Ciroc turns a blind eye to the Ukraine crisis to be safeguarded?

When you think about Russia (before the invasion) snow, weapons and vodka were the first things came in my mind. The connection between Russia and vodka runs deep. The clear liquor distilled from grains gets its name from the Russian word “voda,” which means water, and has long been associated with the Slavic country. However Ciroc is a vodka brand which is produced in France since 2003 and distributed by the British-based multi-alcohol producer Diago.

Situation of brands

Since my last blog on brand’s reaction on Ukraine crisis, I have been keeping an eye on multiple brand’s stand on this issue. Here is a new list of brands which have withdrawn their sale in Russia to support Ukraine. Kudos to these brands as the after math of doing this can cost a huge decline in market share, sales revenue, brand loyalty etc. On the flip side I was surprised to see name of big brands like Citi group, Hyatt, Amway, Herbalife, Mariott still functioning in Russia despite the crisis. Also, there are brands who can’t pull out of Russia because their assets are getting seized. Brands are expected to take a stand on this crisis on human grounds and political gorunds as their communication speaks a lot about their nature and people tend to build perception on the same.

Hard time for Vodka

U.S President Joe Biden issued an executive order on Friday that blocked U.S. imports of several Russian products, including vodka and other alcoholic beverages. I was amazed to know that vodka has been the top-selling spirit in the U.S. since the 1970s. After the verdict of the President many states namely Alabama, Maine, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Texas and many more ordered the liquor stores to get rid of Russian sounding name vodka bottles! Which created havoc for vodka brands. People considered Smirnoff, Stoli and Ciroc to be Russian and drained them too!

Silence of Ciroc

Ciroc as a brand has no connections to Russia what so ever. Ciroc doesn’t sell in Russia. It has a few distributors in Ukraine. However it may sound like one and confusion had arisen for putting it to drain too. To cater to this confusion Ciroc has not let out any communication to public through any media. Nor it has taken any stand for supporting or opposing the crisis in Ukraine.

What are peers doing?

Alcohol competitors of Ciroc have taken some massive steps in order to show their support and safeguard their brand equity. Starting from Stolichnaya(a Russian name but has no ties with Russia), the brand underwent into a humongous re-brand exercise and named itself Stoli to show support to Ukraine. Bacardi donated US$1 million to support humanitarian efforts in Ukraine, and suspended exports and frozen advertising investments in Russia. Smirnoff stopped the export to Ukraine and to Russia, “Our priority is the safety of our people in Ukraine and the wider region,” a spokesperson said.

Ciroc stands for

It comes to my sheer surprise that an established brand like Ciroc was just silent reacting to crisis. There must be so many brand loyalist questioning their stand. Ciroc brand essence always has been for experiencing joyful liberation luxuriously. In terms of their brand activation they have integrations with fashion, pop culture, P. Diddy as an ambassador too. For their CSR they stand for prohibition of drinking and driving, Underage drinking and responsible drinking. In the wave of Black lives matter Ciroc had made a whole campaign to support it.

In my opinion

Rationally I think Ciroc just wants to play safe in the chaos of crisis and safeguard it’s image in fear of wrong message sent out to netizens which can be a big black fire as the product being a vodka brand. 60% people expect their brands to share a comment or take a stand on social media however I believe action speaks louder than words, hence a social gesture would have been appreciated in favor of Ukraine as it was one of their active market too. Brands are also huge powerhouses as a message delivered by an established brand like Ciroc can influence and compel their peers to. No message is also a message which makes people change their perception for the brand (brand image), which can take a long time and huge resources for mending.

Signing off,

G