A new brand for a new world.
Strategic branding and visualization for TM "Lednik" vodka
The global changes of the last year have affected the behavioral habits of the consumer. In addition to the economic prerequisites for change, we record changes in the sociocultural environment: patterns of information consumption are changing before our eyes and there is a shift in consumer habits to process the emotional part of brand communication. The consumer is overwhelmed with annoying cues and anxiety, so they tend to engage only with cues with a clear and simple emotional trigger. That is, the ability of the consumer to perceive and evaluate information has taken on a very rigid framework, shades have disappeared from the spectrum of sensations and the worldview has become much more polar.
Glazovsky distillery was one of the first in the Russian alcohol market that began the process of adaptation to new conditions. Vodka “Lednik” is a new case of strategic branding of vodka in the middle segment, in which our team took a key part. We have developed a strategy and a complete visualization of the product, including a unique bottle.
The main difficulty of the task was the work with the name: we carried out a structural and semiotic analysis, after which we identified the prerequisites for the future strategy. We built the mechanics of the concept on the archetypal images of the culture of Russian Pomors - the first free conquerors of the Russian Arctic, who tamed the harsh cold of eternal glaciers and opposed the master of the north - the polar bear. “The Taste of the Ice Breath of the Russian Arctic” is the quintessence of product positioning and its strong and unequivocal connection with the pronounced cooling taste of vodka with the addition of mint and menthol. The visualization carefully uses the archetypal attributes of cold and north: the main one is a unique bottle in the form of an ice core melted in the hands of the viewer. And, of course, we use the image of birch bark and a dry, frozen tree - as a characteristic reference in the culture of the Russian Pomors, their work and heroic life in the conditions of the Far North.
The rebranding of "Lednik" revived the old product under new meanings and gave a stable platform for development in the future for several years. We created a cognitively light brand and shaped consumer benefits by explaining the taste and benefits of the product for the first time. This was helped by a high-quality strategy based on the analytics of socio-cultural changes, current trends and market forecasts.
