It goes without saying that arguably two of the largest global sporting events are the World Cup and the Olympics. Annually, however, the largest sporting event has to be the Super Bowl. Right behind the Super Bowl, the Masters Golf Tournament could easily be the second largest annual event. This is Masters Week.
The tournament, which has become the most exciting one in golf, is perhaps most appreciated by those who are fortunate enough to score the tickets as they are very affordable. Beer, food, drinks, and merchandise are all reasonably priced, too. You will not see $9.00 beer at the Masters.
Also, the tournament has no commercialism. No billboards, no neon signs, no signs at all, not even logos on the cups. The Masters serves three beers: a regular, a light and an import. The consumer does not know the brand; there are no names on the tap handles or signage at the tournament. If you want a light beer, you say light! If you want an import beer, you say import.
People do not go to The Masters for a certain beer, and for the most part, do not care what they drink. Than the question to ask is: just how important is branding?
A recent edition of Ad Week highlighted a paper written by a professor at the University of Texas who stated that while advertising activity for alcohol has increased by over 400% since 1971, per capital consumption has not increased.
This is not surprising for most of us who have been in the industry for a while. Year in and year out the industry has either been flat or declining. Competition for share of stomach is tremendous, not counting outside pressures including the legislative type.
This article, however goes on to state that advertising activity is effective in “guiding brand preference,” and that “The academics behind the study didn’t delve into this issue of brand affinity themselves, but they do cite several studies that support the market power viewpoint that advertising is most effective at informing consumers of competitive information such as pricing and availability.”
Furthermore the Ad Week article goes on to state, “This study has provided evidence of consumption changes across categories of alcohol beverages over the past 40-plus years, with the preponderance of those changes significantly correlated to fluctuations in demography, taxation and income levels—not advertising.”
It would be hard, if not impossible, to imagine any brewer advertising in an attempt to increase overall consumption. Ever heard of any brewery executive say they are marketing to increase consumption?
The year 1971, when Philip Morris purchased the Miller Brewing Company, marked the beginning of the employment of techniques once used to advertise cigarettes, being implemented to advertise beer. This strategy woke up Budweiser and the rest is history. The 400% increase in ad spending is certainly tied to this one event.
How effective these ads were in branding and positioning should be the topic of another study, the results of which might show that it was more a concept of drowning the consumer in media than effective advertising. Either way, consumption levels were not discussed.
Perhaps the ad industry should look at The Masters as a perfect example of forgetting about branding and positioning, and allowing everything else to fall into place once consumer behavior is understood.
Beer Fodder; What your beer says about you
Leave a Reply