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194 CHAPTER 8 ■ Establishing a Healthy Drinking Culture

European Commission, 2006). The EU is also realizing the benefits of alcohol con-
trol. Alcohol monopolies are one way of keeping the societal costs of alcohol-related
harm down. An alcohol monopoly keeps alcohol consumption down by 30% com-
pared to a free market where alcohol can be bought in any retail store (Holder,
2007). This is also likely to be of interest in the EU where a free market is advocated.
A restriction of alcohol accessibility and alcohol taxes keeps the societal costs down.
In May 2008, the World Health Organization adopted a resolution requesting a de-
velopment of a draft global strategy to reduce harmful use of alcohol (WHO, 2008).
From a global perspective, Sweden’s alcohol monopoly may provide some in-
teresting and helpful experience to other countries. Systembolaget’s campaigns
shed new light on the applications of social marketing principles in a new socio-
cultural context. The 2002 campaign was the first advertisement campaign that
was launched by Systembolaget advocating the advantages of an alcohol monopoly.
The campaign created interest but also required preparations in the form of an infor-
mation kit explaining the reasons for the campaign to external as well as internal
stakeholders. The complexity of the issue required extensive copy, which is unusual
in today’s image-focused, advertising-intense society. This kind of copy also re-
quired an appropriate choice of media. Morning newspapers were used to a large
extent in order to create a trustworthy setting. The advertisements stuck out and
created attention. The timing was right in that the political opinion for deregulat-
ing the Swedish alcohol monopoly had weakened at the time of the campaign
launch. Furthermore, the importance of recognizing the link between attitudes and
behavior needs to be noticed in social marketing. The campaigns have resulted in a
higher number of Swedes with a positive attitude toward Systembolaget, but this is
not sufficient. The integrated marketing mix has succeeded in making shoppers
more satisfied at Systembolaget. Moreover, changing attitudes and, even more so,
changing behavior takes time and requires continuity. The collaboration between
F&B and Systembolaget has, from the beginning, been a long-term relationship,
which is expected to have positive effects on the results.
Finally, it may be perceived as a paradox that Systembolaget promotes re-
stricted consumption of alcohol by limited accessibility (number of outlets and
opening hours) and campaigns focusing on health consequences of alcohol and
bootlegging, while at the same time emphasizing customer orientation (a wide
product assortment, customer service) in order to increase its market share.
However, we believe a nonprofit alcohol monopoly needs to focus on customer sat-
isfaction in order to be attractive in a global marketplace. The idea to limit con-
sumption—and thus, alcohol-related problems—by an alcohol monopoly such as
Systembolaget and its focus on customer satisfaction could, from an international
perspective, be considered a smart solution to a global public health problem.