Jägermeister

Hello everyone, this is my last blog post about alcohol and cigarettes. I want to say it was something very new to me and it was an interesting journey. I have never had the chance to write about something that I find interesting and share it with others. Blogging gave me the freedom to do so and I can say that I feel happy that I did it. So apart from that it is time to dive into the world of alcohol for one last time. I covered some very well known brands in my previous posts and I think that sometimes a brand can be so strong that when people hear it, they think of the actual product. And of course the company I will speak about today is my example: Jagermeister

JAGERMEISTER

History:

Jagermeister was introduced to the public in 1935. As you could probably guess by its name, it is was created in Germany. Curt Mast, the original distiller of Jägermeister and son of the founder Wilhelm, was an enthusiastic hunter. The literal translation of the name is “Hunting Master”, that is a title for a high-ranked official who is in charge of things related to hunting and gamekeeping. The term Jagermeister existed as a job title for many years. Due to the Nazzis coming to power in 1934 the job title “Jagermeister” was changed to “Reichsjagermeister” or “Imperial Gamekeeper”, one of the closest people to Hitler, Herman Goring was appointed as Imperial Gamekeeper. So one year later, the alcohol company used the moment and introduced their product called “Jagermeister”, the name was already familiar to Germans, sometimes people were calling it “Goring-Schnaps”.

Facts:

-          Jagermeister is a type of liqueur called Krauterlikor which means herbal liqueur.

-          The ingredients of the product include 56 herbs, fruits, roots, and spices.

-          There was a rumour that Jagermeister contains deer or elk blood.

-          The label contains a poem which says:

“It is the hunter’s honour that he
Protects and preserves his game,
Hunts sportsmanlike, honours the
Creator in His creatures.”

-         There are more alcoholic drinks similar to Jagermeister, but Jagermeister is sweeter tasting than all of them because of the mixture of fruits that it contains.

                                                                       What does Jagermeister do to make people buy the product?

The brand became more internationally famous trough the work of Sidney Frank, who was running an American alcohol import company. He used to promote the drink on the student market, as a drink which is made for parties, something very different in the years back then. New York magazine quoted a market research firm as describing Sidney Frank as a “promotional genius”  for making “a liqueur with such a difficult name, drunk by old German people as an after dinner digestive aid...synonymous with “party”. It is very funny but it worked somehow and now you can’t think of having a shot on a party without having a Jagermeister.

The adverts the company does, are not much different than other alcohol adverts, they all have many people having fun at a bar or somewhere else, but they always finish at the bar being happy having a shot of Jagermeister. One of their campaigns uses the slogan “Hunt or be Hunted” which relates to the deer logo they have. I noticed that all of their commercials happen in a different weather and season, which is clever because this shows that Jagermeister can be consumed at any time any day.

The brand has done many sponsorships, again they were aiming at sports and music. They sponsored a lot of motor racing teams, primarily BMW and Porsche.

The corporate orange is one of the more commonly recognised in motorsports. In 2008 edition of the magazine Autosport listed Jagermeisters orange as one of the twenty most iconic commercial colour schemes. Jagermeister is also associated with German football, the first team they sponsored was Eintracht Braunschweig in 1973, after that other teams quickly followed. At the moment Jagermeister displays its adverts at several football stadiums in Germany. That makes a lot of young people see it.

In the USA the brand was helped trough promotion by Sidney Frank and trough cooperation with heavy metal and rockbands such as Metallica, Motley Crue, Pantera, Slayer, The Bloodhound Gand etc. Jagermeister has been a sponsor in many musical festivals over the world, one of the biggest one is Rockstar Mayhem Festival. People love to drink on festivals, what a better way to promote your alcoholic brand.

Conclusion

In my opinion Jagermeister has done brlliantly to reach the popularity and revenue it has today. I think that the key part again was the promotion, of course the ingredients and the way the alcohol is made are important as well, but I think the promotion played the big role in making Jager as successful as it is. I want to thank you for reading my blog posts and to say goodbye, I might be back with another theme to write about in the future. Until then don’t drink and smoke too much and enjoy life.

Lucky Strike

Welcome back to the world of cigarettes and alcohol. After my last post about Bacardi, in this one it is time for cigarettes again. There are many famous tobacco brands that we could discuss, Pall Mall, Davidoff, Lambert and Butler, LM, Parliament etc. All this companies are booming in the smoking business. Since this is going to be my last post about cigarettes I chose one very special name and that is Lucky Strike. A brand that is known worldwide and you could probably recognise it without being a smoker.

LUCKY STRIKE

History:

The brand was introduced in the early 1870s as cut-plug chewing tobacco and later as a cigarette. It was the leading tobacco brand in America by 1925 when it had 14 billion cigarettes sold and it became the leading brand nationwide by the 1930 when it sold 40 billion rolled cigarettes. Lucky Strike was very successful during the second world war period when billions of cigarettes were sold to the American army and the soldiers. Back then the cigarettes were crucial during the war, it was one of the few things that soldiers could enjoy on the battlefield. The brand used its popularity during the war in Vietnam as well, since then the brand couldn’t manage to keep up with the new brands, it lost a lot of its clients. This shows that although Lucky Strike used to be such a strong and successful brand it went downhill because it couldn’t adapt to the changing market. These cigarettes have been one of the top selling cigarettes of all times and they will always be a part from the history of cigarettes. They do still exist, but if they have any popularity it is not a lot and it is mainly in The United States of America.

 

Facts:

-          The corporate colour for the package of Lucky Strike used to be green, it change to white in the 1940s

-          Lucky Strike was the name of one of a number of temporary U.S. Army "tent cities" known as Cigarette Camps situated around the French port of Le Havre following its capture in the wake of the Allied D-Day invasion in mid-1944.

-          Lucky Strike is specifically famous for the use of roasted tobacco rather than the form dried in the sun, which is supposed to enhance the flavour and make the cigarettes more desirable.

-          Although looking like manly cigarettes because of the aggressive red logo, ‘Luckies’ have been one of the most favoured cigarettes by women of all time, because of the smooth taste and richness of flavour.

What does Lucky Strike do to make people buy the product?

At the moment Lucky Strike does not do much, it relies on its name and on the strong brand recognition. Nowadays it is very difficult for cigarette brands to evolve and improve their brand awareness, simply because of all the laws and regulations that are against cigarette advertising and PR.

When Lucky Strike were at their top, they used to make very interesting and memorable commercials. One of them that I watched is from 1996 and it shows a broken plane trying to land on an aircraft carrier, the plane stops right on the edge, everyone is happy the pilot comes out of the cabin, he cheers and then he steps on one of the wings of the plane, which makes the plan unbalanced and they fell in the sea. One lady from the crew runs to the edge of the ship, she looks down and she sees that although the plane fell in the sea, the guy fell in the safety net. He just sits there smoking Lucky Strike cigarette smiling, then the commercial says: “Get Lucky with Lucky Strike”.

Back in the 1940s and 50s they had variety of commercials which had the same song. The lyrics of the song were saying: “ Light up a “Lucky”, it’s light up time”. The song is very cheerful, the people in the commercials are so happy that they “lighted up a Lucky”, all that looks funny today but in the 1950s it had massive effect on the people.

The corporate ID of the brand was very good, the red logo circle on the white colour package was very eye-catching. Lucky Strike had two slogans that they sometimes used together. The first one was “It’s toasted” because of the way their cigarettes are made, and the second one was L.S.M.F.T. which meant “Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobaco”.

The brand had some sponsorship, but the most famous one was the Formula 1 and they also sponsored the Honda team in F1 in 2006.

Conclusion

50 years ago people looked way happier when they were smoking, almost everyone was doing it. Cigarettes were smoked at work, on stadiums, in the cinema, basically everywhere. Understandable after that society discovered that cigarettes are a major reason for lung cancer and all that happiness went downhill. Lucky strike had its moments and for me it stays one of the most famous cigarette brands in the world.

Goodbye for now and look out for my last blog post which will be available to read very soon.

Bacardi

 

I am back with my fifth blog post. I will tell you more about the liquid that make people happy at night and miserable in the morning. Oh alcohol, how many times I have waked up by the indescribable pain in my head, promising myself that I will never drink again? Unfortunately we all do it and we all lie to ourselves, no-one will stop having fun once in a while because of one unpleasant morning. People say that getting drunk is like being married: you have fun in the beginning, but sooner or later you will regret it. I don’t know if this is true or not, I have never been married, so I will leave that to you. As we all know there are many different types of alcohol, we already discussed the whiskey and the beer in my previous posts, that is why I decided to write about another type that can’t be missed.

The theme of this post is RUM and the brand is BACARDI

 

 

History:

Bacardi or “Bacardi Limited” is the largest family-owned spirits company in the world. It was founded on the 4^th of February 1862 in Santiago de Cuba, in Cuba. The founder of the company Don Facundo Bacardi Masso was a wine merchant born in Spain, in 1814. He emigrated to Cuba when he was 16 in 1830. During that time rum was cheaply made and it was not considered as a good drink. It was rarely sold in taverns. Don Facundo decided to change the way rum is being perceived and to make money out of it. He was experimenting different things when finally he decided to filter the rum trough charcoal, this made the rum clear and smooth, the alcohol genius also started to age the rum by putting it in white oak barrels. The final product after all the procedures was the first clear or also called “white” rum in the world. In 1862 Don Facundo and his brother Jose bought a distillery. In this building lived fruit bats, and that is the actual inspiration for the Bacardi bat logo. The logo was very clever and strong because at that time(19^th century) there weren’t many other like it, which enabled customers to easily recognise the brand and the product. With the years the drink gained popularity and the brand expanded by buying other famous companies or competitors like “Havana Club”. At the moment Bacardi Limited is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda and it has 16 board-members, who are led by the great-great grandson of the founder, who took the name of his grandfather Facundo L. Bacardi.

 

Facts

-          Bacardi employs 6,000 people, manufactures at 29 facilities in 16 markets on four continents, with sales in more than 150 countries.

 

-          Bacardi Limited owns many other alcohol companies, some of the most famous ones are:

Grey Goose Vodka

Bombay Sapphire Gin

Martini and Rossi Vermouth

Havana Club

Drambuie

Disaronno Amaretto

Benedictine Liqueurs

 

-          The company sells more than 200 million bottles per year.

 

-          Company sales in 2007 were 5.5 billion American dollars.

 

 

-          Bacardi is not actually made in Cuba anymore.

 

-          In its 150-year history, Bacardi rum has won more than 550 awards for quality and product profile, making it the world’s most awarded rum.

 

 

What does Bacardi do to make people buy the product?

 

Bacardi was an unique alcoholic drink when it was started, it is true that there were many other companies making rum, but nobody was making it the way Don Bacardi was. The white rum looks and feels smoother and lighter than the dark one. The branding also played a big part in making people aware of the product. The logo was very interesting and memorable. Rum was also used as a trading good back in the days, so that made it more desired by people.

 

The advertising of Bacardi I found different than the other alcohol adverts I have seen, the video adverts of Bacardi are always showing a group of people having fun, there is music and a catchy song. An advert from 1991 shows young people on the beach having great time, dancing, singing and drinking Bacardi, the lyrics of the song that is used for the commercial are as follows:

“Be, what you wanna be,

Taking things the way they come,

Nothing is as nice as finding paradise & dancing to Bacardi fun,

Living Life the easy way, got your way to let it run,

Nothing is as cool as drifting in the sun-light dancing to Bacardi fun.”

It is very easy to remember and the melody is very nice. Recently in 2016 Bacardi made a remake of the song, using the same lyrics but making the song sound like a Dubstep and it is actually amazing, I played it at least five times.

The poster adverts are always very interesting, it really depends on the Bacardi product being advertised. Some are funny, there is one saying:

“I saw you with that vodka last night...

All the girls know you can make better cocktails with me”.

 

 

Bacardi is sponsoring many music festivals and parties, for example Nucleya Fan Fest in India in 2016, Boonstock Music Festival, Electric Picnic etc.

 

 

Conclusion

 

Bacardi wants to be accepted as a drink that makes the party and that is why the brand is aiming at younger people. I personally like the drink and I like the way the brand promotes itself. I think Bacardi is a high quality rum and even older audience is enjoying it. With all this rum I can only say: “Yo ho ho! Ahoy pirates and stay tuned for my next blog post.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camel

It is time for the second blog post in which I will discuss a famous cigarette brand. Cigarettes started to become popular in the end of 19^th century, they were far different from the ones we know today. There was no filter, the tobacco was very harsh, but people were still smoking them. Most of the people didn’t actually inhale the smoke and used cigarettes just like pipes, cigars etc. An evidence for that is the advertising campaign of Lucky Strike in the 1930s, Lucky Strike is asking customers “Do you inhale?” That might be strange for people nowadays, but with the time things changed and cigarette tobacco became milder which made inhaling more acceptable. The brand that I will tell you about today has also changed with the years adjusting to the changes in our world. The brand is called “Camel”.

CAMEL

History:

Camel is a brand that was presented by an American company R.J.Reynolds Tobacco in 1913. Camel was an innovation because it was giving the customers packaged cigarettes. Most of the people who smoked back then used to roll their own cigarettes and there was no national market for pre-packaged cigarettes. Reynolds wanted to get a flavor that would be more appealing than any other tobacco products, he created the Camel cigarette, it was named like that because it used Turkish paper. Reynolds won over the competition by cutting the price of Camel down, within a year, Camel had sold 425 million packs of cigarettes. This way Camel became successful and continued with full force. Recently in the last ten years Camel is not the most preferred choice by customers, but it still stays one of the most famous cigarette brands.

Facts:

-          Most current Camel cigarettes contain a mix of Turkish and Virgina tobacco.

-          Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the city where R.J.Reynolds was founded, is nicknamed “Camel City” because of the brand’s popularity.

-          The most famous historical style of Camel cigarettes is the soft pack of the regular, unfiltered variety (generally known as Camel Straights or Regulars).

-          Camel regulars got popular with the help of famous people such as the news broadcaster Edward R.Murrow, who used to smoke up to 80 cigarettes per day, in effect using a Camel cigarette as his trademark.

-          In the late 1980s RJR created “Joe Camel” as the mascot of the brand, few years later the American Medical Association published a report which stated that five and six year old kids could more easily recognise Joe Camel than: Mickey Mouse, Fred Flintstone, Bugs Bunny or Barbie.

What does Camel do to make people buy the product?

Camel has a long history in the tobacco industry and it has been very successful. The first thing that Camel did was to be innovative and different than the other companies back then. Second thing as I said is that the brand lowered the prices of Camel cigarettes which made a lot of people buy them. Afterwards Camel got better budget and made the quality of the tobacco better, customers appreciated that and kept buying Camel.

The advertising brilliance of Camel: Camel were made to have a milder taste than the other brands, which at that time were considered much harsher. Camel was advance-promoting, before the actual release, the brand launched an advertising campaign that included “teasers” which stated “The Camels Are Coming”(a play on the old Scottish folk song, “The Campbells Are Coming”). Another promotion strategy was the use of a Circus camel called “Old Joe”, it was driven trough town and used to distribute free cigarettes to people. The slogan of Camel back then was “I’d walk a mile for a Camel!” It is clear that the brand knew how to promote back then and it did it very well. All that clever campaigns helped massively for the popularity and the success of the brand.

The PR of the brand. The sponsorship was a wide variety of motorsport brands such as: Lotus Formula One team, Benetton Formula One team, Williams Formula One team, Honda, many cup races in NASCAR, Yamaha at Grand Prix etc. The strange sponsorship they did was the 1986 FIFA World Cup, football and cigarettes I don’t think they go hand by hand.

One of their Sales Promotions stands out: it was called “Camel Cash” or “C-Note” which was equal to five American cents, the note was stuck to the back of the Camel package. People were gathering this Camel Cash and after having enough they could exchange the “Cash” for items from the Camel Cash catalogue. It changed a lot over the years, at some point in the past it included the face of Joe Camel, the same way as presidents are featured on American currency. This very smart sales promotion finished ten years ago on the 31^st of March, 2007.

Conclusion

Overall Camel is one of the best known tobacco brands in the world because of the way it was promoted, because of the way it was made, and because of the way it was sold. Although not very popular in the UK it is still very popular in the rest of Europe and in the USA. There are no more promotional activities allowed, so it will be interesting to see if Camel will go down or it will stay up.

If you are a smoker, after reading this posts, I am sure you want to have a cigarette, so go and have one. Doesn’t matter if you smoke or not look out for my next post in which we will be discussing alcohol again.