Pernod Ricard has said that it will make an effort to reverse the falling figures of its vodka brand Absolut, by pushing the high-end Absolut Elyx, as well as concentrate more on the ‘product quality of the brand’ in its next set of advertisements – an aspect which the company feels has been overlooked somewhat in previous promotional material.
In the same swoop, it has reduced the number of Absolut vodka flavours, which is part of its streamlining process. Absolut has suffered particularly in the US, where it experienced a €404 million write-down in value.
Gilles Bogaert, the group’s managing director of finance and operations, said, “With Absolut, we have implemented initiatives to stabilise the brand in the mid-term,” according to TheSpiritsBusiness.com.
“But this isn’t easy, because it remains the biggest premium vodka brand in the world.
“We have reviewed price and we have a new campaign with the objective to speak more about the product quality of the brand – something we didn’t speak enough about in the past, which our competitors made sure they did.
“We have increased media spend behind the brand, we have reduced flavours because there were too many flavours, making more space for more disruptive innovations. So I think we have a competitive plan.”
He added that the company is “on-track to deliver our mid-term objective in the growing vodka category, so I think we are doing the right thing with the brand.”
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Peter Donnelly. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
