It will work. I am a marketing genius….

The initial success of Corona is attributed to changing from a stubby brown bottle to the clear long neck bottle still in use today.  Consumers were attracted to the bottle even though Corona had only one package at the time, a 20 bottle loose case.  The almost 30 years of growth for Corona, which is truly remarkable, comes from the consistent message of Beach in a Bottle used to market the brand.  This holiday season, once again, consumers will see the Corona ad featuring Christmas lights on a palm tree.  It is the essence of the brand. Successful beers connect their brand message to their consumers and fans.  Schlitz, before their internal blowup, traditionally had one of the great ad campaigns, “When you are out of Schlitz, you are out of beer.”  This campaign, and variations of it, was the basis of Schlitz success for decades.  In fact, the Schlitz p-o-s supporting these programs, the Schlitz globe, is still highly collectable today.  It was not until Schlitz changed their brewing process, which led to their rapid decline in sales, did the brewery change this successful tag line. Schlitz did everything, including changing packages, p-o-s, programs, and finally ad campaigns in an effort to entice their consumers to come back. Schlitz actually alienated consumers with new ads that stated “Don’t take away my Schlitz!”  As wholesalers we tried to get the brewery to drop these programs, but our efforts were ignored by senior management.  And the rest is history. Coors, while never having any issues with quality, went through similar problems.  The highly successful campaign, “America’s Fine Light Beer,” was changed due to the success of Coors Light.  After years of ineffective marketing, Coors finally turned the clock back and focused on the roots of the brand.  They have stuck with the strategy and the numbers have been positive for years. Consumers identify with their beer brand(s) as much as anyone does with a consumer product.  It is very easy to alienate a brand’s core market, as was evidenced when Coors Light hired Kid Rock in an effort to connect with 21-29 drinkers. The results were not successful The Wall Street Journal recently reported that ABI will no longer use the famous Clydesdales during the Christmas/New Year’s holiday, and instead focus a new campaign geared towards the LDA to 29 year olds.  Within 24 hours of announcing the elimination of the Clydesdales, ABI reneged on their decision. ABI stated that about 44% of the LDA to 29 ages has never tried Budweiser.  Given that Coors has had years of growth, does one believe that this age group is drinking Coors?  Coors reconnected with their core drinkers by returning to their roots and maybe even acquired some consumers that were not core drinkers.  Obviously, their strategy has worked. The WSJ is one of the most read and accurate papers published.  How, or why, the WSJ reported this and then ABI announced that the story was not true is puzzling at best.  Budweiser is one of the greatest labels of all time and the Clydesdales have symbolized that for decades.  If ABI even cuts back showing the Clydesdales then ABI’s decision sounds more like Paris Hiltons comment, “It will work, I am a marketing genius!”

Beer fodder – old Schlitz commercials;