THE ABSOLUT INITIATIVE

DeirdreRyan

WORDCOUNT:4,279

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Mission Statement ………………………………………………………………..4

1.2 Marketing Objectives……………………………………………………………...5

2. MARKETING OVERVIEW

2.1 Market Analysis……………………………………………………………………6

2.2 Consumer Analysis……………………………………………………………….7

2.3 Competitor Analysis……………………………………………………………...8

2.4 Company Analysis………………………………………………………………..8

3. MARKET SEGMENTATION

3.1 Market Research………………………………………………………………….9

3.2 Segmentation…………………………………………………………………….10

3.3 Targeting………………………………………………………………………….11

3.4 Positioning………………………………………………………………………..14

4. MARKETING MIX

4.1 Product……………………………………………………………………………16

4.2 Price……………………………………………………………………………….17

4.3 Promotion…………………………………………………………………………18

4.4 Place & Physical Environment………………………………………………….20

4.5 People & Process………………………………………………………………..21

5. IMPLEMENTATION & CONCLUSION

6. REFERENCES

7. APPENDICES

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1. INTRODUCTION

The Absolute Company is a subsidiary of French spirits mega-company, Pernod

Ricard. Within that, The Absolut Company consists of a strong brand portfolio

including Absolut Vodka, Malibu, Kahlua, and more. Absolut Vodka, distilled since

1879 and Swedish-owned since 1917, only became public and available globally in

1979, when it came to the US. Since then, Absolut Vodka has become one of the

world’s best-selling spirits, ranked No. 6 among premium brands by value (Holodny,

2015). As a brand, Absolut positions itself as a premium vodka, with its largest single

market being in the United States. However, in the past year, vodka sales as a whole

have taken a hit in the US market as more consumers have been purchasing brown

liquors. Due to declining sales in its key market, Pernod Ricard devalued Absolut

Vodka this year (Landauro and Chow, 2015).

1.1. MISSION STATEMENT

“The Absolut Company's mission is to be a positive part of those special moments when people socialize. All over the world, we inspire great conversations with our brand communication and add a dimension of style and sophistication with our products.”

In its Mission Statement, Absolut outlines its desire to become more than a spirit, but

also an integral part (and perhaps even catalyst) of positive social interactions. Their

aim is to either inspire conversations among their target customers, or be the subject

of those conversations, which is executed by immersing the brand in stylish and

sophisticated cultural touchpoints. Absolut clearly defines its brand personality and

aspirations for consumer interaction. However, Absolut’s mission statement only

includes two of the nine components considered important for a successful, customer-

centered mission statement to provide a cohesive touchpoint for its marketing efforts

(David, David and David, 2015).

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1.2. MARKETING OBJECTIVES

The first marketing objective will be to increase Absolut’s brand preference among

consumers by at least 2% within the next year, as measured by its ranking on

Interbrand.

The second objective will be to entice an increase distributor promotional spending per

case because of enhanced brand awareness and brand preference.

2. MARKETING OBJECTIVES

2.1. MARKET ANALYSIS

A PESTLE analysis has been conducted in order to identify trends, regulations,

and behaviours that could reveal opportunities or threats to Absolut’s current

business environment. These identifiers fall under six categories: Political,

Economic, Social/Cultural, Technological, Legal, and Environmental (Brady, 2015).

Table1PESTLEAnalysis

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2.2. CONSUMER ANALYSIS

In a post-recessionary market in the US, consumers have begun to show more

interest in the Spirits industry as a whole. In a change from the past, consumers,

particularly Millennials, are less likely to be loyal to one particular drink such as

beer or wine and will instead mix the types of alcohol consumed in one drinking

session. Diversified consumer interest has in part prompted the recent growth of

premium and craft alcoholic drinks. This has given various premium drinks

opportunities to expand and reach new markets, since Millennials will be the

largest consumer market in the future, and tend to have consumption patterns

based on trends and the “next big thing” (Euromonitor, 2015).

While the percentage of volume consumed fell from the past year, this is indicative

of consumers are trading up to more expensive premium brands at the cost of

lower consumption. Within the spirits industry as a whole, brown liquors are seeing

meteoric increases in sales while white liquors are slumping.

In terms of sales, spirits are seeing a rise in sales both in terms of value and

volume off-trade, while on-trade sales remain fairly consistent (Euromonitor, 2015).

2.3. COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

Part of the key to forming a successful marketing scheme is being able to identify

and satisfy the needs and wants of target customers better than the competition.

This requires that companies select their target markets in a way that they can

exploit a competitive advantage. In order to do this, companies will undertake a

process of identifying its key competitors, assessing their strengths, weaknesses,

and strategies, and deciding which competitors they should face directly or avoid

(Brady, 2015).

For Absolut, there are two levels of market competitors to consider when

approaching the consumer market. The first level is immediate competitors—other

brands of vodka. Absolut shares a market with other vodka brands such as Grey

Goose, Belvedere, Skyy, Finlandia, Smirnoff, and more. Absolut’s position within

the vodka market is indicated in the positioning map (Figure 1). As shown, within

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the premium/super premium vodka categories, Absolut’s primary competitors are

Grey Goose, Finlandia, and Skyy.

The second level of competition is the spirit industry as a whole. When identifying

competitors, it is also necessary to consider how their capabilities differ and which

ones might be best suited to serve market needs. This can be done with a

framework mapping two criteria: market commonality, and resource similarity

(Doole and Lowe, 2005). According to market trends, Absolut’s sales in the United

States are not falling because of competition with other vodka brands, but rather

from competition with other types of spirits, such as whiskey (Euromonitor, 2015).

The second competitor map (Figure 2) indicates uses the framework to indicate

Figure1CompetitorMap

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Absolut’s position within the spirits industry compared to its primary competitors,

whiskeys/bourbons.

2.4. COMPANY ANALYSIS

A SWOT analysis has been conducted for Absolut in order to identify the

company’s internal factors (strengths and weaknesses) and external factors

(opportunities and threats). The conclusions are represented in Table 2 below.

Figure2CompetitorMap#2

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Table2SWOTAnalysis

3. MARKET SEGMENTATION

3.1. MARKET RESEARCH

Market research is essential to ground any marketing campaign. Through a

process of asking relevant questions and gathering relevant information, a

company can determine if there is a market for their proposed product or service,

and if there is, how best to approach that market. In Table 2, the market research

process has been broken down into three areas—obtaining information about the

product, the place, and the people.

•Absolut has a strong brand--it is well-known and easily recognized•Distilled in one location, resulting in consistent high product quality•Strong market position•Historically strong and relevant advertisng•collaborations with well-known culture icons (Jay-Z, Andy Warhol)

Strengths

•Somewhat weak, ineffective online presence•"Flavour Fatigue"--too much variation in Absolut's prodcut line has weakened the brand. Absolut became product oriented rather than customer oreinted (Levitt)

•Struggles to market effectively to multicultural segements due to anti-big brand sentiments

Weaknesses

•As economic environment improves, so do opportunities for Absolut•Can continue to cultivate collaborations with culture icons•Growth of cocktail culture provides new avenues•Potential new market in Generation Y

Opportunities

•Consumer preferences are shifting towards whiskey spirits•New competitors entering market--craft liquors may not last, but they do take up market share•Brand proliferation: brands that inlcude multiple subcategoreis. Ex. New Amsterdam sells both vodka and gin

Threats

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Table3MarketResearchQuestions

3.2. SEGMENTATION

In marketing segmentation, a market for a product is broken down into different

categories, or segments. Customers in a market generally share a market segment

with other customers who have similar wants or needs (Kotler & Keller, 2012).

When researching markets for segmentation, market researchers look at two

different groups of variables: descriptive variables, which include geographic,

demographic, and psychographic information; and behavioural considerations,

such as usage occasion, benefits derived, and brand loyalty. The key to market

segmentation is recognizing customer differences in order to choose an

appropriate target market for a brand (Kotler & Keller, 2012).

After conducting appropriate market research, it is vital to segment the consumer

market into different categories of customers. Geographically, this plan is

addressing Absolut’s market in the United States. As statistics show that

consumers in the 18-35 age range consume the most spirits in the US, the

segmentation will cover the different subsets of consumer within the 21-35 age

range (Gallup, 2012). The segmentation below is a needs-based segmentation

ABSOLUT MARKET RESEARCHProduct• Do consumers

have established brand preferences?

• What is the reason for consumption?

Place• Where are people

buying/consuming spirits?

People• What

demographic is buying spirits?

• When do people buy spirits most?

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approach, which groups customers into groups based on similar needs and

benefits sought by the customer when purchasing or consuming (Kotler & Keller,

2012). Table 3 below outlines different potential customer groups for Absolut,

divided into four segments.

Segmentation of Consumers who can drink.

Table4SegmentationChart

3.3. TARGETING

After assessing each market segment for its attractiveness, potential, and reach, it

is assumed that Absolut’s target market is “Status Seekers”, such as Sophie.

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Meet Sophie. She is 25-29 years old and is part of Generation Y, which makes up

more than 25% of the population in the United States (US Census Bureau, 2015).

She’s been working full-time for a few years now, and makes between 25-50K per

annum after impressing her boss and receiving her first promotion last year.

She’s finally outgrown her old IKEA-university flat and is excited to have friends

over to her newly styled place for dinner-parties and get-togethers. She spends her

weekends exploring her city, heading for nights out with coworkers and girlfriends,

and spending the next morning chatting with them over brunch. She is always

looking for fun, unique, and local things to do to and places to see to share with her

network on Instagram. She likes feeling connected to her city and has a sense of

pride about where she lives.

She used to be more of a tequila girl in university, but is now trying to branch away

from her old university preferences, except for the occasional margarita. However,

she hasn’t quite figured out what her drink of choice is yet, and doesn’t want to

spend a lot of money on super-premium brands she isn’t sure she’ll like. However,

she does still want a spirit she’ll feel good displaying in her flat when she has

Sophie: Status Seeker • Makes 25-50K per annum • Goes out for drinks about 1-2 a

week • Lives in an urban city • Active on Facebook, Instagram,

Twitter, and Pinterest. Checks all platforms more than once a day

• Enjoys spending disposable income on quality food and drink

• Makes purchases based on style • Reads lifestyle magazines, but

chooses restaurants/bar using internet and word of mouth

• Makes up about 83 million of the US population (US Census Bureau)

Figure3Sophie,theTargetMarket

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friends over and can experiment with her new cocktail set her mum got her for her

birthday.

Once segmenting is complete and a company has chosen its target market, the

viability of the target market should be evaluated based on MASDA, which

assesses whether or not the chosen target market is measurable, accessible,

substantial, differentiable, and actionable (Brady, 2015).

Measurable: This implies that the size, purchasing abilities, and characteristics of

a target market can be measured. Looking at Sophie as a representative of the

young professional class in the US, this could be a potential market of 83.1 million

consumers (US Census Bureau).

Accessible: Evaluates whether the chosen segments can be appropriately reached

and served.

Substantial: Measures whether or not a market segment is large enough to be

worth serving. With Millennials entering the professional world between ages 25-

29, this is one of the largest potential markets in the US, currently and for the

future.

Differentiable: Measures whether or not the target market has different wants and

needs than other target markets. In this case, the young professional class drinks

and purchases spirits for different reasons than other target markets, such as the

“Cocktail Connoisseur”. Where the “Status-Seekers” might spend a little less and

purchase for style, the “Cocktail Connoisseur” will spend more and purchase for

quality.

Actionable: Evaluates whether or not effective marketing mixes can be formed to

reach the target market.

This target market is perfect for Absolut—it’s a premium brand, which will satisfy

Status-Seekers’ desire for quality and status, and it has cultural ties to art, music,

and nightlife, which will meet the need for style. At a mid-price range, Absolut can

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be bought more regularly than super-premium brands, which could help instill

brand loyalty at a young target age.

3.4. POSITIONING

In its United States market, Absolut has taken two approaches to it positioning—

premiumisation and innovation. It is perceived as being slightly better quality, and

sold at a slightly higher price-point than the standard vodka, Smirnoff. However, as

a premium vodka, Absolut is still cheaper than super-premium brands such as

Grey Goose or Belvedere. Absolut’s position in terms of quality/premiumisation

and price point is shown in Figure 4 below.

Figure4PositioningMap

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Figure 5 shows Absolut’s comparative positioning against its competitors in terms

of its second strategy, innovation.

However, currently Absolut’s positioning as a large, well-known, premium brand is

hurting them in a market where consumers are beginning to veer towards more

craft and niche products. At this moment in the market, it is imperative for Absolut

to strategically redefine their positioning to cater to a more alternatively styled

consumer.

However, redefinition does not necessarily mean Absolut abandoning or changing

its values completely. In order to appeal to a new type of young and trendy

consumer, Absolut needs to alter the context of its premium and innovative

positioning to align more with the values of young American consumers.

4. MARKETING MIX

When developing the marketing mix for a company, appeals to the target market

should follow what are considered the “seven P’s”: Product, Place, Price,

Promotion, People, Process, and Physical Environment (Brady, 2015).

Figure5PositioningMap,#2

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4.1. PRODUCT

Within the spirits market, Absolut is a well-known name and brand. However,

looking at Figure 6, Absolut is reaching the maturity stage in its product life cycle

despite its brand equity.

Within the maturity stage,

Absolut is transitioning

between the second and third

phases—from stable to

decaying maturity (Kotler &

Keller, 2012). At this point,

level of sales have started to

decline as it faces competition

from whiskey and bourbon and customers have switched to other products.

Improving sales relies on population growth and Absolut’s finding alternative

demand for its vodka (Kotler & Keller, 2012).

Considering the market Absolut is targeting and recent market trends, Absolut

should take a two-pronged approach to improving the appeal of its products.

Premium Taste

The first approach would involve Absolut focusing on the strengths it already has—

a great, high-quality product—and returning to the core of its premiumisation

positioning. The target market wants to buy Absolut because the premiumisation

gives the impression of good quality and luxury style at a lower cost. With this in

mind, Absolut should look at refining and focusing on its core product line of

Absolut Premium Vodkas. While its flavoured line of vodkas may have been

popular and driven sales in the past, the sharp decline of flavoured vodka sales in

the past year indicates an oversaturation in the market. As described by Ahrendts,

“There’s nothing wrong with any of those products […] they added up to just a lot

of stuff—something for everybody, but not much of it exclusive or compelling”

(Ahrendts, 2013). Consumers are experiencing “flavor fatigue”, and are defecting

to spirits they perceive as having greater initial depth of flavor, like whiskeys.

Figure6ProductLifeCycle

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The product approach to counter this, called “The Absolut Drink”, would focus on

the product Absolut already has. “The Absolut Drink” would highlight the distinct

complexities and depth of flavor in vodka and disbanding the misconception that it

is a tasteless, odorless “beginners” spirit (Bieler, 2010).

Local Innovation

The second approach would involve a local product strategy. Absolut can continue

with the development and promotion of the “Our/Vodka” product. Our/Vodka is a

vodka that takes Absolut’s renowned distilling process, but is distilled on-site in

different cities with local

water, ingredients, and flair,

by local entrepreneurs (Miller,

2015). In the United States,

Our/Vodka is currently in two

cities—Detroit and Seattle.

This type of product would

appeal to the target market’s

sense of local pride and

desire to interact with

products in their communities. It would also tap into ‘self-brand connection’, where

consumers are likelier to favour brands and products they feel align with their self-

identities (Chowdhury, Desai and Bolton, 2014). Since the target market, Sophie,

sees herself as a “local explorer” in her city, a product that embodies a local

entrepreneurial spirit will resonate with her. Additionally it would give Absolut a

face against its niche market competitors without having to totally alter the

positioning of the original Absolut product.

4.2. PRICE

In terms of pricing objectives, Absolut is looking to remain competitive against

other vodkas, and in the Spirit industry as a whole in the United States. To do this,

they should look to stay consistent with its positioning and advertising as a

premium product in order to not send mixed messages to their target market.

Within the premium vodka category, Absolut already has the highest sales in the

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premium category at $130.9 million in the US in 2015. However, if they try and

drop their price to compete, they will immediately lose ground to the standard

brand, Smirnoff, who has the highest sales of vodka in the US overall at $316.35

million (Statista, 2015).

4.3. PROMOTION

The sales promotions for a product should always consider the target market as

the basis, with individual methods planned around how best to reach the target

market. Absolut’s promotion will focus in the long-run on providing a total customer

experience—from personalizing the relationship with the target market through

localization methods, and adding touchpoints in the form of meaningful

experiences (de Swaan Arons, van Den Driest and Weed, 2014).

Advertising

Given that Millennials are the most digitally connected consumer group in the

market, social media and digital technology will play an important role in how

Absolut reaches and engages its target market. While Absolut has spent years

focusing on its creative marketing, it has never really effectively talked about and

highlighted the spirit itself. Absolut’s advertising strategy will need to focus on

creating value and demand for the spirit itself, as creative ad campaigns are fairly

useless if the market doesn’t want the product. The execution of promoting this

particular style of product campaign will involve key players in the People and

Process subcategory, described further below.

Sales Force

Absolut’s sales promotion will focus on the growing mixology and craft cocktail

trend taking hold in the United States. Absolut can offer sales promotions and work

to secure partnerships with key mixologists and restaurateurs in food-centric urban

cities, such as Atlanta or Houston. This will ensure that Absolut will appear on

various drink menus in stylish and up-and-coming restaurants and venues

frequented by the target market. If successful, Absolut will have the bartenders and

mixologists as an unofficial sales force.

Within the corporate structure, Absolut will construct a defined, decision-based

collaboration between its marketers and sales force. This will ensure that Absolut’s

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brand visuals and messaging are not diluted and altered by sales, and that the

sales reps are up-to-date and can focus more time on connecting with Absolut’s

distributors and retailers, to financial benefit (Joshi and Gimenez, 2014).

Events and Experiences

While Absolut has had a history of putting on large-scale events and experiences

tied to music and culture, merely planning large events will not be sufficient as a

promotional strategy on its own. While things such as its large concerts or club

nights in New York are interesting to read about, for the large majority of Absolut’s

target market, these events are inaccessible. Absolut needs to take its global

brand to its target market in a local context in order to stimulate engagement

(Vignali, 2001). Absolut should refocus the kind of experiences it offers its target

market to frame the events around the spirit itself. This could be executed through

a strategy that could utilize a touring pop-up bar/mixology classes. The pop-up

would be staffed by a rotation of notable mixologists, or recruit well-known local

mixologists, and each stop in a city could focus on making/teaching drinks with

local ingredients and influences. For example, the pop-up would stop in Atlanta,

which is currently host to the emerging drinks and food culture of the American

South (Hunt, 2015). The mixologist could feature a mint julep, a typically southern

cocktail but with a vodka twist, or a Bloody Mary, which is a southern brunch

staple.

Additionally, the pop-up could be an opportunity to appeal to multi-cultural

communities in the United States, which large national brands tend to have

difficulties with. Drinks with Asian influences could be featured on the West Coast,

drinks with Hispanic influences could be featured in the South, and so on. The

mixology aspect of the pop-up would provide a channel for Absolut to actively

engage with its target market, teaching them to make drinks while appealing to the

target’s local spirit. The bar aspect would still provide the social benefits the target

market seeks from consuming alcohol; they would get to interact with friends, while

taking part in an experience that would be very shareable on social media, creating

positive content for the absolute brand. In order to advertise the pop-ups, Absolut

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could approach local lifestyle bloggers and social media accounts, which is a

primary way the target market stays up to date on events in their location.

4.4. PLACE AND PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

When looking at the place and physical environment that a product is sold, it is

important that it aligns with the customers expectations, so they can be sure of the

quality of product and service they’re receiving Kotler et al., 2012). An industry

such as Spirits, which the target market engages with for experiential and social

benefits, should utilize a mix that employs a variety of sensory tactics to enhance

the customer’s experience.

Absolut Vodka is sold in two types of

locations—on-trade locations, or bars and

restaurants where spirits are served; and off-

trade, which would be individual liquor stores

or state-run ABC stores.

Off-trade: In terms of selling in an off-trade

physical environment, in a market which is

currently saturated with product, the most

effective way of distinguishing a product to a

customer is through its appearance and

physical presentation in stores. Absolut

should work through its distributors to secure

end-cap shelf space so that its product is

visible to the customer first. In addition,

distributors should be provided with an adequate marketing budget and material to

design a display to catch the eye of the consumer first.

Digital “Environment”

Another key area for a brand to succeed in the modern consumer market is the

way they present their digital real estate. Looking comprehensively at their

company website and social media accounts, while much of the content Absolut

posts and displays is eye-catching and interesting, it is scattered and not framed in

such a way that adds value to the brand. Additionally, the “Drinks” part of the

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website, which lists various recipes to try at home, lists a significant amount of

recipes that don’t use vodka as the spirit base. This seems counterintuitive for

Absolut to advertise recipes for cocktails that require its competitor spirits.

4.5. PEOPLE AND PROCESSES

Process

Absolut is distributed as a subsidiary company under Pernod Ricard; in the off-

trade category, it is distributed to customers by a variety of retailers and

wholesalers, where it controls about 13% market share for spirits (Bieler, 2010). In

the on-trade category, vodka would be purchased from a distributor by a bar, club,

or restaurant to be served to customers on-site. In this category, Absolut

dominates with about 25% market share.

Depending on the liquors laws in each state, Absolut uses a variety of service

channel designs to move product to its customers. Absolut’s service channel

design and the relationship they maintain with their distributors influence how their

product is presented and marketed to their customers in a brick-and-mortar store.

Table 5 below illustrates the different types of service channels Absolut uses to

make their vodka available to customers.

Table5AbsolutServiceChannelBlueprint

Producer(Absolut)

State Government (Wholesaler)

Retailers (can be state

contracted and/or run)

Consumers

On-trade

Consumers

Distributors

On-trade

Consumers

Retailers

Consumers

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People

Absolut’s service line is structured in such a way that an Absolut employee will

rarely actually interact with consumers in a sales or marketing capacity. Most

interaction for consumers will consist of the bartender or waitress or serves their

drink, or the cashier who rings up their bottle purchase in the retail store.

Following the idea that all service encounters are, “first and foremost social

encounters” (Giebelhausen, et al. 2014), Absolut needs to take advantage of the

customer rapport a good bartender shares with his clientele. Since often, a

customer’s drink choice can be heavily influenced by recommendations or

offerings from the bartender/mixologist, Absolut should work on winning back the

bartender. A report executed by Absolut found that most people, including

bartenders, don’t really know what flavor profiles to look for or how to describe

vodka’s complexities, resulting in a focus on spirits like rye and whiskey (Bieler,

2010). Involving bartenders and mixologists will be an essential part of Absolut’s

“The Absolut Drink” strategy, which will focus on utilizing a bartender’s service

relationship with the customer to emphasize their positioning. To do so, Absolut will

target key cities in the US that are cultural/food-centric hotspots, such as New

York, Atlanta, New Orleans, etc., and send “Flavour Scientists” to popular and

stylish restaurants to educate about the vodka and build collaborative relationships

with the venue’s bar staff.

5. IMPLEMENTATION AND CONCLUSION

Based on Pernod Ricard’s previous marketing spend for the Absolut brand, which

was 478 million in 2015, the budget for this year’s marketing strategies will be

increased by 7% to 511 million for 2016. The increase in budget is to allow

additional budget to go towards developing more local marketing initiatives and

distributor relationships. This strategy will enable Absolut to meet customers at the

‘evaluate’ stages of the consumer journey through distributor relationships than

merely at the ‘consider’ and ‘buy’ stages (Edelman, 2010). Based on the

marketing mix, the rest of the budget allocation is as follows:

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To conclude, the effectiveness of the marketing mix applied to the marketing

objectives will be measured using appropriate performance metrics and analytics

to identify increase in brand preference, positive digital preference and

communication with the target market, and sales. If appropriately aligned and

implemented, the marketing mix will achieve satisfactory reach and resonance with

the target market, and Absolut should succeed in meeting its marketing objectives.

Figure7AbsolutMarketingBudget

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Wall Street Journal. [online] Available at: http://www.wsj.com/articles/pernod-

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Food Journal, 103(2), pp.97-111.

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7. APPENDICES

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• Absolut has a strong brand--it is well-known and easily recognized• Distilled in one location, resulting in consistent high product quality• Strong market position• Historically strong and relevant advertisng• collaborations with well-known culture icons (Jay-Z, Andy Warhol)

Strengths

• Somewhat weak, ineffective online presence• "Flavour Fatigue"--too much variation in Absolut's prodcut line has weakened the brand. Absolut became product oriented rather than customer oreinted (Levitt)

• Struggles to market effectively to multicultural segements due to anti-big brand sentiments

Weaknesses

• As economic environment improves, so do opportunities for Absolut• Can continue to cultivate collaborations with culture icons• Growth of cocktail culture provides new avenues• Potential new market in Generation Y

Opportunities

• Consumer preferences are shifting towards whiskey spirits• New competitors entering market--craft liquors may not last, but they do take up market share• Brand proliferation: brands that inlcude multiple subcategoreis. Ex. New Amsterdam sells both vodka and gin

Threats

ABSOLUT MARKET RESEARCHProduct• Do consumers

have established brand preferences?

• What is the reason for consumption?

Place• Where are people

buying/consuming spirits?

People• What

demographic is buying spirits?

• When do people buy spirits most?

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Producer(Absolut)

State Government (Wholesaler)

Retailers (can be state

contracted and/or run)

Consumers

On-trade

Consumers

Distributors

On-trade

Consumers

Retailers

Consumers

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