V&S had to keep in mind various issues that they had to go through before deciding an appropriate brand name and brand image. For the launch in the new target market, US, V&S carried out a thorough market research on the previous ad campaigns for the past ten years. This gave them an idea about the target market segment and their choice of acceptance for the ads related to the industry. They found that most ads were exaggerated and snobbish, featuring people dressed in expensive attire and lavish lifestyles with a small liquor bottle tucked in some corner; where none of those ads were targeted at people below forty.
As most of the previous campaigns were targeted at people above forty and were quite serious ads, V&S decided to expand their target segment from 20 to 45 years and make them more hilarious; relates to the young target segment. With keeping the same consistent idea of showcasing a bottle with two word tagline, with one a brand name and another describing the theme of the ad, V&S realised it was a way of interacting with the consumers as this made them think about the brand and not forget it easily. Creating and maintaining a brand name and brand image is very important.
It is said, that brand awareness was found to have positive effect on brand image (Faircloth, Capella, & Alford, 2001). With so many other Vodka brands available in the US market, like Smirnoff and Stolichnaya, V&S had to make sure they come up with a brand name that stays in consumer’s memory and that made them think about the ads, and generate curiosity; which then would lead them to try the product. V&S took a clever step towards naming the brand, by changing the spelling to ‘Absolut’, which is a Spanish spelling for ‘Absolute’.
This showcased the Spanish image of the product, with Absolut meaning ‘purest of pure’; creating brand image. Brand awareness is an important, yet not, a sufficient step in build brand equity. Other considerations such as the image of the brand often come into account, and shows that brand equity is driven by brand image (Chen, 2010). Brand image could be defined as ‘the perception about a brand as reflected by the cluster of associations that consumers connect to the brand name in memory’ (Rio, Vazquez, & Iglesias, 2001).
In order to get a positive image of the brand, it was vital for V&S to have Absolut Vodka advertisements work well with the American consumer and their society: but without diminishing the original Spanish identity from the product. 3. Discuss the role advertising plays in increasing brand awareness and brand loyalty among consumers, especially for products which have very subtle differentiable attributes? In the above context, examine the impact Absolut advertisements had on its target audience. Do you think the advertisements fulfilled their purpose?
How might it be measured? Role of Advertising in increasing Brand Awareness Advertising plays an important role in creating brand awareness; hence, brand awareness plays an important role in consumer’s buying decision. Also Brand awareness is an important and sometimes undervalued component of brand equity (Aaker, Measuring brand equity across products and markets. , 1996). Brand awareness is the result of consumer’s exposure to brand (Alba & Hutchinson, 1987), which comes from the creating the right advertising strategy.
Brand awareness is the strength of a brand’s presence in the mind of the consumer (Ross, 2006). One of the oldest definitions of brand awareness is ‘the ability to identify the brand under different conditions’ (Rossiter & Percy, 1987). Advertising helps building brand equity in four different ways; creating a brand node in consumer’s memory, providing a sense of familiarity of the brand in the consumer’s mind, acting as a signal of trust in the brand, and being enough reason for the consumer to consider the brand in his consideration set (Gill, Andre’s, & Salinas, 2007).
Based on the theoretical research, the following hypothesis is assumed to be true, that “brand awareness has a positive effect on brand image and brand equity. ‘ Role of Advertising in increasing Brand Loyalty Where, Agrawal, 1996 states that advertising directly affects brand loyalty. Stronger brand loyalty requires more advertising spending under competitive conditions. Another author stated that advertising spending has no direct effect on brand loyalty, but still plays a role in maintaining customer’s brand loyalty (lohnson, 1984).
Advertising helps consumers build a quality perception of the brand and its products. This perceived quality affects user satisfaction, which results in brand loyalty. Previous studies have shown that positive consumer behaviour through effective advertising lead to brand loyalty. To fabricate and sustain the consumer loyalty mass media advertising is supplemented with more direct and interactive methods (Bladinger & Robinson, 1996).
It is also believed that if the consumer likes the advertisements, corresponding is two times more effective than an average advertisement (Biel & Bridgewater, 1990), where others said that likeability of advertisements depends upon the element of entertainment and information provided (Haley & Baldinger, 1991); thus, means that brand loyalty is positively increased by advertisement likability. Impact of Absolut Advertisements on Consumer Absolut advertisements left a memorable effect on the consumers.
The strategy to present the Absolut Vodka ads with the Absolut bottle and the two-word tagline worked wonders for the brand. The first ad from the campaign, ‘Absolut Perfection’ for example, was liked by consumers a lot; which followed by many others (1500+ executions) like Absolut Gossip, Absolut Knowledge , Absolut Jazz, Absolut Apple, and many more attracted the attention of the consumer, who actually started talking about the ad and the brand in public (friends and family).
In US, young started collecting Absolut ads; newspaper sellers used to cut out the Absolut ads from the newspapers and magazines and sell them separately. Because V&S amended their ad campaigns according to the target market and its consumers, Absolut Vodka ads were much appreciated and liked by the target market consumers; the ads fulfilled their purpose as it successfully engaged with consumers, and this could be measured by the fact that at one point, consumers started collecting the ads (collecting craze for ads).
