Cheers!!! And that's the exciting expression
of addiction. Phew! You may be wondering why this guy is promoting addiction.
Well, I personally do not favour promoting alcohol, but the amazing strategy
and the cues involved in the alcohol branding and business evoked me to share some
thoughts.
Although the exact date when
alcohol was produced remains elusive, the discovery of late ‘Stone Age Beer
Jugs’ has established the fact that intentionally fermented beverages existed
as early as the Neolithic period.
Wine has appeared in Egyptian
pictographs around 4000 B.C. The Babylonians considered beer as one of their
key beverages. The Sumerians have engraved the art of making beer pictorially.
The art of wine making reached the Hellenic peninsula around 2000 B.C.
Alcoholic drinks were an
intricate part of most civilization ranging from China, India, Western Asia and
Europe. In India alcoholic beverages appeared during the Indus Valley
Civilization (We’re old timers…LOL), In Hindu Ayurvedic texts both the
beneficial and detrimental effects of alcohol have been outlined Distilled
spirits originated in India and China around 800 B.C. the distillation process
emerged in Europe around the eleventh century. The Greeks worshipped the God Bacchus
- the god of wine and the Romans worshipped the same god under a different name
Dionysus. Around 55 B.C. the Romans introduced beer to the Europeans.
Wine became part of rituals with the rise of
Christianity. During the middle Ages, wine was the preferred beverage and the
consumption of alcohol began to spread to all parts of the world. Today alcohol
is widely consumed by people all over the world. Consumption is in multiple
formats, multiple tastes and multiple mixes. Isn’t it amazing! Hold on …..I’m not
going to get into the chemistry of alcohol preparation. Since I follow brands
thus I will talk about branding and marketing involved in alcohol products.
These are my
personal views, some of your thoughts may differ. I’d segment
alcohol branding in two main clusters. Cluster 1 would be “Authenticity” and
Cluster 2 would be “Aspirational or Marketing”. Scotch, Whisky, Champagne and
Wine would fall in cluster 1. Beer, vodka, rum and gin would fall in cluster 2.
Cluster
2: In a blind taste research one cannot differentiate one beer from other or vodka
from other (unless you are a professional). In absence of product
differentiation the strategy requires lots of creativity, branding ideas and
communication to achieve the desired results. I really love one brand which has
been consistent in establishing the brand through the shape of the bottle. Yes,
you are right! Absolut, it’s a brilliant work from the ad agency. Lot of creativity
with local connect being established under the same concept. Not sure how this
line of communication was started by Absolut, but I guess it is related to the
old saline bottle (This
is my wild guess from the shape of the bottle. Please do share if you know
about it)
I remember my research in some of
the rural markets in India. While working for two of the beer brands I was
completely surprised with the insights I mined from the consumers. At-least it
gave me the cues that what positioning my brand should take so that the brand
is in the consideration set in most of the drinking moments. Consumers whom I
interacted had defined four keys with which they connect with alcohol brands
- Key1: Aspiration (Success, happiness and feeling special)
- Key2: Larger than Life (Freedom, elegant & stylish life and dream)
- Key3: Fantasy (youthfulness, relaxation, chilled out, my own world)
- Key4: Unsolved Problems (career, stress, failure and sorrows)
But majority of consumers would
define their moment of consumption in the first and the last key. Such insights
have helped various brands to take differentiated positioning and create their
own set of loyal consumers. However, every time when I analyse or work on
alcohol brands, I feel it easy as well as very difficult to create a proposition
on “Marketing the addiction”
No comments:
Post a Comment