26 years. Young drinkers told Suntory that whisky was too strong and a poor companion for food — it was what old men drank before bed. The company's answer was not a new product but a new way to drink the existing one: the Kaku Highball, Kakubin whisky with soda and ice.

Suntory went into overdrive in September 2008. TV commercials starring actress Koyuki made the highball look casual and modern; highball towers and servers in izakayas poured a consistent whisky-and-soda like draft beer; and restaurants were persuaded to put highballs on their menus — 5,000 by the end of 2008 and about 50,000 during 2009.

The pitch worked on both sides of the counter. For drinkers, the highball was low in alcohol, easy to drink and went well with food. For restaurants, it was cheap and highly profitable. In October 2009 Suntory added a canned 350ml Kaku Highball, letting people drink the same thing at home.

The numbers turned: Kakubin shipments rose about 30% in 2009 to 2.2 million cases, highball-menu restaurants quadrupled to about 60,000, and Japan's whisky market was expected to expand for the first time in 11 years — a revival built on changing when and how people drank.

Suntory attacked the occasion, not the product: the same Kakubin became a light dinner drink instead of a strong after-dinner one.

The highball was cheap for bars and drinkers alike, so restaurants adopted it fast and margins made it worth promoting.

Hardware made the idea consistent: towers and servers poured a perfect highball every time, like draft beer, removing the skill barrier.

A TV face (Koyuki) and convenience-store cans carried the ritual beyond the izakaya into homes.

Revive a declining category by changing the occasion, not the product: the same whisky, cheap and food-friendly, poured perfectly in bars and at home, became a new ritual instead of a new bottle.

The highball boom lifted the whole whisky category. Suntory used the momentum to steer drinkers toward rocks and premium whiskies such as Yamazaki and Hakushu, and its highball machines later appeared in bars in New York, Chicago and Washington D.C. The Kaku Highball became the default way to order whisky in Japan, and the canned version remained part of Suntory's ready-to-drink lineup.