Research paper
check attachment
Company: “Byte Dance” also known as “Tiktok”
Social Platform: Twitter
Strategic Social Media Group Project
Role:
You are all members of the Social Media Strategic Team _______________, Inc., which is a consulting company that evaluates the “marketing” effectiveness of clients’ websites and their use of social media. Over the last several years, most companies use social media as part of their overall communication and marketing strategies, and your team has been asked to investigate and analyze how successful these companies have been using social media, what the current trends are, where they could improve their online presence and why, and what the future looks like.
Purpose:
1. Investigate how the company you have chosen uses its website and social media to enhance communications and business interactions with partners, vendors, customers, and the community. Social Media includes Web technologies such as Websites, Apps and social media platforms Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, podcasts, Linked-In, or YouTube are all also acceptable interactive communication.
2. Investigate your client/company’s use of social media – Possible considerations
· How are companies using these new technologies? Purpose?
· How are they being implemented? Is there a strategy?
· What are its objectives? You may have to figure this out yourselves.
· Are they successful? Effective?
· Who are their audiences?
· What results have they seen that can specifically be tied to SM? Increase revenue? Reduce expense? Increase customer satisfaction? Increase public perception?
· What improvements could they make? Recommendations
Give specific examples and details- Company websites and Social Media sites
Report Components: A cover memo
· The Editor will give an executive overview of the report in a paragraph: This will describe the purpose of the report, a brief discussion about social media technologies in general, and how they are being used within this company. The cover memo will be written in a narrative form and will also include a minimum of 2 graphics (such as a logo and a graphical representation of the company’s growth over the years). The editor should also give a brief overview of the Website and social media platforms used by the company and then allow the other members to address each of these. This memo will be written by the “editor” with input and review from the other group members.
· The cover memo will range from 300 – 600 words. Be concise, but thorough and professional.
· Your team should provide a description of each SM evaluated, how they were evaluated and the criteria used – this is basically an overall executive summary of the findings. The summary will identify which website/SM best met the criteria in each function and what your overall impression was of that company.
Each member’s individual reports or contributions:
· Each group member will write the evaluation for one aspect of online presence, ranging from 700 – 800 words. Each evaluation should include the following:
Functions: Evaluation of the most significant functions – Must include Audience and Tools. Your group must choose one more function to use in your analysis of the company’s social media presence.
· Audience (Required)
· Tools for Interaction (Required)
· The global presence and cultural accommodation
· Marketing/Sales
· Customer Service and Support
· Public Relations
· Careers/Recruitment
· Product Communities
· Community and Outreach Services
Collect of Data – Review of a minimum of 25 online interactions
· Overall impressions; recommendations for improvement
· For each of the functions, describe how social media is being used, what technologies are being utilized, how the business processes works, and how effective they are. Give detailed examples to support your opinion. Each group will need to determine a set of criteria to “grade” each function on. This will require group meetings to look at each company on-line and determine which company is best in each function.
· Your team will need to give a “grade” to each function and determine the overall grade for their company. They will also need to give their reasons for the grades, what was done well, what needed improvement.
MEMO
Date:November 25, 20
1
7
Prepared for:
Report by: Brian, Dilini, Kyle, Zachary (EDITOR)
Subject: Vodka in the Social Sphere
INTRODUCTION
The Vodka industry is a small part of the alcohol industry that started in Russia and quickly gained popularity, expanding globally. The market is extremely saturated, with new brands of vodka entering the market constantly. It is an extremely competitive market; one which has forced veteran companies like Smirnoff and Absolut to diversify their brand and products to meet ever-changing consumer demand. Both companies have struggled within the past few years as newer generations gravitate towards ‘brown liquors’, especially in the US market. Globally, both companies are heavily invested throughout Europe, Asia, and the Pacific, including in Russia. Their operations must adhere to cultural norms in each country they operate in, offering a wide variety of products for every consumer group.
This report is being prepared to analyze how these hard liquor companies utilize social media and other communications means to bolster their sales, maintain confidence in their brands, and launch new products that will attract new customers. We will compare two of the strongest Vodka brands in the world: Smirnoff and Absolut, alongside their distributors, Diageo and Pernod Ricard. We will assess a wide variety of company factors, including: Global Presence and Cultural Accommodation, Marketing and Sales, Public Relations, Careers/Recruitment, Product Communities, and Community and Outreach Services. We will then rate the company’s performance in each of these factors on a scale of 0 to 5, with 0 being poor and 5 being excellent. We will then tally the results and conclude which company has the highest performance, with individual reports following.
FACTORS
Global Presence and Cultural Accommodation
It is vital for companies to reach as many markets as possible. In the global economy, there is always a high demand for alcohol products such as Vodka. Using multiple social media platforms, companies can custom tailor their marketing to each individual market. Since they are dealing with a wide range of customers with their own cultural and social values, companies can use that adapted approach to reach the highest share of that foreign market, and retain it. When it comes to party drinks such as Vodka, they will always be in high demand. Unfortunately, however, the global Vodka market has been in a downward spiral for the past few years, and analysts predict that this will continue for several more.
When it comes to global market appeal, both Smirnoff and Absolut have strong followings. Smirnoff’s primary market is United States, South America, and Australia, with a growing presence across other markets around the globe. Absolut’s primary market is Europe and Asia, with a relatively strong global presence as well. Both companies utilize social media well, with each market receiving messages meant to fit into their cultural ideologies. The products each company offer is tailored to the specific region’s tastes, so both companies pass the product variation test with flying colors. Both Smirnoff and Absolut have issues when it comes to pushing their values to the audience globally without compromising on certain regions, but both do a good job of diversifying their products to fit each region’s tastes. For this category, both Smirnoff and Absolut got a 4 out of 5.
Marketing and Sales
Party drinks are a huge market worldwide, and Vodka is a major player in that market. In order to be successful, a company must make great use of their social media platforms, especially in a market catering towards social events and good times. Word-of-mouth through these platforms is a great way for companies to save money on advertising since so much of their market adoption is through sharing.
Both Smirnoff and Absolut make great use of social media, with campaigns daily that increase public awareness of their products and entice consumers. Despite both companies being so heavily involved in their marketing campaigns, Smirnoff is leading in terms of global marketing strategy, as they have put an emphasis on custom-tailoring their advertisements to their specific regions. Due to this effort, Smirnoff received a 5 out of 5 rating in this category. Meanwhile, Absolut has been lacking in diversifying their marketing strategy globally, with less custom-tailored advertisements per region, or entire advertisements being spared from regions that would not approve of them. Since Absolut hasn’t taken the extra step to satisfy their foreign consumer markets, they received a 4 out of 5.
Public Relations
In the past, public-relations has been a challenging aspect for businesses because they did not have sufficient resources to reach out to a large number of consumers. Today, with the help of social media, public-relations has advanced and grown to a whole new level, enabling companies to communicate and stay connected with millions of consumers at once. It also enables companies to get to know what consumers actually think or say about your products, and actively participate in discussions in order to gain competitive advantage.
Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are great communication tools which provide a platform to consumers worldwide to share their comments, ideas, concerns and questions with the fellow consumers as well as companies. Actively participating in the discussions by replying to customer issues, questions, concerns, provide companies with the opportunity to easily address any issues, and turn an unsatisfied customer into a satisfied one. These conversations not only help them understand their market better, but also helps to show that they value each of their customers.
Businesses also use Facebook and Twitter to add value, engage and interact with consumers. By posting pictures or status updates related to their products, businesses initiate conversations and invite consumers to share. Furthermore, social media allows companies to track conversations about their brands as they take place. Businesses also use social media to network with journalists and writers, who can help in publishing more content about their products. This will provide publicity for the company and also help in search engine optimizations.
Both companies seem to use Facebook to actively interact with consumers by posting interesting content and responding to customer queries. Smirnoff gets 3 out of 5, while Absolut gets 4 out of 5 since they interact and reply to their customers in a fast and efficient manner.
Careers/Recruitment
In order to attract and inform potential hires about your company’s careers and opportunities, you need to have a website that concisely conveys what they are looking for, while grouping together information that pertains to the variety of opportunities that are offered. These applicants aren’t only interested in the positions at the company, but also what it is like to work there. Testimonials of employee satisfaction, mission statements, and company culture all work together to give the applicant an inside look on what it is like to be a part of that company. These applicants don’t just use the website to learn more the company that they are applying to, but they also get a glimpse of how the company portrays themselves.
Absolut (Pernod Ricard) gets a rating of 4 out of 5 and Smirnoff (Diageo) gets a 5 out of 5. Diageo seems to leave no stone unturned in the development of their website. Their website looks sleek and simple while still making sure that the appropriate information is being provided to applicants.
Product Communities
Every company either has products they sell or a service that they provide to consumers. Success is not only measured in profit and sales, but in feedback and communication from your consumers. Product communities are an important method of gathering information about what will work and what won’t work. Data and statistics around consumer engagement with Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, and twitter all help a company understand what direction to take next with their service or product. An “often overlooked option (use for social media) is segmentation” (Crimson Hexagon, n.d.). Dividing your consumers into specific audiences or communities help companies start to connect with and influence certain communities interested in their products or services.
Both Smirnoff and Absolut have many vast social media platforms they utilize to manage their many product communities. Each has its own specific purpose and relevance to the product. Smirnoff has done a great job at recognizing the differing needs of their many product communities, developing strategies that allow them to succeed while also engaging with their customers in each community. For this, Smirnoff gets a 5 out of 5 rating. Absolut is also making strong use of many social media platforms, but although they have been successful in this regard, they still have some work to do in terms of equal customer engagement within all of their product communities. Absolut ended this category with a 4 out of 5.
Community and Outreach Services
Both Smirnoff and Absolut take their social responsibility very seriously. Additionally, both companies rely heavily on event-based activities to push their values, while also utilizing these events as marketing ploys. Despite the intent to profit from their social values, they do both have a strong belief in LGBTQ rights, women’s rights and freedom of expression. Absolut has been a staple of the gay community since the early 1980’s when they were one of the first brands to embrace and directly market to them. Smirnoff is also a popular drink among this group, and the company also considers them a very important market.
For Absolut, their activities go beyond just events and occasional fundraisers. They have advocated strongly for many very polarizing issues, donated heavily to organizations working hard to guarantee fair treatment for all people, and have started many unique movements worldwide that encourage people to celebrate their diversity. In terms of outreach, Absolut has shown a stronger desire to make sure all of their customers are happy and wanting more, while Smirnoff has opted to try and highlight the positive notes of their brand. Some would say this is ignoring the issues that have arisen, and that is why Absolut has been designated the stronger brand in terms of Community and Outreach services. Overall, Smirnoff got a score of 4 out of 5, and Absolut got a 5 out of 5 in this category.
RESULTS
Both Smirnoff and Absolut ended up using social media equally as well. The reasons behind this are because Smirnoff lagged in terms of Public Relations and Community Outreach, with average results among other business factors. Meanwhile, Absolut did slightly better in those that Smirnoff lagged in. They both ended with a respectable 4 out of 5 average rating. Both companies have some necessary improvements before they can truly be maximizing the potential of their social media platforms, but they have come a long way, and both continue to improve annually.
FACTOR RATINGS
BRAND AWARENESS
© Statista, 2017
BACKGROUND
“The Smirnoff brand was founded in 1864 by Piotr Arseneevich (P.A.) Smirnov and before long, he became one of the most famous vodka makers in Russia. In 1886, he even received the Tsar’s special designation as a Purveyor of the Imperial Court, which is a fancy way of saying Official Vodka-Maker of Tsar Type People. This was based both on the fact that his vodkas were delicious, and that Tsars tend to like to make things official” (Smirnoff, n.d.). After the Bolshevik Revolution, Smirnov was chased out of Russia and settled in France, eventually reviving the brand and becoming a leading name for vodka and other party drinks worldwide.
FACTORS
Global Presence and Cultural Accommodation
Smirnoff has many different accounts on each social media platform, typically titled something like ‘Smirnoff U.S’, ‘Smirnoff Australia’, ‘Smirnoff Europe’, etc. Comparing these two, you can see that Smirnoff really tries to tap into social movements or trends in each region. As an example, a quick peak on the Smirnoff U.S. Facebook or Twitter account will show you the most recent post is a new drink that they made trying to tap into the hype generated from Stranger Things, potentially making their post viral (which it did not).
You will also see that in the U.S market, they really try to tap into the social justice movement, having bottles with a rainbow label for LGBTQ+ movements during pride month, as well as sponsoring videos that promote women’s equality in the music industry. However, if we jump over to Smirnoff India’s twitter, there is nothing about these two things. Just about every third post is a competition (where you don’t win anything) to guess the theme of a party, and the rest of the posts are recipes using their flavored vodkas. After going through the different regional social media profiles, it appears that Smirnoff attempts to heavily insert themselves into equality and social justice movements so long as that area has a strong presence for it. I didn’t mention Smirnoff Europe’s Twitter, but for the whole month of July, it has even more posts standing with the LGBTQ+ community than the U.S. did, as well as linking websites for people to report online harassment to the European governments. The closest thing I found to a mention of equal love on the Smirnoff India twitter was this post:
This shows that they won’t push their view of equality unless there’s already a large showing of it in that region. Also, don’t mix vodka and milk straight; use some Kahlua or Baileys in that recipe please. Smirnoff is a company that likes to push its values, except for when it is not culturally called-for in certain markets. Despite their adherence to cultural norms, a major issue with Smirnoff’s website has limited the score in this category, since it is hard to change region/languages on the website, ending in a score of 4 out of 5.
Marketing and Sales
In the U.S alone, Smirnoff spends $1.71 million on advertising. The source used (statista.com) only has Smirnoff ad tracking for the U.S. markets only, but they do show that Diageo (the parent company of Smirnoff) is on track to spend 1.8billion GBP worldwide on Advertising in 2017. At a conversion of 1GBP = 1.32 USD, that comes out to $2.38 Billion USD. This is a large amount spent on advertising, even if it is from the parent company (that owns many other brands of alcohol as well). Smirnoff competes alongside its many competitors for the same position in your mind, which is why we see so much overlap in similarities on their Social Media accounts.
Most of their billboard and television advertisements are also similar, typically showing a party lifestyle with 20-year-olds out at music concerts or on vacation in a tropical environment. Everyone looks beautiful and typically has some romantic involvement suggested through someone winking or looking seductively at the person drinking their alcohol (“if you buy our alcohol, people will love you too”).
Despite these similarities, Smirnoff has taken a lead in offering a very diverse set of products that are well-adapted to their major markets and pushed effectively via social media. Many of the advertisements are not mere copies of their foreign counterparts, resulting in a score of 5 out of 5 for Smirnoff in this category.
Public Relations
Smirnoff has an excellent online presence particularly on Facebook which gives consumers the opportunity to effectively express their ideas, ask questions and share opinions about products they use. They have 14.2 million likes and followers (Facebook: Smirnoff). Their Facebook page features various flavors of Smirnoff beverages. The company tries to give as much information as possible to describe the taste of new products. While thanking customers for their feedback, their team replies to customer questions and provide links to the exact product they are looking for. Many of the customer questions and comments were about certain products being difficult to locate.
However, Smirnoff appears to be good at promptly responding to these queries with product links. Smirnoff also seems to handle criticism very well. When some customers had expressed their dissatisfaction in the new products they have introduced, Smirnoff responded with a positive attitude, ensuring the customers that new products are just as refreshing. Furthermore, they provide cocktail recipes to consumers to encourage them to explore new ways to use their products. Their Facebook posts mainly focus on promoting products according to seasons or social events (summer, Halloween etc.), as well as promoting products to show their support for gender equality and human rights. They do not seem to be very active on Twitter, though, which only has 10,000 followers (Twitter: Smirnoff). Even though Smirnoff has a strong presence on Facebook, they do lack on their Twitter efforts, which tends to be more spread out in coverage than Facebook; Therefore, Smirnoff got a 3 out of 5 in this category.
Careers and Recruitment
Smirnoff’s official website, Twitter page, and Facebook page are not focused on finding applicants. They do not mention anything about opportunities to work for the Smirnoff brand, or careers that are related to Smirnoff. Smirnoff is also a brand that is owned by a company called, Diageo, a British multi-national company that employs over 30,400 people worldwide (Diageo, n.d.). On Diageo’s official company website, they have a section for careers that is divided into five main web pages. Those five categories include a general overview of their careers, what it is like working at Diageo, opportunities at Diageo, Graduate programs, and lastly, an online application page. Diageo provides some well-made videos that give insight on what it is like to work at Diageo and what responsibilities are involved with certain positions within the company. Their website is straight-forward, and took little to no effort to find information ranging from culture and values, to what kind of business-related graduates they are looking for in their program. Diageo also has a Facebook group for their global Graduate program, and it shows many photos and videos of the Graduate’s experiences with the program.
Overall, Diageo receives a 4 out of 5 for careers and recruitment due to the career portion of their website being more user-friendly and easy to navigate. Everything from the videos to the description of the different positions available made you feel like they got their point across very well and executed it perfectly. The only thing lacking was that they didn’t put as much effort into using their Diageo global Graduate program on Facebook as a method to connect with future candidates.
Product Communities
Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are the main channels of communication that Smirnoff uses to engage with their customers. Each of these product communities may need a different approach or strategy to be able to reach more of their consumers. After finding out that video clips “were not performing as well on Twitter and Instagram as they were on Facebook”, “they decided to embrace photos for those platforms, which ultimately led to a 46% increase in engagement” (Campaign Live, 2016, October). Something as simple as switching from video to photo based media can have a tremendous effect on consumer interactions in Smirnoff’s product communities. Smirnoff’s net sales went “up 2% in the US, against a 4% decline for 2015”, and this was all from identifying and influencing their product communities in an effective way (Campaign Live, 2016, October).
Overall, I would rate Smirnoff’s engagement with their product communities a 5 out of 5 because they are able to appropriately strategize and formulate a plan for each of their different product communities. At the same time, they understand what their customers want and provide an outlet for consumer interaction.
Community and Outreach Services
The makers of SMIRNOFF™ vodka have an extensive history of corporate social responsibility. Since they are a company so invested in their public image, it would make sense for them to be so active in the community. They support a wide variety of causes including LGBTQ issues, women’s rights, marriage equality, and much more, and this is just factoring in the US perspective. They also support global initiatives to express creativity and personal freedom like the Smirnoff Global Art Project. “The SMIRNOFF™ Global Art Project launched in March 2016 in Tokyo, Japan and gathers some of the most innovative names in the world of street art to stage a dialogue around inclusivity” (PR Newswire, 2016, June). Smirnoff believes, “Instead of highlighting differences as a way to cause separation, SMIRNOFF™ believes that we should celebrate our differences as a way to come together and contribute to the growing culture around us” (PR Newswire, 2016, June).
It is very apparent that Smirnoff is deeply engrained in public issues like those mentioned above due to the heavy involvement in pushing their positive messages across all platforms of social media and their website. For example, “Smirnoff joined the #chooselove campaign on Twitter to take a stand against LGBT+ prejudice online. The campaign, which ran during the 2017 Pride season in the UK saw artists respond to online hate with messages of support and love” (Diageo PLC, 2017, July). This is one of many strong stances they have made against prejudice, and it shows how dedicated they are to things beyond just sales. In addition, their efforts have made them the global leader in vodka sales.
Diageo, the manager of the SMIRNOFF™ brand, also has an extensive history and strong approach to corporate responsibility efforts. In a report the company posted in 2013, they state, “Together with our stakeholders, we have the ability to shape our future. The work we are doing to refresh our approach to sustainability and responsibility will help make that future a bright one – we call this celebrating life, today and tomorrow” (Diageo PLC, 2013).
As an alcohol company/distributor, Diageo and Smirnoff understand how important it is that people enjoy their drinks responsibly. They have taken part in “communication campaigns to push for safe alcohol use, supported programs to raise awareness and change attitudes of abusive drinkers, and advocated effective, evidence-based policies which are culturally sensitive and do not result in unintended consequences” (Diageo PLC, 2013). Despite their efforts, they note that this is an ongoing effort and will continue indefinitely as they stick to their progressive corporate responsibility goals.
Unfortunately for Smirnoff, a lot of their corporate responsibility efforts are focused on in-person events that push their strong campaigns for equal rights regardless of gender, sexuality or color of skin. While these campaigns have been very successful and led to a strong company image, they could do more aside from just their events. Despite their limited scope of initiatives and campaigns, they have done a good job at pushing these events and their views on social media, having a global impact across all their global market regions. The company’s heavy use of social media for community outreach has opened them up to criticism, however, such as public perception that Smirnoff is controlling their image too strongly and limiting their outreach by focusing too strongly on advertising (especially at opportune times for them such as during public events they sponsor). This has hindered their ability to get their message out to the public because they are always in advertising mode, even when they should be focusing on the public issues they are trying to campaign for. Even though the company has a strong public presence and has made their values known time and time again, their advertising has saturated into their outreach efforts, limiting their scope, and that is why I will rate Smirnoff with a 4 out of 5 in this category.
SOURCES
Statista. (n.d.).”Advertising spending of Smirnoff in the United States from 2013 to 2016 (in million U.S. dollars)”. Retrieved from
https://www.statista.com/statistics/314544/smirnoff-ad-spending-of-in-the-us/
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https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/smirnoff-celebrates-the-diverse-stories-of-american-immigration-during-immigrant-heritage-month-300288277.html
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Diageo PLC. (2013). “Diageo Sustainability & Responsibility Report 2013”. Retrieved November 11, 2017 from Diageo website:
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Diageo PLC. (2017, July). “Smirnoff’s #chooselove campaign takes a stand against LGBT+ prejudice online”. Retrieved November 11, 2017 from Diageo website:
https://www.diageo.com/en/our-brands/brand-profiles/smirnoff/
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BACKGROUND
“In 1879, Lars Olsson Smith introduced the continuous distillation with which he made Absolut Rent Brännvin. Instead of the usual three or four times, the vodka was distilled an infinite number of times. 100 years later, it was reintroduced as Absolut. Just as then, Absolut is produced in Åhus, L.O. Smith’s birth town. Also the place where the wheat used for making the vodka is grown. And since the way Absolut is made won’t change, neither will the true taste of vodka. Absolut Vodka was first launched in New York in 1979. It soon became the talk of the town, in the US and eventually of the world. But the recipe behind the clean and natural taste of Absolut is actually older than 30 years. So is the 18th century medicine bottle found in an antique store in Stockholm, Sweden that gave inspiration to the iconic Absolut Vodka bottle.” (Absolut Vodka).
FACTORS
Global Presence and Cultural Accommodation
Absolut has a similar approach to its competitors when it comes to social media and global outreach. The standard for any international company seems to be different accounts for different parts of the globe to localize their ads. Again, the Absolut U.S. account had a similar quality campaign to Smirnoff where they had a rainbow bottle for pride. There wasn’t a single mention of that bottle or the campaign, or any sort of quality thing in the Absolut Mexico Twitter page.
They keep equality front and center all the time unless it pisses off their customers in that part of the world. This is an issue that a lot of these Vodka companies have – not sticking to their values if the public pushes back against it.
Absolut did have a limited edition, holiday themed sequin-coated bottle advertisement on Twitter across their global markets, so they can agree that the one thing uniting all of their customers is that they love sequins.
Despite Absolut and Pernod Ricard (their parent company)’s lackluster global advertising campaigns, they do succeed well in having a streamlined website with easy-to-access country/language selectors, helping them redeem themselves to earn a 4 out of 5 in this category.
Marketing and Sales
Pernod Ricard, the parent company of Absolut, is just as big as competitors like Smirnoff, with many different brands that they control. It’s likely that your favorite brand of hard liquor is owned by one of these two alcohol companies. Absolut makes good use of their social media campaigns, such as the sequin bottle on Twitter, correlating it to their shared target markets in an efficient way. Perhaps they saw #sequindresses were trending in their followers accounts on social media, since a large portion of their target audience are LGBTQ. The story behind this dates back to the 1980’s when Absolut was the first real alcohol company to embrace and specifically target this unique audience group. Over time, Smirnoff and other competitors followed suit.
Early Absolut commercials took on a unique new path towards marketing when they started advertising directly to the artsy crowd, utilizing very unique and creative commercials and touting the shape of their bottle as a differentiator. Even though Absolut started a trendy new marketing plan directed towards the new ‘gay’ market, they have struggled to differentiate themselves further. Absolut’s primary competitor, Smirnoff, is slightly better at creating and utilizing a unique marketing strategy custom tailored to each region, and that is why Absolut ended with a 4 out of 5 in this category.
Public Relations
Absolut does an amazing job in reaching out to its consumers, providing support and guidance.
Their Facebook page has over 7.2 million likes and followers (Facebook: Absolut). Their public relations team seems to do a great job in initiating communications and responding to customer comments. For example, Absolut posts videos about Vodka and replies to consumer comments on it with recommendations for cocktail recipes. They provide links to other products they offer and thank the customers for being interested in their products. This is a great way to engage customers and increase awareness about their products. Absolut also tries to take advantage of current trends and are very good at incorporating their products with the latest events. For example, they try to create the impression that they embrace diversity, stand by gender equality, support women’s rights by sharing posts related to these topics.
On one occasion, when Australia announced marriage equality, they posted a picture with two bottles side by side to show their support. Their Twitter account also has nearly 82,000 followers (Twitter: Absolut) and seems to actively post videos and pictures with information about various products including limited edition bottles they offer in order to raise awareness. However, they do not seem to have as much interaction from customers on twitter and the company does not seem to respond effectively. Overall, Absolut receives 4 out of 5 in Public relations because it’s Twitter account is underutilized in terms of the number of followers.
Careers and Recruitment
There is no information pertaining to careers and opportunities on the Absolut website, Facebook page, or Twitter page. All three are dedicated to advertising and connecting with their consumers; not connecting with potential employees or hires. Since Absolut is a brand of vodka that is owned by their parent company, Pernod Ricard, we checked the Pernod Ricard company website for information about employment opportunities. On their career page, Pernod Ricard mentions that they have “18,421 employees“, and “87% recommend Pernod Ricard as a great place to work” (Pernod Ricard, n.d.). The careers at Pernod Ricard range from positions in marketing, sales, communication, and human resources to positions in finance, legal affairs, operations, and information systems and technology. They also provide a short description of duties that entail each position, a video of their staff members talking about their experiences at Pernod Ricard and the responsibilities that each of them have in their role. There are five graduate programs available that require corporate experience. You also have the option of reaching out and messaging people who are in those programs through a Facebook group. Pernod Ricard does a great job of putting out quality information about the careers and opportunities that are available.
Overall, Pernod Ricard receives a 5 out of 5 for careers and opportunities. Their user interface is non-traditional, however, and it may prevent a person from accessing this information in an efficient manner. The page looks aesthetically pleasing, but it seems as though they’ve decided on form over function. Pernod Ricard and Absolut still received a 5 out of 5 because they have used social media as a way for applicants to connect to graduates in Pernod Ricard programs. Pernod actively encourages you to connect with their graduates on their graduate program Facebook page.
Product Communities
Twitter and Tumblr are two major product communities that Absolut gets mentioned in the most compared to other social or online sources.
“The organic ‘buzz’ around the brand is significant, with hundreds of thousands of mentions across all the major social networks” (Crimson Hexagon, 2015, July). Having a large amount of mentions helps with gaining more attention among Absolut’s product communities, but they are missing out on consumer interaction.
Overall, I would rate Absolut’s engagement with their product communities a 4 out of 5 because although they have “global coverage” through promotional work in their product communities, they can improve in their engagement with their audience and demographics.
Community and Outreach Services
Like Smirnoff, Absolut prefers event-based outreach. Since it, like Smirnoff, is a social product (alcoholic beverage), they like to express their values through events, which they then market through social media and their websites. Absolut’s values are quite similar to Smirnoff’s. For example, Absolut has been a heavy sponsor of LGBTQ events and has been marketing to gay consumers for over 30 years. This is interesting because 30 years ago, there was a very different public view on homosexuality, and Absolut was one of the pioneers in recognizing and advocating for their rights. This was, however, a marketing campaign above all else, so the advocacy of LGBTQ rights would have been a byproduct of the targeted advertising. Their first targets ads, however, “were later followed with events in bars, donations to charities and causes, outdoor advertising and, most recently, sponsorship of a series on the Logo cable channel, “RuPaul’s Drag Race” (New York Times, 2011, October).
Absolut, like Smirnoff, is also a fan of sponsoring events. They have their own support forum (
https://contact.absolut.com/org/absolut-vodka/
) which is full of customer support as well as general discussions about topics including charity and sponsorships. This is something that the competitor Smirnoff doesn’t have, and it is a nice touch that the company has options beyond just social media to be in contact with customers about their needs. It’s nice that Absolut has additional methods of communication, especially one that allows customers to directly get feedback from Absolut employees as well as fellow customers.
At the foundation of all Absolut operations is their strong commitment to corporate social responsibility and sustainability. As their website states, they have a “passion for progression”. “We believe that with great brands comes great responsibility. Taking responsibility is a way of building competitive advantage and achieving sustainable business success” (The Absolut Company, n.d.). On top of wanting to operate in a healthy way to make good use of their resources, they also care about their employees while also encouraging responsible consumption. On the topic of Earth and their resource use, they have created an initiative to “create one sustainable, circular source with zero emissions and zero waste throughout the value chain by 2040” (The Absolut Company, n.d.). They also want to empower their employees to be creative and progressive thinkers.
Absolut is a company with many values as you can see, but one of their strongest values is to diversity, as is present in their commitment to LGBTQ rights, women’s rights and the rights of all. They have “set a goal of having a 50/50 gender split among all managers by 2018” (The Absolut Company, n.d.). These goals and many others that can be easily viewed on their Sustainability website show how open the company is about their commitments, and how serious they are about achieving them.
Through images and videos on their many social media platforms, you can see their initiatives in action. Just like Smirnoff, they have many advertisements celebrating diversity and personal freedom. Another breath of fresh air is their firm commitment to communicating with their customers through all platforms, with responses from actual employees about all positive and negative issues that arise on social media and their support websites.
The company even created their own initiative called the ‘Open Mic Project’ that sought to give people the ability to open-up about their values and views and not be afraid to share their stories of acceptance. “We want to create a more open world by giving an open mic to our fans to share your stories of acceptance. We’re redefining what it means to #RefreshTheTalk, and celebrating the people who raise their voices and create a better tomorrow” (The Absolut Company, 2017).
On a global note, Absolut continues to push similar values that they push in the United States, such as equality and diversity. Surprisingly, even Absolut likes to sponsor artists and art events globally. Art is a strong form of expression that has similar meanings globally, and it is an easy way for Absolut to get involved in public opinion and to push for a “better tomorrow”. Since Absolut has been so strong at communicating with their customers, done so much for the LGBTQ community, continues to fund and participate in numerous events worldwide, has such a strong dedication to their workers, the planet and their customers, Absolut gets a perfect 5/5 in this category.
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