In the vodka market, more than in any other market, brand is of great importance. Vodka is an image product bottled in bottles. The success of the product depends on how well the image is formed. It would seem that everything is simple, but there is one nuance – the marketing toolkit does not have clear techniques and methods for working on the image, which creates a kind of chaos in the market.
Product, branded product, brand
First of all, the concepts of “product” and “brand” must be understood. There are both brands and products on the market, branded products. What is the difference?
A product is something abstract, something that has a demand in the absence of a worthy alternative. Product (for the vodka market) – is a vodka with minimal price, where its name and image do not play a special role. Application of marketing or branding tools is not required in this case, as the segment of consumers who buy the most affordable and cheapest vodka will remain forever, only its breadth depends on the economic situation in the country and a number of other factors.
“Just vodka.”
A branded product, unlike a “product”, is of higher quality for the consumer. The presence of a vodka brand, corporate logo, name and other elements of brand identity allows the consumer to recognize the branded product and make a purchase.
A brand is a branded product that has a high degree of consumer commitment, derived not only from a high level of quality but also from a unique image. The image gives the brand a special value to the customer. It is much more profitable tocreate a brand than just a product or a trademark, as consumer commitment and a positive image work in the long term.
Therefore, the “war” in a competitive market is fought only between brands. Producers experiment with bottle design, packaging, brand and name line names, labels, and formulation.
It is worth noting an important feature of this “brand war” – both domestic and foreign producers are rebranding vodka brands in the same direction, trying to make the brand richer, more solid, to give it value through the design of the packaging. This sometimes works, but if it does, it doesn’t last long, until the next competitor rebrands and then the consumer acquires a competitive brand.
Smirnoff vodka – another restyling of packaging
The second direction of vodka branding is brand positioning based on unique formulation. Producers have already invented vodka on fir cones, birch buds, and acorns, just to surprise the consumer and stand out in the competitive range. The first such unique offer was vodka “Soyuz-Viktan Na birch bruhniki”, which was a colossal success. However, the market is already full of such experiments with vodka recipes and even oversaturated.
SV on cedar cones – a new experiment with formulation
Building a brand is not just about constant change and experimentation with a product. A brand gathers around itself an army of fans who will not exchange it for any other brand without a good reason.
Many manufacturers, marketers and brand managers get hung up on creativity as well – creative design or creative advertising. But creativity does not create a brand. A brand is first and foremost an idea, a powerful communication message.
Kraftstoff Vodka. Creative packaging, but completely incomprehensible
Ideas for the brand
Experimenting with formulation and playing on quality cannot be considered brand building ideas. The success of such actions is unpredictable and very fleeting. What then is a strong brand idea to build on? The answer is obvious – on the needs of the target audience.
Consumer needs can be categorized into 3 volume blocks – situational patterns, role models and cultural factor.
Situational models
Models capable of conveying a certain situation from a person’s life, in order to determine the rational characteristics of a brand, depending on what this product will be used for, what it is intended for. In the vodka market, this block of needs is defined only by the packaging:
“Have a shot” – 50-100 ml bottle
“Drink alone” – 0.25 liters
“Drink as a couple” – 0.5 or 0.75 liters
“Drink in a big company” – “a case of vodka”
These features are not unique, they come from a specific situation, the other blocks of needs reveal many more possibilities.
Role models
Role models imply those image templates that are already familiar to the consumer and exist in his mind. On the basis of these templates, the consumer evaluates what is happening, his environment, things and himself. It can be even primitive one-syllable judgments: “He is his own guy”, “She is a coquette”, “This product is proven”. Perhaps in reality these assessments are wrong, but stereotypical thinking of a person is organized in this way, and stereotypes can be more significant than the real picture.
When rational differences in brands are not evident, role models are a crucial factor in building brand commitment. The consumer typically asks himself: “Who am I if I purchase this product? Who will I be and what does this product give me?”. It is the brand’s job to provide a clear answer to these questions. The answer should be read by the consumer in everything: in the advertising, in the packaging, in the name, slogan, etc. Everything should speak about the main idea of the brand and confirm its value.
Of course, the image of any brand should be positive, as the brand being purchased becomes part of the image of its buyer. Therefore, the buyer should want to add this “touch” to his image, should admire and imitate the role model.
Sylvester Stallone in a vodka commercial – “A real man.”
In the vodka market, the use of role models is also present, but only in the form of one abstract model – “Real Man”.
SKYY Vodka. Role model of “beauty”, “beauty”
In our country, all manufacturers are fixated on creating the image of a “Real Man”, for example, the image of Nikolai Valuev in the promotion of TM Olymp, it’s hard to imagine a more real man. However, any role model is a stereotype and primitive template used by a man for imitation. In real life it is quite difficult to imitate the image of a real man, so often such an advertising approach may not achieve the desired goal.
Vodka Olympus with Nikolai Valuev.
Role models can be expressed not only through the image of a person, based on human associations they can be expressed in many ways. For example, vodka “Night Wolf” from the manufacturer Permalko. The role model of “Tough guy” is realized using the image of a nocturnal predator.
At the moment when the market overflows with images of “real man”, “the most beautiful beauty” or “cool guy”, there is a need to address the third block of needs – cultural factors.
Cultural factors are a set of brand characteristics that allow the brand and its followers to belong to a certain cultural group. Culture is our knowledge and perceptions. Differences in cultural knowledge, perceptions, identification symbols allow to separate one cultural group from another.
When the personal image of the brand built on the role model becomes insufficient, with the help of the cultural factor the brand image is refined, forcing the consumer to consider not only himself as an individual, but also as a member of a certain group, setting the group affiliation. Each cultural group is characterized by certain traditions, values, interests, these features should be embodied in the brand, so that the consumer can unmistakably determine to which group the person consuming the product belongs.
There are quite a few cultural factors.
Classification: Patterns of embodiment of cultural factors
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
| \t\t\tФактор\t\t\t | \A sampleembodiment. |
| \The state. The state. | \The culture of Belarus, Russia or Japan. |
| \Ethnicity. | \The culture of Ukrainians, French, Georgians. |
| \The territory. | \The culture of the country’s regions and individual cities |
| \Habitat. Habitat. | \The culture of a large city, metropolis or village. |
| \Assets. | \The culture of the rich and the poor. |
| ♪t\t\t\t\t profession\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t | \The culture of doctors and lawyers. |
| \The historical period. | \Stagnant or Renaissance culture. |
| \An art form. | \The culture of painting, theater, and music. |
| \♪ Age ♪ | \The culture of children, adolescents, mature adults and the elderly. |
| \Religious and political organizations. | \Catalyst and communist culture. |
| \Gender status. | \Heterosexuals, gays, lesbians. |
| \Family life style. | \Household culture or Child-Free culture. |
| \Vice. | \Culture of tobacco and alcohol use |
| \A pastime. | \The culture of billiards or clubbing. |
| \The commonality of life’s episodes. | \The culture of the formerly incarcerated. |
| \Physiological/psychological characteristics. | \The culture of diabetes. |
| \Created by an individual. | \Created by Coco Chanel. |
| \It’s sci-fi. | \Created by Tolkien. |
Every person belongs to a multitude of cultures – by origin, income level, occupation, interests, etc. There is no human being outside of culture, so it makes no sense to create a brand without a cultural context. It is necessary to accurately calculate the relevance of the brand to any cultural factor and to attribute the brand to a certain cultural group.
The most common cultural factors used in the vodka market are national culture, territorial culture (urban and regional culture) or the culture of different historical eras and periods. Ukrainian Nemiroff gorilka and Belarusian Bulbash are vivid examples of the application of the national cultural factor.
Bulbash vodka – emphasizes national peculiarities of Belarus
The most common cultural factor among vodka brands is territorial, in particular, the culture of individual cities. Any city has its “official” vodka, which is purchased by tourists as a souvenir, it is a kind of symbol of the city or even the region. For example: Izhevsk – vodka brand “Kalashnikov”, Perm – vodka “Perm Krai”, Novgorod – vodka “SADKO”, etc.
Another cultural factor that worked brilliantly in its time is the factor of historical eras or periods used by Green Brand vodka. The idea of Green Brand vodka is a reflection of the culture of the 60s of the USSR. All brand communications, packaging, advertising images correspond to the spirit of that time period.
Green Brand vodka – brand culture reflects the period of the 60s of the USSR
The success of TM “Green Brand” caused a wave of imitation, attempts to create similar brands, However, any “plagiarism” in branding does not bring the desired results, the cultural factor of the 60’s of the USSR in the mind of the consumer has already been fixed “Green Brand” and to oust it from there is not so easy.
We must not forget that a successful brand is a unique brand, a unique image and stereotype. In order to achieve positive and sometimes colossal results, it is necessary to look for new ideas rather than parodying the competitor. Moreover, there are more than enough opportunities to find ideas, just look at the large-scale list of cultural factors, many of which have not yet been applied to the market of vodka brands.
Stolichnaya vodka: popular in the USA and unclaimed in Russia
Vodka “Stolichnaya” is so popular in the United States and completely uninterested in our citizens. Why? The reason is that for a foreigner Russia, Russians are one cultural factor, he does not divide Russia into separate nationalities, cities, regions of the country or its historical periods. Vodka “Stolichnaya” fully corresponds to the foreigner’s idea of Russia, so it is ideal for him. For a Russian person, whose country has a huge variety of products oriented to different cultures, vodka “Stolichnaya” is not vividly interesting.
For example, if you take the clothing market, there are countless things on the market, but just clothes, without names and surnames, do not arouse interest, people talk about brands, telling what a valuable purchase they made. The vodka market lives by the same laws. The vodka market is oversaturated with supply and highly competitive, you can get ahead in it only by creating a brand with a unique message and idea.
How to find this idea, where the deposits of new ideas are hidden, we tried to outline in this article. Need help, get in touch!
