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MKTG12-‐301 Consumer and Buyer Behaviour

Absolut Vodka Consumer Behaviour Analysis

Rafi Chowdhury

Niv Barhom

Maddison Tanner

Elouise Hill

Patricio Garrido-Lecca

Table of Contents

Target Market.................................................................................................................................. 3

Perceptual Map............................................................................................................................... 4 Modern Lifestyle vs. For Everybody....................................................................................................... 4 Real Russian vs. Fancy............................................................................................................................ 4

Internal Influences ........................................................................................................................ 5 Perception ............................................................................................................................................. 5 Motivation ............................................................................................................................................. 6 Personality ............................................................................................................................................. 6 Memory ................................................................................................................................................. 7

External Influences........................................................................................................................ 8 Situational Influences ............................................................................................................................ 8 Reference Groups and Peer Influences ................................................................................................. 9 Social Class........................................................................................................................................... 10

The Decision Making Process ..................................................................................................11 Decision Making and Choice ................................................................................................................ 11 Decision-‐Making Perspective............................................................................................................... 11 Decision-‐Making Approaches .............................................................................................................. 12 Need Recognition, internal search, and the consideration set............................................................ 12 Evaluation of Alternatives.................................................................................................................... 13 Consumer Choice................................................................................................................................. 14 Post-‐Choice Evaluation ........................................................................................................................ 16 ............................................................................................................................................................ 16

References ......................................................................................................................................18

Target Market Absolut Vodka was established in 1879 in Sweden, and is currently the world’s fourth best-‐selling spirits brand (The Absolut Company, 2012). The brand markets itself on innovation and creativity, with an interactive website and web blog featuring cocktail recipes, collaborations with artists and

industry professionals and coverage of festivals such as Coachella. Absolut’s product offering stretches far beyond the beverage alone, as the brand markets a lifestyle through the product and aims to address the needs of the modern vodka consumer. As Absolut Vodka is a well-‐established

international brand, our analysis focuses on the Australian customer demographic and looks at consumer behaviour in the context of retailer purchasing, such as liquor stores, rather than within nightclubs.

Geographic • Region: Metropolitan areas with Australia; Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra

• Density: Urban and suburban Demographic • Age: 18 – 35 years

• Gender: Male & Female • Life Stage: Young adult, single or married, students, young

business men and women • Annual Income: Between $20,000 (low) to $60,000 (average) • Ethnicity: Applicable to all ethnic backgrounds • Occupation: Students, entry level business men and women,

casual or part time workers Psychographic • Personality: Artistic, creative, innovative, sociable, modern,

outgoing, adapt to social trends, easily influenced by peers and reference groups

• Motives: Having fun, socialising, participating in situations that provide a creative outlet

• Lifestyles: Student, up and coming individuals, young business men and women, busy, social drinker, party-‐orientated, hedonistic, influential, encompass the ‘work hard, play hard’ notion

Usage • Absolut Vodka targets medium to heavy users, with its abstract advertising campaigns that show no real benefits of the product, but more exemplifies the lifestyle associated with consuming it

• This type of marketing effort would be ineffective to new users who have not sampled the product, unless they were intrigued by the lifestyle or image that is associated with drinking Absolut.

Benefits • Relaxation • Socialise with friends • Mix cocktails • Portray a particular image • These all provide the customer with hedonic value

Perceptual Map

The vodka market is highly competitive, with consumers often segmenting various products by perceived characteristics. There are four standout consumer perceptions that provide the most

value for marketers to differentiate Absolut from its competitors. The x-‐and y-‐axes of this map each represent key dimensions that consumers use to separate competing vodkas.

Modern Lifestyle vs. For Everybody The y-‐axis separates vodka characteristics based on how modern and stylish or average and

mainstream Absolut is perceived among competitors. While Absolut maintains an affordable, middle-‐range pricing strategy, it also upholds a modern, trendy edge over its competitors. Vodka products that are priced higher are perceived as premium and luxurious. Vodka brands that are

priced in a medium price range, will position themselves as stylish since they cannot be perceived as luxurious due to their pricing strategy. Low-‐cost vodkas serve as a functional product, with little edge or style. Absolut’s current positioning is in a highly competitive quadrant, due to the current influx of

medium range priced vodkas. Absolut is perceived to be trendy and more upmarket than lower cost vodkas. It is Absolut’s various range of flavoured vodka’s that gives the brand a stylish, young personality that targets not just any ordinary person. Opportunity for Absolut exists in the top-‐left

quadrant, due to the lack of trendy, masculine Russian vodkas on the market.

Real Russian vs. Fancy The x-‐axis identifies product offerings based on how masculine or feminine the vodka is viewed by consumers. The taste of Absolut is perceived as smooth and fancy, which is often associated with femininity. A competitor like Russian Standard, has a strong, clear taste that is acquired and not

usually mixed unlike its counterparts. Russian vodkas are perceived as masculine, since the strong taste on its own is less likely to be consumed by a fancy cocktail drinker. Fancy vodkas are commonly mixed with cocktails and often attain product placement and advertisements in nightclubs. Real

Y

X

Modern Lifestyle

For Everybody

Fancy Real Russian

Russian vodkas are targeted towards more ‘serious’ vodka drinkers who enjoy the beverage without any additional mixers. While there is opportunity for Absolut in the bottom-‐left quadrant, the brand avidly promotes its country of origin Sweden, which would mean the entire marketing mix would be

need to adjusted if the brand endeavoured to position itself as masculine, Russian vodka that is affordable for everyone.

Internal Influences

Perception The brand perception of Absolut Vodka is what sets the company apart from its competitors. Consumers perceive the product as a part

of an exclusive, creative, culture. Through Absolut’s artistic advertising campaigns, consumers may want to feel a part of an exclusive group of society who is perceived to be trendy, hip and

creative. This feeling of belonging and culture creates a brand perception that extends beyond the vodka itself.

Exposure of the product occurs when the consumer senses Absolut by using one of the five human senses. Consumers may be exposed to Absolut through advertising campaigns featured in magazines and online banners or may taste the product in a bar or restaurant.

The attention of the consumer is given to Absolut vodka once they view the advertisement or sample the product. Full attention may be not be given if an advertisement is overlooked or the

vodka product is mixed in with other spirits, which may occur is the consumer is exposed to the product through drinking a cocktail.

The comprehension stage of the perceptual process is when consumers derive meaning from the information received after being exposed to Absolut vodka. The experience may be perceived as

positive, which can also be influenced by several external factors. A perception about Absolut is created after the exposure, attention and comprehension phases are complete. Consumers may experience the following possible reactions when comprehending Absolut product

range: Assimilation: Consumers recognise the Absolut product range as a part of the vodka product

category. Accommodation: Consumers recognise Absolut’s product range of vodka features fruity and abstract flavours that other products within the same category do not have.

Contrast: Consumers make the decision to confirm whether Absolut Vodka has enough in common within their prospective perceptual needs.

Once a consumer has been exposed to Absolut Vodka, whether it be in a nightclub or through reference groups, consumers may experience the Mere Exposure Effect unintentionally have an underlying preference for the beverage, over its competitors.

Motivation Consumers purchase Absolut Vodka for hedonic reasons. Absolut markets the product around the experience associated with consuming the vodka, which on many

occasions is done within a social environment. Consumers purchase Absolut for personal satisfaction, gratification and the experience associated with drinking the beverage.

A consumer’s need recognition to purchase Absolut products is located reasonably high on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The consumer must have satisfied physiological,

safety and security needs, before they would consider purchasing Absolut products. A consumer may purchase Absolut Vodka for belongingness and love needs, if they wish to fit in with their friends in a social

situation.

Regulatory Focus Theory can be used to determine the motivation of Absolut Vodka consumers. Absolut Vodka uses a promotion focus to orient consumers towards the pursuit of their aspirations and ideas. Rather than Absolut promoting the vodka to prevent you from sobriety, which would be a

prevention focus, the consumer is motivated by the appeal of purchasing a trendy vodka to feel cultured and sophisticated; exemplifying Absolut’s strategic promotion focus of the product.

Personality The consumer of Absolut Vodka can be described as “value-‐driven shoppers, willing to pay more for products they feel are relevant and – what is becoming a hot marketing buzz word – authentic” (Krashinsky, 2013, para.11).

A common method to segment consumers by personality traits is the VALS segmentation approach. Consumers of Absolut Vodka are innovative, creative and open to new ideas. The innovativeness trait is highly relevant for Absolut consumers as this type of consumer can be defined as “generally

dynamic, curious and often young, educated and relatively affluent” (Babin & Harris, 2014). The Absolut consumer also exemplifies innovation through mixing up cocktails from one of the many flavoured editions that are available. Image is very important to this type of consumer as outlines in

the VALS segmentation approach. Absolut consumers can also be described as ‘experiencers’ as they are generally young, impulsive, and enthusiastic and thrive on excitement.

The Absolut Vodka consumer is also defined under the ‘openness to experience’ trait within the Five-‐Factor Model. Absolut Vodka encourages its consumers to be creative, embrace artists as they

claim “Absolut has turned partying into an art form” (Absolut, n.d., para.1). Other Absolut consumer traits can be identified as extroversion and conscientiousness, due to the nature of social drinking

situations, consumers of Absolut are often extroverted and outgoing.

Memory Absolut Vodka’s brand message lies around “creating unique experiences that push the boundaries of what to expect from a night out” (Absolut, n.d., para.1). It is this central marketing technique, also known as experiential marketing, which consumers can relate with the brand and associate the

product with a positive memory and hedonic value associated with that memory.

The way Absolut approaches the learning process of their consumers is in a less conventional manner, and focuses on experience based learning. This is done through multiple channels such as how-‐to articles regarding cocktails, integrating the process of learning together with the product and

other ingredients; collaborations with influential personas hosting events, where the product is introduced to new consumers, or is there to further enhance brand perception.

A consumer’s knowledge for a brand or a product is stored in the long-‐term memory as an associative network. A schema is a type of associative network that works as a cognitive representation that provides meaning to that entity (Babin & Harris, 2014).

Episodic memory refers to the memory for past events and episodes in a consumer’s life (Babin & Harris, 2014). Consumers of Absolut Vodka may correlate the product with a joyful experience such

as attending a cocktail party or having a sophisticated night out. Episodic memory is an influential factor for consumer’s vodka purchase decisions.

The Schema and Associative Network for Absolut Vodka

Episodic memory refers to the memory for past events and episodes in a consumer’s life (Babin & Harris, 2014). Consumers of Absolut Vodka may correlate the product with a joyful experience such as attending a cocktail party or having a sophisticated night out. Episodic memory is an influential

factor for consumer’s vodka purchase decisions.

External Influences

Situational Influences There are many factors that may influence how a consumer obtains value from a purchase, relating to time, place and conditions (Babin & Harris, 2014). Temporal factors affecting Absolut consumer behaviour include time pressure and the time of year. Time pressure represents an urgency to act

based on some real or self-‐imposed deadline (Babin & Harris, 2014). When consumers enter an Absolut retailer, time pressures may cause customers to rely on simple choice heuristics and habits or choose the most familiar brand, as it is difficult for them to recall information about the product

choice (Babin & Harris, 2014). The time of year and seasonality also affect consumer purchase behaviour and value perceptions. Absolut customers may be more inclined to purchase the alcoholic beverage for celebration purposes such as a birthday or around the Christmas, New Year, or holiday

period.

Secondly, shopping activities may also affect purchase behaviour, which take place in specific places, over time and under specific conditions (Babin & Harris, 2014). The environment that these activities take place in are generally uncontrolled and impact a consumer’s mood, such as a crowed store may

ABSOLUT VODKA

Alcohol

Trendy

Hip

Artistic

Authentic

Social

Friends

Nightclubs

Cocktails

Hangovers

Follower

Parties

cause a consumer to feel frustrated. As Absolut Vodka do not have a stand-‐alone store, they rely on liquor store retailers to distribute the product. The shopping activities that Absolut consumers may partake in when purchasing the product are acquisitional shopping and experiential shopping.

Customers who may adopt acquisitional shopping activities are those who are loyal consumers of the brand, or who wish to acquire the product for a celebration or social occasion. Shopping activities may also be experiential, designed to provide interest, excitement, relaxation, fun and

social interaction (Babin & Harris, 2014) to a consumer’s shopping experience, which is reliant on retail personality. In the consumers mind, retail personality is based on functional and affective quality, including décor and customer service, which can be managed to create a hedonic shopping

value for the customer (Babin & Harris, 2014). Due to Absolut being distributed through liquor retailers, the retail personality may be accompanied by in store sales promotions or advertisements designed to alter consumer’s purchase decisions.

Reference Groups and Peer Influences A reference group is a group of individuals who have a significant impact on a consumer’s

evaluations, aspirations and behaviour, affecting the way consumers seek and receive value from consumption (Babin & Harris, 2014). Generally, group members share common goals, interests, set of expectations, and communicate with and influence one another (Babin & Harris, 2014). The

influence of reference groups can affect a consumer’s buying behaviour, attitudes, brand preference and perception.

For Absolut Vodka, these groups may be primary, an informal group where members have frequent

and direct contact with one another, such as friendship groups or family, or secondary, where members have less frequent contact, such as professional organisations or social clubs (Babin & Harris, 2014). Primary reference groups generally have the most influence on their members and

social ties for these groups are very strong (Babin & Harris, 2014), allowing a member’s views to significantly resonate with others in the group. For example, a typical consumer’s primary friendship group may enjoy social drinking, and choose to consume Absolut Vodka on these occasions as group

members are fond of the creative bottle image and unique flavours. The opinions and attitudes of these group members towards the brand will have a major impact on the vodka buying preference for other members, as they form group influence.

Reference groups may also be aspirational, where consumers desire to become a member of a

certain group, which appeals to the consumer’s ideal self (Babin & Harris, 2014). The term ideal self relates to a consumers self-‐concept as they visualise themselves as being a part of and belonging to certain groups (Babin & Harris, 2014). Absolut use celebrity endorsers for some of their

advertisement campaigns, associating the brand with the celebrity’s ‘A-‐List’ status, popularity and prestige. If consumers are fond of the celebrity Absolut is connected with, the consumer may be influenced to emulate their behaviour, such as to purchase Absolut Vodka, believing that if they do

so, it will lead to a formal acceptance into an ‘A-‐List’, popular or prestige group (Babin & Harris, 2014).

Furthermore, the influence of reference groups can cause peer pressure to surface. Peer pressure relates to the pressure an individual may experience from group members to behave in accordance

with group expectations, which can greatly influence behaviour (Babin & Harris, 2014). This pressure can lead members to be persuaded and conform to the group expectations, meaning they yield to the attitudes and behaviours of other members (Babin & Harris, 2014). Some Absolut customers

may have been introduced to the brand as a result of succumbing to peer pressure, either in a

nightclub or during a social occasion. However, this is not a negative factor if the benefits of their consumption experience outweighed the costs, as the media tend to associate peer pressure with negative consequences, especially when it comes to youth and alcohol consumption. Not all youthful

Absolut customers can be stereotyped into the ‘binge drinking’ category, as not all youthful reference groups will necessarily feel a strong desire to do so.

Reference groups have the power to exert utilitarian influence over members, meaning that consumers conform to group expectations to receive a reward or avoid punishment (Babin & Harris,

2014). These rewards may be acceptance within the group, providing members with hedonic value. Consumers may conform to drinking Absolut to feel accepted within their reference groups and avoid potential ramifications for steering away from social norms, such as being unaccepted or not

included within the group.

Aside from being formed physically, reference groups may also be formed in the online realm. Absolut have a strong social media presence on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and incorporate the vibrant and creative aspect of the brand personality to encapsulate their

demographic. For example, the Absolut Australia Facebook page has 5.1 million followers who are able to interact with the brand through ‘liking, commenting on and sharing’ content posted. This online interaction allows consumers to feel connected with Absolut, and a part of an online

community as they have the ability to interact with like-‐minded individuals. Being a part of Absolut’s social media reference groups provides consumers with hedonic value, as they join these pages to feel a sense of inclusion and belonging to the brand.

Social Class Social class and income are microcultures that permeate our everyday life, as consumers attempt to better themselves by increasing their income and class ladders (Babin & Harris, 2014). By definition,

social class is a group to which a consumer belongs based on resources like prestige, income, occupation and education (Babin & Harris, 2014). This largely determines brand preferences, falling under sociological habitus, which refers to mental and cognitive structures that establish an

individuals’ perception of the world based on social stance (Babin & Harris, 2014). The average annual income for an Absolut consumer is anywhere from $20,000 to $60,000, targeting low to middle social class customers. As demonstrated in the perceptual map, Absolut falls into the

‘modern & fancy’ perception category. The brand’s major competitors in that category are Grey Goose ($54.95/700mL) and Belvedere ($59.99/700mL) (Dan Murphy’s, 2014), which are generally

renowned as prestigious brands. With a price point of $34.00 per 700mL bottle (Dan Murphy’s, 2014), Absolut is not only an affordable option for consumers, but also allows them to feel hedonic value by purchasing Absolut, as they believe their social class is raised to a higher status that is

similar to consumers who purchase ‘fancy’ brands like Grey Goose and Belvedere.

The Decision Making Process

Decision Making and Choice Initially, consumers have to come to the decision that they have developed a certain need. For

Absolut, the consumers have already developed a need to consume some sort of Vodka. The need recognition can be developed from a variety of reasons, depending on the consumer; for example, a consumer is heading to a social gathering, and has developed the need to purchase a bottle of vodka

for everyone at the gathering.

Decision-Making Perspective Various consumers have different decision-‐making perspectives when it comes to choosing the brand of vodka they are purchasing:

• Rational Perspective -‐ consumers are rational and they carefully arrive at decisions

An example of this decision-‐making perspective in relation to Absolut Vodkas, is when consumers examine the different attributes of the vodka, for example, how many times was the vodka distilled

or what is the percentage of alcohol.

• Experiential perspective -‐ decision making is often influenced by the feelings associated with consumption

An example of this decision-‐making perspective is evident in Absolut Vodkas’ case, when consumers have had a positive experience with past consumption, which will tend to encourage them to choose Absolut over its competitors

• Behavioural Influence Perspective -‐ decisions are responses to environmental influences

An example of behavioural influences in the vodka decision-‐making process is how a consumer’s

friends perceive the brand, whether it is “prestigious” or not.

Decision-Making Approaches Consumers also have varying decision-‐making approaches that consider the degree of involvement, and the degree of risk engaged when consuming a certain brand. For Absolut Vodka, they would want to create a low involvement and low risk environment in the decision-‐making process of

consumers, as this will result in habitual decision making approaches.

(Babin & Harris, 2014)

Methods that Absolut Vodka would want to consider in order influence their consumer’s decision-‐making approach:

• Brand Loyalty -‐ deeply held commitment to rebuy a product or service regardless of situational influences that could lead to switching behaviour

• Loyalty programs provide benefits for consumers and marketers

For the consumer to have a habitual decision making approach towards Absolut Vodka, the brand must be perceived to be of high standards, appealing to the eye in terms of packaging and image, and the price to be fair. Once a consumer has experienced the positive traits the brand tries to

portray, the degree of involvement in the decision-‐making process becomes low, and decisions become more automated by the consumer.

Need Recognition, internal search, and the consideration set The need recognition process begins when the consumer recognise that he is not in the desired state

and decides to change his actual state to obtain to the desired one (Babin & Harris, 2014). After this, the consumer begins the search for information, which is follows in the decision-‐making process.

The search for information performed by consumers, have different aspects to be considered, such as price, alternatives available, attributes and their importance, and how well it will satisfy the need of the consumer.

Because technology has evolved, the consumer will now have an easier access to information about the product online and on social media. Additionally, the consumers may write reviews about the

product based on their consumption and purchase experiences.

Decision Making: Alternative evaluation and choice

In the evaluation of alternatives, there are two criteria to be considered: the evaluative and the determinant. (Babin & Harris, 2014) The evaluative criteria is related when the actual choice is made, whereas the determinant criteria has other factors to consider like attributes, features or the

potential benefits that the consumers mind may take in to consideration when analysing possible solutions to the problem.

Consumers take in to consideration the benefits, costs, features and values. There are also two types

of values in which the consumer bases their decision: hedonic and utilitarian value.

In the hedonic criteria, are the emotions, symbolic and subjective attributes that the consumer have with this product. For example, when a consumer purchases a bottle of Absolut Vodka, they know that the brand and product they choose has certain renowned attributes, like the quality and

prestige of the product and its standard in relation to competing vodka brands. The utilitarian criteria focus on more functional aspects like economics, for example, price and quantity.

Product Categories The product categories are mental representations of stored knowledge about certain groups of products, if the consumers are unaware of the product; usually they referred to the brand. They can

be separated in superordinate and subordinate. For example, in the case of Absolut vodka, superordinate would be alcoholic beverages and subordinate would be type of vodka.

The perceptual attributes of Absolut would be that the bottle is attractive to the eye, the presentation is modern and elegant, and the underlying attributes of Absolut Vodka would the shopping experience, the quality of the product and the experience that the consumer gets from it.

When a brand is well positioned in the market it gives signals to consumers. Which are attributes that the consumers relate to the brand, in the case of Absolut the main signals would been the

brand name and its association with quality and class.

Evaluation of Alternatives In the process of determining the evaluative criteria, there are some factors that the consumers take into consideration: situational influences, product knowledge, expert opinions, social influences, online sources and marketing communications (Babin & Harris, 2014).

The value that consumers believe they will receive from a product has a direct impact on their evaluation of that product. The word ‘evaluate’ literally means to set a value or worth to an object.

Affect-‐based evaluation suggests that consumers evaluate products based on the overall feeling that is evoked by the evaluation, as do mood states. Generally, positive mood states lead to positive

evaluations, while negative mood states lead to negative evaluations. Consumers of Absolut may associate the brand with a feeling of modernism and may lead to increased self-‐esteem by purchasing a product that makes them feel good.

When consumers come to evaluate their choice, they may use Attribute-‐base evaluations, which are

evaluated across a set of attributes that are considered relevant to the purchase situation. These processes involve carefully integrating information about product attributes and make careful comparisons between products (Babin & Harris, 2014). In the vodka purchasing situation, consumers

have a bounded rationality, as they have limited time, choice and information, and therefore attribute-‐base evaluations involve higher involvement and risk to the consumer for utilitarian based products.

The accuracy of a consumer’s evaluation depends heavily on the quality of judgements they make.

Judgements are mental assessments of the presence of attributes and the benefits associated with those attributes. Consumer judgements are affected by the amount of knowledge or experience a consumer has with a particular object (Babin & Harris, 2014). There are several issues affecting

consumer judgements:

• Quality perceptions: when consumers judge which vodka they will purchase, they tend to be affected by the preconceptions surrounding the quality of different types vodka brands (Babin & Harris, 2014). In order for Absolut to attract consumers to purchase their brand

over the competitors, they must establish a high-‐quality perception amongst consumers regarding the brand.

• Brand name associations: consumers tend to associate their purchasing decisions based on schemas. The effect of schemas on consumer judgement is critical in vodka consumption, as the a brand that consumers immediately associate vodka with will generally be the

successful choice. • Consumer personality: purchasing decisions are heavily influenced through the consumers’

personality. It is unlikely that a consumer will buy a low-‐quality or low-‐perceived brand of

vodka if they associate themselves with elegance, statue and respect.

Consumer Choice Compensatory Model Compensatory rules allow consumers to select products that may perform poorly on one attribute by compensating for the poor performance by good performance on another attribute. The attitude

of the consumer towards the object model (Fischbein model), represents the compensatory approach. Under these we can find attributes such as location, security, pet friendliness, which will be in consideration according to the importance that the consumers give to each of these attributes.

This sort of model is not very productive, as consumers do not get the time to make such sophisticated purchasing decisions.

ABSOLUT Smirnoff Greygoose Attributes e b (b)(e) b (b)(e) b (b)(e) Alcohol Content

2 7 14 6 12 8 16

Number of Distilled

-‐1 7 -‐7 6 -‐6 8 -‐8

Price 3 7 21 6 18 8 24 Total 28 24 32

Non-‐compensatory model

Non-‐compensatory rules are strict guidelines that are set prior to the selection, and any option that does not meet the specifications is eliminated from consideration. Attributes taken into consideration in this decision-‐approach are, price, quality, alcohol content, number of times distilled,

and styling. This model can be separate into four main categories:

Conjunctive rule: This can be seen when consumers are looking for a particular asset in a vodka, for example alcohol content, and are not willing to compensate that attribute.

Disjunctive rule: A consumer can set a minimum feature required for vodka, and if the brand does satisfy the requirements by the consumer, then the disjunctive rule suggests that the consumer will proceed to buy the product.

Lexicographic rule: the consumers choose the product due to whether it has a high regard on a

specific characteristic. Elimination-‐by-‐aspects rule: once the minimum cut off is established, the consumer will then start

evaluating which products have enough features to keep them as an option, until they reach their final decision

Post-Choice Evaluation

(Babin & Harris, 2014).

Anticipation (expectations)

Post-‐purchase evaluations are influenced by the anticipation held by the consumer prior to purchasing the product, and whether they had high expectations regarding quality and satisfaction.

It is important for Absolut Vodka to manage expectations and consumer anticipation effectively, as high expectations and low experience may lead to negative evaluation and the consumer distancing

themselves from the brand.

Experience (performance perception)

Once the consumer has made the decision to purchase Absolut Vodka, they will go through the stage of experiencing and consuming the product. This is where they will be able connect and be involved with the consumption process, leading to them making up their own mind about the experience.

If there is a positive experience, consumers of Absolut will note that in their internal memory, and next time they are faced with a decision-‐making process regarding vodka, they will bring upon their past experiences with different brands, and chose the one that offered the most rewarding

experience.

Evaluation (disconfirmation/satisfaction)

Past the experience stage, consumers will be able to evaluate the overall satisfaction with the product. They will base their evaluation on their prior anticipation to consumption, as well as their personal experience with the product. This will allow consumers to evaluate whether they were

satisfied with the product, and whether benefits outweighed the costs for them personally.

Absolut Vodka would look to create a positive Post-‐Consumption Reaction, such as:

• Delight • Surprise • Exhilaration

The Negative Post-‐Consumption Reactions that Absolut Vodka would be looking to avoid are:

• Disgust

• Anger

References

Absolut. (n.d.). All great memories start with great experiences. Retrieved July 29, 2014 from http://www.absolut.com/au/news/Experience/

Babin, B. J. & Harris, E.G. (2014). CB5. Mason, Ohio: Cengage Learning.

Dan Murphy’s Liquor Store (2014) Whisky & Spirits, Retrieved July 29, 2014 from

https://www.danmurphys.com.au/whisky-‐spirits/vodka

Krashinsky, S. (2013, September 9). Absolut vodka strives for authenticity in ads aimed at millennials. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved July 28, 2014 from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-‐on-‐business/industry-‐news/marketing/absolut-‐vodka-‐strives-‐for-‐authenticity-‐in-‐ads-‐aimed-‐

at-‐millennials/article14205567/

Lamb, Hair, McDaniel, Summers, & Gardiner. (2013). MKTG2. Melbourne: Cengage Learning Australia Pty Ltd.

The Absolut Company. (2012). Most Companies Are Based on A Product, Ours Is Based On A Phenomenon. Retrieved July 28, 2014 from

http://www.theabsolutcompany.com/en/company/

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