Absolut
The History of Absolut Vodka
As a marketing student I cannot recall how many times the vodka brand Absolut was either referred to by a lecturer or by myself in projects and coursework. The brand has been behind one of the most creative advertising campaigns of the last 30 years but how much do you know about the history, marketing and art of this is iconic brand?
A Brief History
Distilled for the first time as Absolut Rent Branvin (or Absolute Pure Vodka) in 1879 by Swedish entrepreneur Lars Olsson Smith. The brand immediatly had difficulty in breaking the monopoly on the sale of spirits in Stockholm. To overcome this hurdle Lars set up shop, on an island, just outside the city limits and offered customers a free boat ride to the island, an inventive marketing ploy at the time. While initially successful, Lars accumulated a great deal of wealth only to lose it, regain it and lose it again before dying penniless in 1913. The brand disappeared.
During the 1970’s the Swedish state owned V&S Vin & Sprit AB recognised an emergeing premium Vodka market in the USA. The company set about to develop the finest Vodka on the market supported with branding that would would reflect its country of origin. Absolute Pure Vodka, created 100 years previous fitted the concept. It’s famous bottle shape is that of a 16th centaury Swedish medicine bottle, that, back then, would often contain vodka for medicinal purposes. However the name was difficult to trademark in the USA. The ‘e’ was dropped on Absolute, as was the word Pure, and thus Absolut Vodka was born.
Sales of the vodka have been impressive since its launch. By 1990 almost 3.6 million cases were sold, this almost doubled to 7 million by 2000 and rose again to 11.8 million in 2008. Absolut vodka was sold by the Swedish state in 2008 for $8.89 billion. Thats a lot of vodka…
In this post I pick my favourite Absolut Ads of the last 30 years.
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4 comments for “The History of Absolut Vodka”
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New LAB blog post: The History of Absolut Vodka http://bit.ly/8HESp
Vodka is my favurite drink when I am at a party. I just love it
First time I drank it I was like No that is nothing for me. But then after a few weeks and after tasting it multiple times I started to reallylike it and now I just love it. but I don’t drink it that often. It was very interesting to see the story of absolut vodka.
All the best
Thanks Amanda, I should have another post on Absolut going up later this week looking specifically at their advertising and marketing.
Luke
vodka.. i like this