Absolut Vodka Announces the Redesign of Its Flavor Range

ABSOLUT® is proud to announce striking new designs for its range of flavored vodkas. True to the brand’s creative heritage, the vibrant new designs bypass design conventions to artistically express the core essence of each flavor.

“Our new design depicts the product’s flavor essence through something that is core to ABSOLUT’s DNA: contemporary art. We're breaking the convention that literal fruit imagery must be used to communicate what’s inside the bottle,” says Afdhel Aziz, Brand Director for ABSOLUT, Pernod Ricard USA. “This is an incredibly dramatic change for ABSOLUT and a great transformation for our flavor range. As the pioneer of the flavored vodka segment, we are thrilled to share our new packaging with the world.”

After interpreting each flavor’s essence, designers worked to elevate these impressions into premium, contemporary and progressive art. The design for ABSOLUT Pears started with the fruit’s symbolic association with longevity and purity, and arrived at an abstract pear shape resembling the symbol for eternity. For ABSOLUT Raspberri, the emotion of love and passion is intensified through the abstract expressionist technique of throwing paint. The same artistic process was repeated across the entire flavor portfolio.

Bringing an artistic approach to the redesign of its flavor range is in line with ABSOLUT’s deep roots in the art world. Since 1985, when the ABSOLUT Vodka bottle appeared in the first art ad, ABSOLUT has been making art part of its consumers’ experience.

“This is an exciting time for ABSOLUT,” says Jonas Tåhlin, VP Global Marketing at The ABSOLUT Company. “While most flavored vodkas look more or less the same, we are bringing a full range of innovative designs to market. Artistic, modern and unlike anything else around, we believe they will reinforce our position as creative leader.”

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Jeffrey Dale Starr is a vodka enthusiast, oil painter, and owner of mobile software company Purple Falcon.

Absolut Vodka Pays Homage To The Windy City

Just like the city of its namesake, ABSOLUT® CHICAGO is a true modern classic. Fused with olive and rosemary flavor, ABSOLUT® CHICAGO is perfect for many of the city’s favorite cocktails, including martinis, bloody marys and lemonade simple serve. ABSOLUT® Chicago is packaged in a specially-designed bottle, whose design was crowdsourced through a partnership with the Chicago-based design community, Threadless.

Over 170 designs were submitted and over 156,000 votes cast for the unique canvas on the limited-edition bottle. Ross Bruggink, 26, describes his winning design as a “stylized cityscape incorporating architectural and iconic elements of Chicago.”

“ABSOLUT® CHICAGO is a product of creativity and collaboration,” said Maxime Kouchnir, Vice President, Vodkas, Pernod Ricard USA. “By putting the bottle design in the hands of artists, ABSOLUT® CHICAGO inspired hundreds of people to express their creativity through an unexpected canvas.”

ABSOLUT® CHICAGO is the seventh flavor in the US brand’s city-inspired flavor portfolio, which launched in 2007 with the introduction of ABSOLUT® NEW ORLEANS, a flavor reminiscent of the Big Easy. Each year since, ABSOLUT has introduced the following US limited-edition flavors – ABSOLUT® LOS ANGELES in 2008, ABSOLUT® BOSTON in 2009, ABSOLUT® BROOKLYN in 2010, and ABSOLUT® SF in 2011 and ABSOLUT® MIAMI in 2012.

ABSOLUT® CHICAGO is now available in 750ml bottles with a suggested retail price of $19.99. For more information about this new modern classic, visit www.absolut.com/chicago.

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Jeffrey Dale Starr is a vodka enthusiast, oil painter, and owner of mobile software company Purple Falcon.

Affinnova Reveals Bottle Design Trumps Taste in Vodka Brand War

Study Shows Package Design Plays Vital Role in Consumer Perception and Shelf Impact

Affinnova, Inc., a global marketing technology company that dramatically improves innovation and marketing success rates, today released its first Package Design Audit, illustrating the importance of package design, specifically in the vodka industry. Results showed that up and coming brands Belvedere and Pinnacle are leveraging bold and unique package designs to gain market share, while attracting more consumer attention than older brands Smirnoff and Stolichnaya.

“Design remains one of the most underleveraged assets a company has in launching and maintaining a successful brand,” said Waleed Al-Atraqchi, President and CEO of Affinnova. “As advertising becomes increasingly fragmented and has less impact on consumers, packaging must work harder to build brand equity and drive purchases. Advanced marketers need to monitor how package design is impacting shelf presence and consumer perception and respond accordingly, much in the same way they actively measure and adjust other aspects of their marketing performance.”

Affinnova obtained the results through its unique Design Audit technology, which measures package design impact on consumer perception across a wide range of product categories. For the vodka industry, the audit found that:

Newer brands are winning on shelf: With unique bottle designs, including bold elements and colors, younger brands like Svedka and Pinnacle are most effective at grabbing and holding consumer attention on shelf, dramatically outperforming the industry average. By contrast Smirnoff and Stolichnaya – brands with decades of brand equity – are more likely to be overlooked by consumers on shelf.

Stale packaging can lead to brand erosion: A poorly perceived package can quickly undermine the millions spent on advertising to build a unique brand personality. While consumers perceive Absolut’s brand as “sexy, sophisticated and modern,” the current bottle design actually erodes its brand equity in these areas. By contrast, Belvedere’s bottle design elevates its brand equity significantly in all but one of 11 key vodka personality traits.

Gen X’ers and Boomers don’t see eye-to-eye with Millennials: To maintain competitive share, vodka brands must consider changing demographics and adjust accordingly. As an example, Absolut’s bottle design is succeeding in positioning the brand as “fun, friendly and approachable” among consumers 35 and older. However, it’s less effective with 21-34 millennial drinkers, who perceive Smirnoff as leading in those categories. It appears Absolut is well positioned for growth with older drinkers, while Smirnoff is attracting a younger base.

“While established brands are spending millions on marketing and advertising, more nimble competitors are using innovative packaging to quickly grab market share,” said Blake Howard, Vice President of Design Solutions at Affinnova. “Our audit shows that established vodka brands should seize the opportunity to refine their packaging to counter new competitors in this high-growth, competitive category. They can no longer rely solely on their marketing mix or even existing brand equity to do all the heavy lifting.”

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Jeffrey Dale Starr is a vodka enthusiast, oil painter, and owner of mobile software company Purple Falcon.