We love when agencies do market research about alcohol brands because it’s always interesting to look at our favorite beverages through different eyes. On the other hand, we also hate when agencies do market research because sometimes the results make us feel like idiots. Like, when results come out and we realize that we bought a bottle of whiskey simply because we liked the colors of the label. You tricky marketers get us every time.
The most recent study we came across involves vodka and whether or not the consumer perceives it as “sexy.” If you’ve never thought about a clear liquid being sexy before, now is the time to expand your mind.
Market research company Affinnova split 500 U.S.-based vodka drinkers into two equal groups. Half of them were asked to judge the “personalities” of various vodkas based only on the brand’s name, while the other half were asked to only consider the vodka’s bottle. The brands the vodka drinkers had to evaluate included:
- Absolut
- Belvedere
- Smirnoff
- Ketel One
- Skyy (using a limited run bottle)
- Tito’s
- Stolichnaya
- Svedka
- Grey Goose
- Ciroc
- Pinnacle
- New Amsterdam
So, who do you think came out on top?
When it came to the brand name, Absolut won the title of most sexy. Absolut is obviously an extremely popular brand with great advertising, but we don’t know if we would have thought it would win most sexy. They’ve always seemed a little more cutting edge and creative, but maybe that’s what people are defining as sexy these days.
When it came to the bottle design, the winner was Skyy’s cobalt blue bottle. The color is cool and it’s definitely taller and more sleek than Absolut’s, so we get it.
Honorable mention goes to Belvedere, who somehow managed to snag the title of most intelligent because of the imaginary mansion on their bottle. Is that all it takes to be perceived as smart? Maybe it’s time we got some mansion t-shirts printed up to work into our daily wardrobe.