Many people have had, or at least heard of Captain Morgan, but not all of them know much about its history of that of its iconic name. The Seagram Company founded Captain Morgan in the 1940s. The company was impressed by the abundance of traditional spiced rum in the Caribbean region and took advantage of the situation. The brand was named after a seventeenth-century Welsh privateer, Sir Henry Morgan, popularly known as Captain Henry Morgan. The name is still quite popular in the Caribbean and other regions of the world. In recent times, Captain Morgan has been growing its production and sales margins in the hope of becoming a leader in the production of spiced rum. Its recent partnership with the Major League Soccer organization and some of the greatest MLS teams show its dedication towards conquering the region and global market. The paper presents a corporate analysis of Captain Morgan through an examination of the company’s history, products, current situation, as well as its future prospects. Captain Morgan, the company may be just over seventy years old, but the name behind the brand is over four hundred years old ( Coakley, 2020). Captain Morgan currently operates under the parent company Diageo, one of the largest global producers of beer and spirits. Captain Morgan was originally founded in the 1940s by Seagram, a Canadian company, which was later acquired by Diageo. The brand was named after a seventeen-century Welsh Privateer who was quite popular in the Caribbean. Sir Henry Morgan was a pirate who carried out a number of operations in the Caribbean in the seventeenth century, sometimes, on behalf of the Queen ( Coakley, 2020). Seagram took advantage of the spiced rum, which was produced in abundance in the Caribbean and founded the brand. There was simply no better name for the brand than Captain Morgan, whose stories were popular throughout the Caribbean. The name worked to make the brand popular in the Caribbean, the United States, and across the world. Currently, the company is carrying out its productions in the Virgin Islands, United States ( Austin, 2018) . Captain Morgan has thrived throughout the years since its founding in the mid-twentieth century and has become popular throughout the world. Currently, Captain Morgan is among the top three spirit brands in the U.S. and among the top ten globally. With high sales each year, the Captain is expected to continue thriving in the years to come. Captain Morgan currently has a lot of opportunities that can take it to the next level and occupy the number one spot in the global market. Captain Morgan deals specifically in rum, and its product portfolio boasts of a vast number of varieties, which makes it unique. The Black flavor is the original flavor of the ‘Captain,’ and its ingredients are outsourced from Caribbean countries such as Jamaica, Guyana and Barbados ( Furiassi, 2018). Other varieties include the black spiced rum, lime bite, white rum, silver spiced, parrot bay, deluxe dark, long island iced tea, cannon blast, 1671, and sherry oak among others. This extensive product portfolio gives Captain Morgan a good advantage over its competitors in the United States and globally. Captain Morgan is distinguishable from other alcohol brands given the quality, originality, uniqueness and variety of its product portfolio. The quality of Captain Morgan’sproducts is unique and satisfactory. The rum is most common among adult youths and college students who like to party. This shows that the rum fulfills its purpose and is just what the consumers want. The company has been around for many decades and has managed to thrive all those years due to its originality, uniqueness and quality. The varieties offered in the product portfolio also make it possible for Captain Morgan to reach more market segments. Captain Morgan products are sold in almost every country in the world. Most of the company’s operations and productions are carried out in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, but the company, working together with its parent company, Diageo, has also set up manufacturing plants in many other countries ( Pounder, 2010) . Products are distributed all over the world, with the U.S. standing out as the number destination of Captain Morgan products.
Captain Morgan’s pricing is incredibly low for such as a globally popular brand. The Company does a lot of research to determine the prices of each of its products. Every product is unique and is made using different ingredients and, thus, has a unique price. Generally, Captain Morgan is the most affordable richly-made, quality spiced rum in the United States and many other countries all over the world. The company keeps its pricing low in the bid to keep up its competitiveness while also acquiring more consumers. The company has promoted the brand through various campaigns and partnerships with other firms. It advertises its products on multiple television channels while also raising awareness for people to drink responsibly. The brand, like many other alcohol brands, also sends the message that its products are not to be sold to underage individuals. Captain Morgan has a lot of strengths, which puts it higher up the table among its many competitors all over the world. The company has managed to establish a global brand over the years with the name, ‘Captain Morgan,’ known in almost every part of the world. The market share for Captain Morgan is increasingly growing, and the brand is expected to penetrate markets in the near future. Its numerous products also give it an edge over its major competitors. Consumers have plenty to choose from when it comes to purchasing a Captain Morgan rum. Another major strength of Captain Morgan is the enormous support it receives from its parent company Diageo, a renowned multinational which deals in beer and spirits ( Jernigan & Ross, 2020). The popularity of Diageo allows Captain Morgan to appeal to many consumer segments and enables it to penetrate more markets throughout the world. The company has the opportunity to penetrate more markets in the global arena and become the world’s leading producer of spiced rum or spirit. Its low pricing model makes it possible for the company to penetrate and sell its products in any part of the world. The brand is original and unique and would win the hearts of many if introduced in any market. Through joint partnerships and sponsorship with popular sports, sports clubs, or sports personalities can help the brand get to the next level of becoming the greatest producer of spirits in the world. The main target group of Captain Morgan is the working-class people who like to purchase ‘the bottle’ every now and then for relaxation purposes after work. An observation on the consumers, however, tells of another story. It gives the picture that there are far too many target groups for Captain Morgan. The ‘Captain’ is common among the working class, college students, unemployed adult youths, the middle class, women and the lower class. It is highly likely to find Captain Morgan products at a college party. Low-income individuals choose Captain Morgan due to its affordability and quality. The uniqueness of the brand and its quality captures the hearts of high-income individuals who would have otherwise spent more money on other brands. The company continues to target more groups by inventing more varieties and presenting them to the intended target groups. The major competitors of Captain Morgan include Bacardi rum, Havana club and Tanguay rum (Beverage Information Group, 2019). These brands are also quite popular in the U.S., the Caribbean and other places around the world. Captain Morgan is currently trending among the top-selling rum brands in the United States and across the globe. Since the year 2013 alone, Captain Morgan has increased its sales and sales revenue by over nine percent (Beverage Information Group, 2019). A comparison with one of its competitors, Bacardi rum, puts it higher, given that Bacardi’s sales have gone down by about three percent over the same period. McDowell’s No. 1 Rum, another fierce competitor in the U.S., gone down in sales revenue by over fifteen percent during that period. Havana Club, Captain Morgan’s other fierce competitor, sold only about a third of Captain Morgan’s sales in the year 2017. A look at Captain Morgan’s sales over a number of years shows a steadily upward moving graph. This implies not only that the company is doing well but also that it is continually expanding its operations and its market share. The company has been increasing its production and sales in the United States as well as in the global space. These observations show that the future of Captain Morgan is a bright one. The company has increased its production and sales every year since 2011, and there is no indication that it will slow down any time soon. The company looks to penetrate more markets by conducting more market research, targeting more market segments, and inventing more varieties to capture more consumers. The trends in its sales throughout the last decade show that the company is dedicated to growing its operations and acquiring a larger consumer base. It may not be a surprise if Captain Morgan overtakes McDowell’s No.1 Rum and Bacardi in the next few years. The trends in the sales, both locally in the U.S. and internationally, show that ‘the Captain’ is soaring higher every year in terms of sales per millions of nine-liter cases of spirit. At the moment, the company is the top five best-selling rum brands category. Its increasing sales margin will ultimately bring it much closer to Tanguay, which has the best sales increase index since 2011. The statistics are in favor of the company, and without much challenges, it will do well to increase its production as well as its sales margin in the coming years. The company is showing no signs of slowing down in its mandate to capture more markets in the global arena. The company has already achieved greatly by reaching most regions of the world. The company is indeed capable of soaring higher and acquiring more markets, given the statistics on its continued growth in terms of production and sales. With the backing of its parent company, Diageo, Captain Morgan is likely to face very few challenges by extending into new territories. The quality of the products, their unique flavors and varieties and the affordability that comes with the Captain Morgan product will make it much easier to penetrate more markets on the global scale. Some of the greatest companies have grown their popularity over the years through partnerships with various popular sports, or sports clubs. Huge sporting activities such as the English Premier League, the World Cup, Olympics, the National Basketball Association or even the Major League Soccer have an extensive number of fans across the globe. Partnering with such organizations helps put a brand on the global front and makes it known to many more people all around the world. In the year 2019, Captain Morgan became the Major League Soccer official partner in a partnership that will run all the way to 2022 ( Jernigan & Ross, 2020) . This was expected to bring more fans to the games by combining the love for ‘the Captain’ and the love for soccer in the United States. Fans of legal age would have the opportunity to purchase Captain Morgan drinks with the labels of their team’s uniform colors. In addition to the partnership with the MLS, Captain Morgan also sponsored some of the MLS’s greatest clubs, such as D.C. United, Seattle Sounders, Chicago Fire, the Philadelphia Union and New York City FC. In 2020, Captain Morgan expanded its relationship with the MLS and partnered with four more soccer teams, including Los Angeles FC, Miami C.F., Nashville SC and Minnesota United. The MLS is not currently the most popular sport in the category of soccer or football, as it is known in other places. Some people in the United States alone do not even know what soccer actually entails. The good news is that soccer is actively growing and finding its place in the U.S. at the moment. The world cup is supposed to be held in North America in 2026. This has prompted the soccer organizations in North America to come with strategies for making soccer more popular in the region. Students are being encouraged to play soccer in schools as part of the initiative. Preparations are being made to ensure the region is ready to host one of the world’s most celebrated events. Investors are being encouraged to invest in MLS teams are make them stronger are more competitive. Fans are being encouraged to turn up and watch MLS games. In the next few years, the MLS is expected to grow and receive more recognition and popularity. Captain Morgan has made the right choice to partner with such a promising sport that will help grow its production and sales and put it on the regional and global arena as the number one spiced rum. The current COVID-19 pandemic has halted many industries all over the world, with world leaders and governments trying to control the spread of the virus. Many companies closed, at least for a couple of months in various countries, with the social distancing directive having been enforced to further prevent more people from contracting the virus. The alcohol and beverage industry, alike, has been affected by the pandemic. However, the rum sales all over the world have gone up much to the surprise of everyone. Bars, nightclubs and restaurants were closed down, and continue to be closed in many countries, to stop the spread of the virus. Companies with many workers were also forced to close. Rum sales should thus have gone down during the pandemic. According to Technavio, the London-baes tech company, the rum market size is expected to grow in terms of production and sales by over one hundred and fifty million liters from 2020 to 2024 ( Jernigan & Ross, 2020) . The closure of the bars clearly did not bring about a decrease in drinking. A lot of factors have contributed to the increase in sales and production of rum companies such as Captain Morgan. Staying at home for days can be quite a nuisance for people who are used to working most of the time. While bars were closed, people still had the option of buying or stocking up bottles of rum to drink at home. Another reason for the rise in sales is the fact that many rum companies all over the world have decided to contribute to society by making hand sanitizers to help in the fight of COVID-19. The hand sanitizers recommended by health authorities are alcohol-based and are comprised of high percentages of alcohol. Such initiative has helped keep rum companies, including Captain Morgan, afloat during the pandemic. This assignment has opened my understanding of how organizations work to thrive in their specific industries, their relationships with other organizations as well as their contribution to the world. Captain Morgan has a long history, having been founded in the 1940s and named after a famous Welsh privateer who lived in the seventeenth century. Captain Henry Morgan was and is still known all over the Caribbean and in other places around the world. The company thus did well to use a name that was quite popular in the region. The brand name made it possible for the company to penetrate many markets in the Caribbean, the United States, the United Kingdom and beyond. The company has gone through ups and downs and changed ownership over time, but its mission to conquer the world as the best spiced rum producer remains clear. In the bid to extend its operations, in current times, the company has made partnerships with the MLS and a good number of MLS teams. This form of partnership shows how two different organizations can find common ground that enhances both their growth. The assignment has also improved my ability to conduct research as well as my writing skills. I have had to read through numerous articles and books in order to be ready to write the assignment. Through the research, I have encountered a lot of valuable information that has significantly enhanced my knowledge. The history of Captain Morgan, the person, and Captain Morgan as the company, for instance, was very intriguing and surprising. Also, before conducting the research on the assignment, I never regarded Captain Morgan as a spiced rum brand.it is simply known as a spirit among most people. I have also learned improved my writing skills by putting together several pieces of information on the subject company analysis of Captain Morgan. The assignment marked a big step in the development of my research and writing skills.
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References
Austin, D. A. (2018). Economic and Fiscal Conditions in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Congressional Research Service.
Beverage Information Group. (2019). Sales volume of Captain Morgan rum in the United States in 2013 and 2018 (in 1,000 9-liter cases). Statista.
Coakley, J. (2020). ‘The Piracies of Some Little Privateers’: Language, Law and Maritime Violence in the Seventeenth-Century Caribbean. Britain and the World, 13 (1), 6-26.
Furiassi, C. (2018, August). Towards a Glossary of Rum Making and Rum Tasting. In The XVIII EURALEX International Congress (p. 139).
Jernigan, D., & Ross, C. S. (2020). The alcohol marketing landscape: Alcohol industry size, structure, strategies, and public health responses. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, Supplement, (s19), 13-25.
Pounder, P. (2010). Branding: a Caribbean perspective on rum manufacturing competitiveness. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 9 (4), 394-406.
