Vieux Carre'- A brand of absinthe

Vieux Carre: Creative Deliverable

Vieux Carre Absinthe: CDR

Deliverable


Introduction

Philadelphia Distilling is a liquor company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was founded in 2005. They have five products currently on the market, and our product was their line of absinthe, called Vieux Carré. As researchers, our job was to create a one-page creative brief of all our key findings, so that creatives could create ad concepts to match our research. After receiving the creatives back from the creative teams, we had to test those ad concepts to see how they would work in a real life Absinthe campaign. This report will explain our concept testing more in depth, as well as show our findings and recommendations we have based on the research done.

Goal of Research

The goal of this research is to find out what it is about our two liquor advertisements that appeal to consumers; whether it be the lifestyle association, emotional appeal, or just the design of the bottle/packaging itself. Through the qualitative and quantitative assessments, we hoped to gain valuable audience insight on the two ad concepts, and determine which is the best fit for our campaign.

Background

Since Absinthe has been around for quite some time, it naturally has a long history with a very niche target audience. Drawing upon not only the history of the drink’s travels (France to the United States), but also its ingredients, its audience, and its uses. Because there is a misconception today among those who are not familiar with the drink, we chose to target current Absinthe drinkers, as well as creative individuals who fit into our created persona of the Unrestrained Visionary. This then brought us to our strategy, which was to position Absinthe as the creative and thought provoking drink that allows the consumer’s creativity to flow.

Strategic Analysis

We really enjoyed seeing both creative concepts based on our creative brief. The first concept presented (Appendix A) did a very good job at including all of the concepts that were pinpointed in the initial creative brief including individuality, history, and ingredients. While we felt as though the second concept presented to us (Appendix B) was a good representation of the sophistication of the consumers, there was not enough emphasis on how the drink connects the consumer to those creative thoughts.

Primary Research Methodology

We did both qualitative and quantitative research for our concept testing. For our quantitative methodology, we did a 34 question survey on Google and reached 32 people. Our survey was made available to anyone over the age of 21, despite whether or not they have heard of or drank Vieux Carre Absinthe. This was in order to see what the general alcohol drinker audience felt about our concepts and to test the effect of its convincingness. For our qualitative


methodology we conducted six In-Depth Interviews and we only used participants who fit the creative description of an absinthe drinker.

Key Findings

Concept 1:

For our first concept, Appendix A, we received reviews from our survey and interview respondents that drew us to some very interesting points. One of the comments that was made a couple of times from respondents was, “I couldn’t tell whether I should be putting it on my neck or drinking it.” Due to the nature of the image, some respondents who were not familiar with what Vieux Carre Absinthe is had trouble deciphering the bottle as a perfume bottle or a liquor bottle. This then started to show us why our respondents did not feel that the messaging for concept 1 was as clear as it should/could have been. Our survey results also provided some pretty discomforting news to us when almost half of the respondents felt that the message of the concept was unclear. Some other interesting findings from our survey were:

● 85% of people said concept 1 conveys creativity● Only 27% of respondents said that the ad was unconventional

○ 24% of people voted for the ad “telling a story”○ another 24% said that it “is made for a certain type of person”.

While there was some confusion among some of our respondents, the people that really got this ad were younger or more free-spirited individuals. “Hipster kind of vibe, for creative people. Like it seems really earthy and it’s a lot of interesting things going on. It takes away from the bottle, but it’s cool” said one of our respondents when asked to describe his feelings on concept 1.

Concept 2:

Concept 2 drew to a different crowd, which became evident in both our online survey and in our in-depth interviews. One of our respondents told us when speaking about Concept 1, “I get two completely different vibes from both ads. [Concept 1] is so me, like artistic and different, but [concept 2] is for like my dad, he’s an artist, but a more serious one. I’m just young and trying to express myself.” While another one of our respondents told us, “Looks classy like an older gentlemen sitting there or an older couple. Nobody young is going to sit in that chair. It fits the older person vibe. Not creating music, but reading it, well or making it. Basically unwinding after work or something.”

“The bottle and the glass shows elegance, and the music notes are all sophisticated.” This concept definitely appealed more to people who were not so “out there” in their creativity. We learned that while respondents felt overwhelming uniqueness with historical undertones from Concept 1, Concept 2 built out a more sophisticated and classy tone. 69% of our respondents felt that Concept 2 represented sophistication but a little less than half of respondents (42%) thought that it was unique. Some other interesting findings from our survey were:

● 70% of people said they would not recommend to a friend based on Concept 2● 45% of people said that based on Concept 2, they see Vieux Carre as just another

alcohol


Recommendations

Based on the data above, we have made specific recommendations for each concept to better fit our audiences’ perceptions.

Concept 1:

1. Configure the fonts differentlya. Consumers became entranced with the idea that the different fonts were a bit too

much. Either try to cut down on the amount of different fonts used, sizing, or maybe even just placement.

2. Introduce Vieux Carre as a beverage, for the audience to understand that it is a drink.a. Consumers got confused with trying to figure out if the bottle was a perfume

bottle or a liquor bottle. Maybe adding a glass or some type of cup in the image could add to the messaging.

Concept 2:

1. A different background setting to convey artistry bettera. Consumers felt that the concept was more for a person who is going out for a

drink after work. Sophistication and classiness were achieved in this concept, but adding potentially live music, a stage or microphone into the background would better emphasize artistry.

2. Make Vieux Carre stand outa. While a lot of our consumers understood from concept 2 that Vieux Carre is a

classy and timeless item, there was very little emphasis on the fact that it is different than any other liquor. There is no hint of history or mystery in the image and drew our consumers to think of Vieux Carre as just another liquor.

Summary

With all of the data and insights collected, it is unfair to choose one ad that drew to our audience more than the other. We have concluded that both ads hit two different audiences, but those audiences still fall into our target. When we first started this project, we had two personas in our creative brief. The first was for the older, wiser and more sophisticated audiences whom we called the Unrestrained Visionary. While the other persona was geared more toward the youthful, outgoing and rebellious artists whom we will refer to as the Wild-hearts. We found that Concept 1 catered to The Wild-hearts, who we took off of our final creative brief. And with that, we learned that our respondents and interviewees were almost split down the middle in terms of how many liked Concept 1 versus Concept 2 due to the content and how they conducted themselves in their everyday lives. So we feel that this should be kept to focus on that more youthful demographic who has a more abstract and less refined way of conducting themselves and their art.

However, our main target audience (The Unrestrained Visionary) is still an older demographic who has much more experience and enjoys the finer things in life. So, we found that Concept 2 targets that demographic with the wiser and more sophisticated and refined personality. Being able to have one campaign with two different targets would be great for keeping the current


absinthe drinkers involved, while giving people who never tried it a chance to see if they fit the description of an absinthe drinker.

Appendix

Appendix A - Concept 1 (Print)


Appendix A - Concept 1 (Social)


Appendix B - Concept 2 (Print)


Appendix B - Concept 2 (Social)


A

Marketing

Vieux Carre'- A brand of absinthe