ADVERTISING MANAGEMENT

2015 ABSOLUT VODKA

Written report by: Ayokunle Bajulaiye

Student number: A4094870.

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Contents

1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 3

2. Core Message in Absolut Vodka Campaign Ads Using the Lavidge and Steiner Hierarchy

of Effects Model ......................................................................................................................... 3

3. Issues V&S Had To Keep In Mind Before Coming Up With an Appropriate Brand Name

and Brand Image ........................................................................................................................ 4

4. The Role Advertising Plays in Increasing Brand Awareness and Brand Loyalty ................ 6

5. How TBWA Maintained the Freshness of the Absolut Campaign ....................................... 8

6. Has Absolut Campaign Managed To Hold Its Sway Or Lost Its Impact? ............................ 8

References ............................................................................................................................... 10

Appendix (1) ............................................................................................................................. 11

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Introduction Founded in 1917, The V&S Group (Vin & Spirit AB) has continued to set a landmark as an

international producer and distributor of alcoholic drinks. The group has three major divisions:

the V&S Distillers, V&S Wine and the V&S Absolut Spirits, being the handler of Vodka brands.

Absolut Vodka is produced in Southern Sweden and owned by Pernod Ricard. Since 1980,

the Absolut Vodka campaign has been running and the company has boasted some of the

best and most creative ads ever known, in about 126 markets. The company’s ads, which

since inception has continued to enjoy a great collaboration with an advertising agency

(TBWA), has won over 350 awards (www.absolut.com). Interestingly, the Sweden brand of

Vodka Company has continued to live by its meaning, which reads: “absolute” – perfect,

complete, pure and unmixed. In the early ‘80s, TBWA, the European based agency began a

unique marketing campaign for the Vodka company with core emphasis on printed ads in

magazines repetitively using a bottle-shape with a two word slogan (“Absolut” and another

word).

Core Message in Absolut Vodka Campaign Ads Using the Lavidge and Steiner Hierarchy of Effects Model Absolut Vodka bottle, with its unique shape, has made it one of the world’s most iconic

products that reinforces the brand’s strong design heritage. In this report, I have selected two

out of the numerous ads one being: the “In an Absolute World” (represented in Figure 1

below) and the other being the “Absolut Purity” (in Figure 2).

Figure 1: “In an Absolut World” Figure 2: “Absolut Purity”

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The Hierarchy of Effects Model was created in 1961 and the model posits that there are six

basic steps from viewing a product advertisement to product purchase. Hence it is expected of

an advertiser to encourage the consumer pass through this six steps that includes:

awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction and purchase.

In Figure 1 (“In an Absolut World ad), there are some signifiers such as two men in suit whilst

the speaker, embellished with a protruded nose. The background is Washington DC while the

Absolut bottle stands at the lower right hand side. The ad signifies: “In An Absolut World” –

Leaders can’t be trusted however, the Absolut brand can be. This is the knowledge the ad

strives to impact on consumers as depicted by the hierarchy of effects model. The ad tries to

make the customers aware that they are intelligent and they possess the gut reaction to spark

conversations. The protruded nose, like an appeal consumers may like, indicates that

politicians will do anything to get elected even if they have to lie. This, to a large extent can

get customers convinced enough to buy their way into the Absolut world.

Image 2, the Absolut purity, means that every drop of Absolut Vodka is made using water from

the same well, deep down in pristine aquifers, without any form of pollution or impurity; all

wheat comes from one source - Åhus in Southern Sweden. This is the awareness Absolut try

to create and to ensure consistency, every drop of ABSOLUT is produced there.

As prescribed in the Hierarchy of effects model, this ad attempts to convince the customers

that Absolut production strategy surpasses other brand of vodka. In the brand’s message,

“ABSOLUT is not distilled once, twice, three, or even five times, but rather hundreds of times”

has always been the message – a process called “continuous distillation.” This ad,

tremendously, has made customers experience the image the company had created –

indicating purity.

Issues V&S Had To Keep In Mind Before Coming Up With an Appropriate Brand Name and Brand Image Following the findings of a research carried out on global consumption trends of liquor, the

V&S, in 1978, began to nurse the idea of selling its brand of Swedish Vodka in the US. Part of

the research findings indicates that the consumption of liquor in the US is a common trend

even among younger population as well as women in the affluent classes. This latent

discovery attracted many companies from different countries including the UK and Germany,

to sell liquor in the US, in spite the fact that the Russian brand Smirnoff, a major competitor of

V&S today, has already attained a commendable level of success in the country. The success

Smirnoff gained in the US, despite being a company with Russian root prompted V&S’s

realization that the actual root of a brand, to a typical consumer of vodka in the US, does not

make as much difference as much as the image it carried (Sarvani, 2004).

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V&S however soon realized that its origin being Swedish could hinder its penetration in the US

market as a result of the difficulty associated with doing business with US importers. Thus,

V&S choose to work towards building a brand premium image of its own, despite knowing that

it would be difficult for a Swedish brand to thrive and find ready acceptance in the target

market in the country. In short, this idea was predicated on the need to give V&S vodka an

identity of its own and make it a premium brand for the affluent classes in the US (Sarvani,

2004).

Part of the issues V&S had in mind is the realization that to succeed in the US market, there is

a need to effect a media plan by luring distributors. To that end, V&S Company partnered with

Carlsson & Broman Advertising Agency in Stockholm to launch a campaign ad. The

advertising company was given the mandate to come up with a bottle and a brand name.

Some of the brand names suggested include: ‘The Blonde Swede’, ‘The Country of Sweden

Vodka’, ‘Absolute Pure Vodka’, among others.

Among the names raised, ‘Absolute Pure Vodka’ was found intriguing and fascinating, though

not without some issues. While deliberating on the applicability of the name “Absolute Pure

Vodka”, the agency soon realized it was improper to apply the word ‘Pure’ as it was said to be

unideal and improper for vodka to be impure (Hamilton, 1996); besides the agency felt the

word ‘Pure’ would incorrectly portray other brands like Wolfschidt, Finlandia or Smirnoff as

impure.

Following a careful thought process, the company further thought about dropping the letter ‘e’

that ends the word ‘Absolute’ so as to convince the ad agency. While this was done on

purpose, the agency lawyers argued that such a word might not qualify for a trademark

registration, in spite the fact that ‘Absolut’ is the Swedish spelling for ‘Absolute’. According to

Sarvani (2004), “human behaviour studies show that if people have incomplete information or

data, they try to complete it themselves. They get the missing information either from personal

experience, from established truths or from researched facts....This way they became

involuntarily involved in a creative process. By removing the letter ‘e’ from the word Absolute,

the company planned to make people involuntarily complete the word by adding an ‘e’ at the

end – and thereby make them ‘involved.’”

While this idea sounds interesting, the agency however was not convinced enough as to

whether to adopt this name or consider the remainder as suggested by the Agency head,

Broman. Hence, ‘Country of Sweden Vodka’ was adopted with a mix of the word ‘Absolut’.

That gave the company the final name ‘Absolut Country of Sweden Vodka’.

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The design the bottle should take alongside the company label was also not without issues

and complexities. Beyond innovativeness and a good brand name, V&S saw the need to also

differentiate itself from other liquor bottles (most of the available brands took after the dark

colorful labels of Smirnoff) (Sarvani, 2004). Thus, the company decided to utilize a visible

bottle model without a label after taking the views of some surveyed consumers. Apparently,

V&S understands the behaviour of consumers and the need to always engage them (via

marketing research) in the development of products.

The ad agency also thought about adding some texts/phrases to the bottle. After some

considerations and modifications, the company decided to adopt the texts that read: “This

superb vodka is made from the grains grown in the rich fields of southern Sweden (Details in

Appendix Section). Distilled at the famous old distilleries near Ahus, it had been purified 10

times in accordance with traditions dating to the year 1498. In perfecting Sweden’s national

refreshment, it has become known by the name Absolut Rent Braennvin, Absolut Vodka.”

Diverse samples (with varying lengths and sizes) of the bottle were thereafter produced with

the inscription of the company’s brand name and the texts.

Today, the Absolut Vodka bottle design has made it one of the most iconic products in the

world and the shape of the bottle has vividly reinforces the brand’s heritage. More so, the

production of the V&S vodka now takes place not only in the US and Sweden, but in other

nations like St. Croix, Britain and Denmark. In fact, the V&S vodka is currently one of the most

iconic leading brands in the US today while still retaining its major competitors like Smirnoff

and Bacardi.

The Role Advertising Plays in Increasing Brand Awareness and Brand Loyalty In a competitive business environment where customers can easily switch suppliers,

satisfaction is not always all that is needed to gain the loyalty of customers as satisfaction

does not stop customers from accepting better offers from competitors

(www.marketingdonut.co.uk). The essence of brand awareness building thus is to develop

loyal customer base since effective branding is all about creating customer’s indifference to

rival brands and creating difference for the marketed brands. In this regard, advertising, to a

large extent, can help create a differentiated presence in the market that attracts customers.

Advertising (either passive or active) forms a major segment of any brand awareness strategy

(www.riba-insight.com).

Gone are the days when companies thrive on ‘make and sell’ concepts where products are

widely available and inexpensive (Kotler and Keller, 2009). These days where expensive

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products with very subtle differentiable attributes (e.g. liquors) abound, companies must attract

and retain loyal customers and branding is only able to deliver on this expectation by

comprehending, anticipating and attending to the needs and wants of its potential customers.

This is best achieved by embellishing the company’s brand strategies throughout the

company at every point of public contact and through its advertising efforts.

Through its unique advertising, Absolut has been able to build itself a differentiated class of its

own amidst other brands, indicating that it is better than others. They have been able to

engaged customers whilst giving them the avenue to interact, and a sense of belongingness

through the instrumentality of a memorable identity vis-à-vis image advertising.

The adoption of creative images, an emotional appeal, humour, unique messages; and the

consistency of the bottle (Begoll, 2006) on prints and TV commercials stand to provoke the

thoughts of customers. The online presence of campaign ads on the company’s website has

also given their customers a platform to create personal profiles and share their ideas and

visions. These individual profiles also form parts of the survey tools for developing the brand.

The hierarchy-of-effects model raised some theoretical provisions for evaluating advertising

practices (Littlejohn, 2009). Likewise, the model of Clow and Baack provides the objectives of

an advertising campaign via six steps: awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction

and purchase (Clow and Baack, 2007). For each of these steps, Absolut has been able to

attract a high level of patronage through its “simplicity and purity” and the involvement of

viewers in the creative process. Significantly, the company recorded tremendous sales in

about 16 markets including the US where the brand became the most populous brand of

imported vodka in 1984 (Sarvani, 2004).

Below is a breakdown of awards won by Absolut advertisements from 1989 to 2003.

Year Award(s)

1989 The Kelly Grand Prize for the ad ‘Absolut LA’

1990 Grand EFFIE Award for Absolut advertising campaign

1991 The Kelly Grand Prize for the ad ‘Absolut Glasnost’

1992 ‘Award of Excellence’ for animation on the internet by the Communication Arts

magazine

1993 Absolut Advertising Campaign was introduced in the ‘Hall of Fame’ by the American

Marketing Association

2000 Four Cresta Awards for International Advertising for the ads ‘Absolut Accessory,’

‘Absolut Auckland’, ‘Absolut Voyeur’ and ‘Absolut Space’ by the Creative Standards

International and International Advertising Association

2002 Insight Award for Best online advertising

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2003 EFFIE Gold Award for sustained success of the Absolut advertising campaign

Table 1: Indicating a List of Awards Absolut Advertisements Won (Sarvani, 2004)

How TBWA Maintained the Freshness of the Absolut Campaign The success recorded by Absolut long-standing advertising campaign over the years has

been credited to some bodies, one of which is the role TBWA, an advertising agency played

since 1979 (Lewis, 1996). TBWA commenced its activities with the Absolut brand by

familiarizing itself with Absolut products. Thereafter an extensive research on each of the ads

was conducted; the research eventually revealed that Absolut ads were pompous and

pretentious (Sarvani, 2004).

The creativity of the celebrity artist TBWA engaged, Andy Warhol, as suggested by Michel

Roux in 1984 as a replacement for the pompous and pretentious ads helped the agency

maintain not only the freshness of the campaign but the vitality of the Absolut brand. This

singular act became prestigious for artists as they showcased their willingness to collaborate

with the brand and give their own interpretation of the bottle. Still utilizing an ingenious style of

campaign, the agency continued to collaborate with celebrities from different media beginning

from the fashion industry through a collaboration with David Cameron, a fashion designer.

Thus, ensuring continued inspiration to a worldwide market; impacting every aspect of history,

culture, society and life; and portraying the Absolut product not as an alcoholic beverage but

creatively as a cult-object (Begoll, 2006).

1. Has Absolut Campaign Managed To Hold Its Sway Or Lost Its Impact? Experts in the adverting industry have raised the fact that four decades after Absolut U.S

debut in 1979, the tastes of Americans have changed after been acquired in 2008 by Pernod

(Buckley, 2015) (this may not be unconnected with the controversy that surrounds the

campaign of “In An Absolut World” in 2007).

The chart below indicates the level of sales of its vodka brand in the US from 2008 to 2014.

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Figure 3: Showing Yearly US Sales of Absolut Vodka (Source: Buckley, 2015)

Alcohol is a hardly to eliminate aspect of societies and the reproach of selling it can hardly be

maintained (Begoll, 2006). Also it is a main function of advertising to interest people and by

looking at masses of rather annoying ads, Absolut shows a welcome alternation (Begoll,

2006) not until the controversial ad of 2007. This resulted to a steady and unstable decline in

its yearly sales as seen in Figure 3.

Notwithstanding, and from a rather neutral perspective, one would say the campaigns are just

good in what they are doing. But, then, it can also be seen that the controversial ad that

generated massive written protest including calls to boycott Absolut brands had negatively

affected the brand in the US especially.

In 2014, just when it seemed that the company’s heydays has elapsed, the brand engaged in

some nostalgia showcasing Andy‘s original design. According to Gianatasio (2015), this step

yielded headlines and it has been a right strategy indicating that “with just the right twist, fame

can last for more than 15 minutes after all” (Gianatasio, 2015).

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References

Begoll, M. (2006). Absolut Ads: A Critical Analysis of an Advertising Phenomenon, Research

Paper, European University Viadrina Frankfurt. [Online]. Available at: http://www.discourse-

analysis.de/media/pdfs/Begoll%202006&20Absolut.pdf (Accessed on 15 October 2015).

Buckley, T. (2015). While You Weren’t Looking Absolut Vodka Lost Its Cool. [Online].

Available at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-28/ (Accessed on 24

October 2015).

Clow, K. E. and Baack, D. (2007). Integrated Advertising, Promotion and Marketing

Communications. 3rd edn. Pearson Education, pp. 165 – 171.

Gianatasio, D. (2015). How Blending Art and Commerce Drove Absolut Vodka’s Legendary

Campaigns. [Online]. Available at: http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/how-

blending-art-and-commerce-drove-absolut-vodka-s-legendary-campaigns-167143

(Accessed on 25 October 2015).

Hamilton, J. (1996). ‘Biography of a Bottle.’ In: Sarvani, V. Absolut Vodka: Creating

Advertising History. ICFAI Center for Management Research (ICMR), Hyderabad, India.

Kotler, P. and Keller, K. L. (2009). Marketing Management. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson

Prentice Hall.

Lewis, R. W (1996). The Absolut Book: The Absolut Vodka Advertising Story. 1st edn. Boston:

Journey Editions.

Littlejohn, S. W. (2009). “Advertising Theories.” Encyclopaedia of Communication Theory, 1.

SAGE.

Sarvani, V. (2004). Absolut Vodka: Creating Advertising History. ICFAI Center for

Management Research (ICMR), Hyderabad, India.

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Appendix (1)

Source: Gianatasio (2015).