{"id":2351,"date":"2015-11-30T11:13:07","date_gmt":"2015-11-30T11:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.www.innovationiseverywhere.com\/?p=2351"},"modified":"2015-11-30T11:13:07","modified_gmt":"2015-11-30T11:13:07","slug":"absolut-innovation-strategy-getting-outside-the-bottle-in-the-digital-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/absolut-innovation-strategy-getting-outside-the-bottle-in-the-digital-age\/","title":{"rendered":"Absolut innovation strategy: getting outside the bottle in the digital age"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the McDonald\u2019s startup <\/a>, here is our second case study from the Break conference featuring Absolut<\/a>, the global vodka brand.<\/p>\n

\"agence<\/p>\n

For Markus Wulff<\/a> and his \u201cGrowth Team\u201d in Stockholm, it\u2019s all about innovation outside the bottle,<\/strong> and embarking on a discovery of new opportunities on the customer journey of vodka lovers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

As in many cases of corporate innovation, \u201cno one has the real answer on how to do it<\/em>\u201d, so the best thing is to launch anyway and iterate.<\/p>\n

Corporate innovation can\u2019t be planned, \u00a0just do things!<\/h2>\n

Absolut has been innovating primarily on the product<\/strong> itself, with flavours, and partly on marketing. With the setup of the Growth team, it is now aiming to create experiences, from payment to delivery, to embrace the customer journey<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The first key learning point of Markus and his 8-people team is the huge difference between the innovation cycle of a corporate<\/strong>, usually about 2 years, and the speed of startups<\/strong>. \u201cIt took us 3 weeks to launch a pilot after identifying a relevant partner<\/em>\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

Partnering with startups<\/strong> also proves to be a good way to get in touch with more people in tech ecosystems.<\/p>\n

Markus continues, \u201cWe\u2019ve met with people from the Amazon team working on delivering fresh product and groceries in London. What we do is a ticket to open discussions with this kind of company<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Absolut and Minibar: delivering vodka and cocktail kits for New Yorkers<\/h3>\n

\"agence<\/p>\n

Traditionally, Markus adds, the drinks business is split between in-trade<\/strong>, when consumers buy the product in restaurants, bars, cafes and clubs, and off-trade<\/strong>, for home consumption.<\/p>\n

Off-trade today is increasing<\/a>,<\/strong> so the growth team partnered with Minibar<\/a>, a startup based in New York providing, as its name suggests, booze on demand for private individuals<\/strong>, with a delivery under 1 hour, usually in 40 minutes.<\/p>\n

This experiment actually brought, through the data gathered, a second by-product.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most customers use vodka at home to create cocktails,<\/strong> so why not go a step further and offer cocktail kits?<\/strong> Those were created and could be pre-ordered within the Minibar app<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As a result of this pilot, Absolut was able to generate more revenues from, notably, women and from B2B sales as well as interesting data on the timing of ordering<\/strong> (some for instance re-order two hours after the first bottle).<\/p>\n