JÄGERMEISTER:

THE VERSATILITY OF
IRREVERENT PERFECTIONISM
I. Background:
a) Origin and Core Identity
Jägermeister is one of the most iconic premium spirits brands. Ever since the brand
was established by Curt Mast in Wolfenbüttel in 1934, it has developed a worldwide
reputation for manufacturing a unique kind of herbal liqueur. The authentic flavor of the
beverage is elaborately prepared with 56 distinctive botanical ingredients and contains 35%
alcohol by volume. Not only does Jägermeister’s mythical vibe emerge from the brand’s
umlaut-contained name which literally means “Hunting Master”, it is also depicted through
the product appearance. The pragmatic bottle design is a standout in bars and clubs
everywhere thanks to its easily recognizable square-shouldered shape filling with deep green
colour and its Bauhaus-inspired label illustrating the drink’s trademark symbol – a stag with
gleaming cross between it antlers. This symbol refers to the legend of the patron saint of
hunting, Hubertus. Jägermeister’s ethos is “irreverent perfectionism”. This perfectionism
demonstrates the spirit’s complexity and the German obsession with detail, the sense of
striving for perfection which refers back to all the effort and craftsmanship that goes into the
product. Meanwhile, according to Wolfgang Moeller, global brand marketing director at
MastJägermeister SE, the irreverence stems from being “a product that did not fit into any
known category, so it was an open playing field… Jägermeister has always stood for
something. It’s not a ‘love it or hate it’ brand, but it’s not forgettable (Bruce-Gardyne,
2017)”. However, entering the Digital Age urges old brands such as Harley-Davidson,
KitKat, so on and so forth, to either engaging with a new generation of customers or slowly
managing its way to irrelevance. Having already turned to an 85-year-old brand, Jägermeister
is no exception.
b) Repositioning Campaign: Creatures Of The Night
Here was the Jägermeister’s business hypothesis: “Jägermeister- the legendary drink
of ski lodges was once the life and soul of the party. But the once great spirit had fallen on
hard times, suffering from an identity crises brought on by the Jäger-bomb. Millennials saw
it as loud, aggressive and outdated; the shot drunk alone at the end of the night, not the way
you start a night with mates… sales were now at an all-time low (sales down 3.1% YOY,
source: LMA 2014). (UM, 2014)”. Therefore, Jägermeister contracted with social
marketing agency Society and UM, demanded a real boost in awareness for their brand
among younger demographic. The media strategic planning agency realized that in order to
gain interest and understanding within these social groups, it had to demonstrate the
apprehension about target audience’s character and what drove their group dynamics using
the communication platform on which they expressed themselves within their social milieu.
Social media was identified as that platform. Besides, in Australia, it’s the banter on an
evening out that bonds cliques of guys together. Therefore, the solution was to run an
innovative content-led social campaign which placed Jägermeister as part of the pack by
providing social ammunition to spark friendly raillery on a night out.
As a result, “Creatures Of The Night” was initially launched on Facebook. The
project featured five characters which were inspired by relatable traits observed in an
archetypal group of guys on a night out. These characters were illustrated by Superdoodle’s
co-founder Billmund on posts fueled with banters, or specific moments in which their traits
would be most prevalent. Audiences were encouraged to tag their mates who best embodied
the characters’ behavior under those posts. The campaign aimed at repositioning
Jägermeister – still embracing the irreverent perfectionism and rich heritage while
becoming more appealing to Millenials, improving sales and changing the way people
consumed the product from drinking alone to toasting with friends.
II. Objectives
The purpose of this case study is to demonstrate how a communication consultant
(Society and UM), by coming to a strategic planning situation armed with a general
communication model (Laswell’s) , may effectively apply it to a repositioning campaign
(“Creatures Of The Night”) and gain the expected result. To meet that aim, theoretical aspects
of Laswell’s model should be implied. Besides, the Jägermeister’s “Creatures Of The Night”
should be analysed so as to accurately illustrate concepts of Laswell’s communication model
as well as critically reveal the limitations in its application on the campaign.
III. Laswell’s Communication Model
Harold Dwight Laswell (1902–1978) is an American political scientist and
communication theorist. He has been described as a “one-man university (McDougal, 1979)”
and a “Leonardo Da Vinci of the behavioral sciences (Rogers, 1986)”. In 1948, Laswell
developed the model of communication (Muth, Finley & Muth, 1990), which is regarded as
"one of the earliest and most influential communication models (Shoemaker, Tankard &
Lasorsa, 2004)" as well as “mass communication’s oldest concept not borrowed from another
discipline… Its origins actually predate the field itself, as it was developed to assist in the
forming of mass communication into a legitimate academic field of study (Sapienza, Iyer &
Veenstra, 2015). In his article "The Structure and Function of Communication in Society",
Lasswell (1948) wrote: “convenient way to describe an act of communication is to answer the
following questions: a. Who? b. Says What? c. In Which Channel? d. To Whom? e. With
What Effect?” Those queries accurately indicate the fact that ”while the definitions of
communication vary according to their theoretical frames of reference employed and the
stress placed upon certain aspects of the process, they all include five fundamental factors: an
initiator, a receiver, a mode or vehicle, a message, and effect (Watson & Hill, 1997)”.
IV. Analysis
Under new media environment, Laswell’s communication model was precisely
employed in Jägermeister’s “Creatures Of The Night” campaign.
a) Laswell’s model on Jägermeister “Creatures Of The Night”
In this case, Jägermeister was the sender, the component of the model which “represents
control analysis, or who has the control over the message being disseminated” (Hendricks,
n.d.).
Next, the platform, or channel, on which “Creatures Of The Night” were operated was
Facebook and Instagram – social medias of which concept “is top of the agenda for many
business executives today” (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010).
Then, on one hand, the visible message that the brand spreaded out was plenty of
irreverent banter in form of illustrated “Tag A Mate” images. Those images depicted five
characters that reflected the voices in a typical group of Aussie guys, and in turn created
relatable vignettes that encouraged the brand’s audience to tagged and shared among friends
on “the channel”. Furthermore, these characters were built in which design also suggesting
the use of Charles Sander Peirce’s work among linguistics and communications, what he
called semiotic – “the doctrine of the essential nature and fundamental varieties of possible
semiosis (Peirce, n.d.)”. Having taken the form of anthropomorphic animals, they devoted to
the indexical aspect of Peirce’s theory:
 The alpha in the group was the Stag. He was given a smug grin and cocked eyebrow,
and dressed his chiselled physique in a tidy slim-fit suit jacket. His appearance
emerged confidence and self-love.
 The Wingman was the Stag’s main accomplice but best friend to all, known to
sacrifice himself for others. He needed to be loyal yet somewhat dim, and a pigeon’s
face and dumpy body somehow fits that description.
 The Snow Leopard only occasionally leaves his cave on account of an overly
possessive girlfriend. His design needed to reflect a restrained, guilty expression, in
the fixed furrow of his brow and his conservative manner of dress.
 The nocturnal Night Owl was the party animal in the group, so in his construction he
would always need to have bulging, dilated pupils, a permanently stoked expression
and growing pit stains.
 The Dodger was a scheming fox, his namesake reflected in the early design with an
Dodger top hat. He showed himself to be secretly wealthy scammer.
On the other hand, the hidden message of the campaign was revealed as “Jägermeister is the
irreverently perfect ingredient playing the crucial role which sparks banter among groups of
guys on a night out”.
The target audience of the campaign was mainly Australian males aged between 18
and 25, who, obviously, had a Facebook account as a mean to communicate with others
involving in their circle.
The last component to complete Laswell’s model is the effect. According to
Superdoodle (2016), when “Creatures of the Night originally launched on Facebook”, it led
to the reversal of an 8-year decline in Jägermeister sales, lifting the brand to an increase of
10% in sales year on year. There have been hundreds of thousands of comments on posts.
Each of these comments was more than just a “tag”, the audience was passing the message
on, directly embedding Jägermeister within a group of friends. The total number of
engagements for the campaign period was 698,922, equating to an overall engagement rate of
17.15%. This figure was 36 times the average rate of engagements for any alcohol brands in
Australia during the campaign period. Jägermeister’s social content created such a
groundswell that Instagram recognized this, inviting them to be the first alcohol brand in
Australia to advertise on their platform. The work won two Festival of Media (Asia Pacific)
awards for Best Entertainment Platform and Best Social Media Strategy, and was also
awarded Silver Winner for the Best Community Development category at the Festival of
Media (Global).
b) Limitations
 The application of Laswell’s model on “Creatures Of The Night” is not absolutely
pertinent. The audience’s act of tagging friends under each post can simply be considered as
commenting, which is also a manner of feedback. However, according to Laswell’s
communication model, the stage of feedback is not included since the model is structured
linearly.
V. Conclusion
Overall, this case study has reported on the employment of Laswell’s communication
model on Jägermeister’s repositioning campaign which called “Creatures Of The Night”.
Although the model is a one-way process that includes no stage such as feedback or feedback
loop and the campaign still received responses from the audience, it is undeniable that the
chain of questions “Who? What? In which channel? To whom? With what effect?” have
helped “Creatures Of The Night” build up its success. Despite that Laswell’s writings on
communication have often been dismissed by communication scholars as no longer relevant
(Schramm, 1962), it should be still considered as one of the primary drivers behind current
conceptions of mass communication (Watson & Hill, 1997).
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