Oatly and the Blackstone Crisis: A Rhetorical Analysis of Crisis Management on Instagram This study looks into the crisis that arose when Oatly announced Blackstone as their new investors. With their new investors Oatly got a backlash with a lot of criticism for the new investment, which affected Oatlys image as a sustainable company. We examine how the crisis was handled on Instagram, both by analyzing Oatly's posts and their response to recipient ́s comments. The purpose of the study is to examine Oatlys crisis management on Instagram during the Blackstone crisis. With rethorics and Image Repair Theory as a theoretical framework and the rhetoric analysis model of Renberg as method, we have been able to examine what strategies Oatly used in their communication on Instagram during the Blackstone crisis. The results showed that Oatly used different strategies in their Instagram post and in their comments to try to handle the crisis, maintain consumers' trust and save the company's reputation. Our conclusion of the study summarizes the strategies Oatly uses in their communication and discusses the importance of companies using distinct strategies on social media during a crisis.

Many industries are following a trajectory where today’s production and consumption patterns are putting unsustainable strain on the health of our planet. One industry with particularly large impact is the animal-based food industry. More and more people are becoming aware of the severity of the situation, along with realizations of unjust animal treatment in these industries and personal health concerns. Actors in the plant-based food industry have experienced a rise in popularity in recent years. This study set out to explore what drivers lead to positive external stakeholder attitudes and increased market demand for plant-based dairy alternatives, and how these drivers could affect traditional food incumbents to adhere to sustainable transformation of the food industry through a case study design. Analysis of the empirical material led to five main themes: Sustainability, Animal Welfare, Environment, Health and Product, each with a number of subcategories showing what stakeholders expressed motivated them to choose plant-based dairy alternatives. Here the opinions of stakeholders were divided into general or brand specific opinions. By separating these it could be seen that some external stakeholders have such strong values that they compare plant-based brands against each other and would rather boycott specific brands even if they like their products if they do not feel like the brand aligns with their values. One additional theme, “Industrial Transformation,” aimed at demonstrating how stakeholders perceive the current industrial dynamics of the food industry, which showed some tension between Oatly and particularly the dairy industry, suggesting Oatly’s rampage could be a force for sustainable transformation of the dairy industry. / Många industrier följer en bana där dagens produktions- och konsumtionsmönster sätter ohållbar belastning på vår planets hälsa. En industri med särskilt stor påverkan är den djurbaserade livsmedelsindustrin. Fler och fler människor blir medvetna om allvaret i situationen, tillsammans med insikter om orättvis djurbehandling i dessa industrier och personliga hälsoproblem. Aktörer inom den växtbaserade livsmedelsindustrin har upplevt en ökad popularitet de senaste åren. Denna studie syfte är att undersöka vilka drivkrafter som motiverar externa intressenter att bidra till tillväxten av den växtbaserade mjölkproduktsindustrin och hur dessa drivkrafter kan påverka traditionella livsmedelsleverantörer att följa en hållbar omställning av livsmedelsindustrin genom en fallstudie. Analys av det empiriska materialet ledde till fem huvudteman, Hållbarhet, Djurskydd, Miljö, Hälsa och Produkt, var och en med ett antal tillhörande underkategorier som visade vad intressenterna uttryckte motiverade dem att välja växtbaserade mjölkprodukter. Här delades intressenternas åsikter i allmänna eller varumärkesspecifika åsikter. Genom att separera dessa kunde man se att vissa externa intressenter har så starka värderingar att de jämför växtbaserade varumärken mot varandra och hellre bojkottar ett specifikt varumärke även om de gillar deras produkter om de inte känner att varumärket stämmer överens med deras egna värderingar. Ytterligare ett tema, "Industriell Transformation", syftade till att demonstrera hur intressenter uppfattar den nuvarande industriella dynamiken i livsmedelsindustrin, vilket visade en viss spänning mellan Oatly och specifikt mejeriindustrin, vilket tyder på att Oatlys framfart kan vara en kraft för hållbar transformation av mejeriindustrin.

Dagens konsumtionssamhälle är ständigt under utveckling. Idag kan vi se att företag anpassar sig till denna utveckling. Framförallt har den veganska livsstilen av olika anledningar som djurskydd,miljöhänsyn och hälsa blivit central, varigenom Oatly med sina havrebaserade produkter skapat relevans för en hållbar och medveten konsument. Hållbarhet bygger på trender och ses som det nya coola. Att konsumera Oatlys produkter kategoriserar därmed konsumenter in i ett coolt sammanhang. Då Oatlys marknadsföringssätt är något som omtalats avsevärt i medier och lett till samhällsdebatter lockades vår nyfikenhet till att undersöka hur Oatly ser på sin roll som aktör på den samtida svenska livsmedelsmarknaden. Utefter detta formulerades två övergripande frågeställningar som sedermera vidare formulerats i en underfråga: Utifrån ovanstående syfte ämnar vi besvara följande frågeställningar: - Hur tänker Oatly kring sin roll på den samtida svenska livsmedelsmarknaden? - Hur uttrycker de sitt budskap för att konkurrera på den marknaden? För att ge svar på frågeställningarna genomfördes en samtalsintervju vid Forsman & Bodenfors reklambyrå i Göteborg, där vi fick chansen att träffa Art Director Lars Elfman och Copywriter Martin Ringqvist, som tillsammans jobbar tätt ihop med företaget Oatly och därmed kunde svara på allt från Oatlys identitet och mål till hur deras marknadsföringsstrategi ser ut. Vi granskade även Oatlys visualitet som fanns att hitta både på deras egna hemsida samt som case på Forsman & Bodenfors hemsida. Resultatet från intervjun och de visuella observationerna kopplas sedan till tidigare forskning och teorier som berör samhälleliga trender, marknadsföringsstrategier och teorier om coolhet och den coola konsumenten. Slutsatsen vi kan dra av denna undersökning är att Oatly vill göra sin havredryck till det nya mainstream, det som ska drickas istället för mjölk. Oatly vill även bidra till en social förändring och gå från att vara ett livsmedel till att bli en livsstil, detta är något de förverkligar genom sin normifrågasättande marknadsföring med retoriska, humoristiska inslag.

Due to increased competition between companies and products, brand communication has emerged as an decisive and competitive aspect of a company’s success. Oatly, the swedish oat-based product producer, utilized, through extensive marketing communications, a increased awareness following their well mediated legal dispute with Swedish milk organization” LRF Svensk Mjölk”. While focusing on the brand Oatly, this study aims to examine how brands can take advantage of increased awareness through marketing communications, and develop an understanding regarding how brands can use communication to construct a certain perception of the company. With a qualitative semiotics method we aim to monitor patterns of expression and recurrent communicated characteristics in chosen commercials, adverts and Oatly’s brand manifesto. Our theoretical framework consisted of concepts of brand -management theory as well as theory regarding cultural differences, accompanied by previous research of veganism and companies portrayal as the “underdog”. The results showed that Oatly had an strategic usage of visual elements in the communication. They consistently portrayed themselves as the honest swedish rebell taking a humanistic and environmental responsibility, and Oalty defined itself through the usage of the milk industry as counterpart. With Oatly’s ownership in mind, the study found moral contradictions in the company’s communication regarding transparency and the vegan approach to righteousness. Evidently, the research gave us a profound understanding how perception of a company is abstract and can be constructed through consistent marketing communications.

With the help of various advertising strategies this study addresses the Swedish, plant-basedfood-production company Oatly, and their advertisements to see how the discourse onsustainability is approached. By using critical discourse analysis, and primarily Fairclough’sthree-dimensional-model for analysing discourse (1989, 1995) as well as the marketingframework AIDA, these advertisements have been analysed to see how the companymanages to tempt and persuade their consumers into consumption. This paper seeks tounderstand how Oatly portrays their products as the “right” choice, by acting on and creatingsocial, public understandings. But who decides what is “correct” and what is not, and howdoes a company act on contemporary social conventions to portray themselves as the “good”choice? Through a textual analysis of Oatly’s product descriptions on their website as well asof the product packaging in-store, this report has established that Oatly acts on publicunderstandings of environmental sustainability to persuade their audience into consumption.

When describing the company’s ethos and brand, the creative director of Swedish oat drink producer Oatly, John Schoolcraft, routinely declares the company’s intention to be not a brand, but a voice. As popular activist causes become utilized by companies and commodified for advertising use, identifying the ways in which communication is used to create meaning becomes a relevant skill. This thesis takes Schoolcraft’s statement as a basis of inquiry into the ways in which a company can present itself through language. Through a multimodal discourse analysis of three different semiotic materials produced by Oatly in Germany; the text of a 2019 petition, two 2019 advertising posters and a selection of product packaging collected during the summer of 2020, the thesis seeks to identify the relevant discourses evoked by Oatly, the ways in which Oatly is represented within those discourses and the way in which Oatly’s semiotic resources might serve to create a myth of Oatly, the voice, not the brand. The relevant discourses represented in the texts were sustainability, food consumption and production, government power and the empowerment of consumers. In these discourses Oatly positioned themselves (as well as the reader) as an agent of change, trying to affect progress. The discourses were often found to be connected to Oatly as a brand, but somewhat removed from Oatly’s products. A potential myth of Oatly as a leader in a political effort, might be substantiated within a small sphere of influence amongst consumers. As the research design relies largely on the author’s own interpretations of the material, none of the inferences from the analysis may be considered absolute or objectively true.

Studiens syfte är att bidra med ökad kunskap kring varför medlemmarna i Oatlys brand community engagerar sig i communityn och hur de värderar information som kommer från Oatlykontra från externa källor. Studien syftar även till att undersöka om medlemmarnas konsumtionsbeteenden påverkas av negativ information de får om Oatly. Det empiriska materialet bygger på medlemmar i Oatlys brand community på Instagram och samlades in genom två fokusgruppsdiskussioner. Studien har visat att medlemmarna engagerar sig i communityn för att tillfredsställa behov av gemenskap, identitet, och information samt att medlemmarna värderar information från Oatly som pålitlig och positiv medan de värderar externa källors informationsom felaktig och opålitlig. Ännu en av slutsatserna från studien är att deltagarna i communityntolkar budskap utifrån en gemensam tolkningsram. Vidare visade studien att mer lojala medlemmar uppgav att de ökade sin konsumtion i mötet av negativ information om Oatly.

Människors konsumtionsmönster och kostvanor påverkar miljön på många olika sättoch då jordens population växer samtidigt som efterfrågan på mer miljöbelastandelivsmedel ökar, är det viktigare än någonsin att de företag som tillhandahållermiljösmarta alternativ, har verktyg för att kommunicera sina produkters miljövärdentill sina konsumenter. Syftet med denna studie var att med kvalitativa intervjuerundersöka hur den miljöinformation som företaget Oatly kommunicerar på sinaprodukter och i sin marknadsföring upplevs av konsumenter och av personer medexpertkunskap inom miljö och kommunikation. Resultatet visar att konsumenterupplever Oatly som ett miljövänligt företag men att de har svårt att förklara varför ochatt det på grund av en bristande miljökommunikation finns en känsla av att derasuppfattning är ogrundad. Även experterna som medverkade i studien efterlyser enökad miljökommunikation för att legitimera företaget, dess verksamhet och derasprodukter gentemot sina intressenter och föreslår att Oatly utvecklar enmålgruppsanpassad miljökommunikation på flera nivåer. / The consumption and dietary patterns of mankind affect the environment in manyways, and while the population of the world is growing and the demand for eatableswith a higher environmental impact is increasing, it is more important than ever thatcompanies that provide environment-friendly alternatives have the right tools forcommunicating their products environmental values to their consumers. The purposeof this study was to use qualitative interviews to examine how consumers and expertsin communication and environmental science experience the environmentalcommunication of the company Oatly. The results show that consumers experienceOatly as an environment-friendly company without actually knowing why, andbecause of the lack of environmental communication, they feel that their perceptionlacks evidence. The experts who participated in the study also called for an increasedenvironmental communication to legitimize the company, its activities and itsproducts toward its stakeholders, and suggest a new targeted two-levelcommunication.

With social movements like Black Lives matter, #MeToo and Fridays For Future on the rise consumers expect companies to take a stand on these socio-political topics. A new marketing strategy, called brand activism is used to communicate brands values and actions. This paper will conduct a case study of the company Oatly which has been standing out for its daring marketing strategies and analyze their visual communication by using the methods of visual analysis, semiotics and critical discourse analysis. The main research question is how Oalty uses its visual communication to convey brand activism. By analyzing one oat drink packaging, an ad campaign and an Instagram post the findings of this paper conclude that Oatly has several ways of communicating brand activism. These include the use of value based communication, referencing historical activism movements and the sociopolitical theme of promoting a more environmentally friendly lifestyle. The question arises about the authenticity of their opinions and the motives behind their brand activism. So whilst it's clear that companies like Oatly can convey the message of brand activism, this new marketing strategy needs further guidelines and methods of verification to ensure the use of authentic brand activism.

This study examines how organizations and companies with transparent sustainability profiles aim to establish a relationship between brand, sustainability, and audience based on a theoretical framing perspective. To examine this; the study will limit itself by focusing on the Swedish company Oatly, and their external communications through digital channels and platforms.  According to Van Gorp and Van du Goot (2011: 374), frames serve as a way of explaining complex issues. Through framing a problem area, cause and other conclusions are highlighted. Frames thus function rhetorically – by convincing public opinion and control an audience through the media. Framing occurs in several contexts such as political, via news and advertising (Fairhoust & Sarr 1996).                                                        The study limits it’s analysis to the company Oatly’s official profile on the digital platform Mynewsdesk. The empirical material consists of press releases published within a defined time frame; 5/6/2015–6/3/2017. The study is based on motivated theoretical assumptions; discourse, critical and posthumanist theory, as well as previously established research on the field - framing in relation to sustainability.                                        The research method can be described as a qualitative content analysis based on main elements derived from discourse and semiotic framework. In addition, a framing analysis is applied to further present the result in the form of exemplified frames.                The results of the study suggest, for example, that actors construct importance through framing – which integrates into sustainability discourse through social practices – thereby establishing a relationship between brand, problem area, and audience through a convinced public opinion that further interacts with and reproduces the discourse in question.