Quote:
Originally Posted by LayingPipe
Both sides of aisle like to score political points but another perspective to this controversy was it just a marketing exec trying to increase sales Salesman have always been the lowest form of life on earth from the 1800's selling snake oil 1970's rolling back speedometers on cars or Bernie Madoff promising big returns.
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Yes and no. They are top dog in a North American market segment that's contracting. There were Obama-era reg changes that were allowing Mexican-style beers to more easily/freely enter the market and gain market share. Younger customers and women were/are drinking less light beer and more craft beer and non-beer alternatives but represent the largest opportunity to grow the segment.
So they made a play with a single commemorative can for an influencer they had already done work with previously to try to drum up some good will with millennials as part of a shift to expand the tent and show that beer is inclusive. It's not a new message. That influencer posted on her media forums. It was a very benign message that's typically set it and forget it.
There were no ads running on TV. There were no banners on web pages. They didn't mock their old marketing snd apologize for being sexist, like Miller had done about a month earlier and which was ignored for 2 months. They took a vastly less aggressive marketing posture on this than Smirnoff did with the Laverne Cox ads that were playing multiple times a day.
This is effectively a viral "ratioed" response by folks that took a message that wasn't being put forced into people's faces, co-opting it with a different message using a counter-programming response that forced it into people's faces.
This is counter-programming in the age of the algorithm. The mouthy minority is still a mouthy minority but feel emboldened and bigger than they are while having to spend very little for maximum exposure. They're ounching above weight... for the moment.
Does this have legs? We'll see.
