Your Brand in Consultant’s Hands
Mega advertising spender Anheuser-Busch is reeling as if it is dealing with a hangover from consuming too many of its light barley pops: Bud Light.
It seems that in 2009, its shipments for Bud Light fell 2.5%. It is the first-ever negative sales year for the nation’s best selling brew.
Guess who’s to blame? The new positioning of the product’s advertising. But who made the change and why did they decide to switch from a ad formula that was obviously working? Work done though 4-years of intensive research by a consulting group deemed the product would sell more if the brand touted “Drinkability.”
This, from an article I read, “The firm, Cambridge Group, ended up going far beyond portfolio management. In fact, its exhaustive research resulted in the “Drinkability” campaign that — four years and millions in fees later — is considered a major factor in Bud Light posting the first full-year sales decline in its history.”
There are quite a few marketing lessons to be learned here, and I’m sure you know as well as I do what they are.
Me, I’m a dark beer drinker.
