Lots of citizen journalist videos from the scene last night in New Orleans are starting to be posted on YouTube this morning. This one seems to capture the feeling when the Saints won it.
Here’s a good piece from emarketer that reveals some interesting statistics about on how consumers pass along brand information on and offline.
The percentage of people who claim to help a friend make a purchasing decision didn’t surprise me. In fact, I might have thought it would be higher – and that’s saying something considering how much I believe in the power of word-of-mouth marketing. But I was really surprised on these stats
- One out of five people contribute to a forum
- One out of five people attend offline events with people of a similar interest – Like a Tweetup.
- 40% of people actively share information they find online
Just more reason to find your influencers, build a relationship with them and empower them to spread the word.
The emarketer piece also has some information on which age demos are more active in sharing information.
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I'll file this one away under: a good example of building a community via social media. Great post, John.
Beer Geeks flip Blue Moon a lot of shit because Coors is really behind the whole thing. But you gotta admire what Coors/Blue Moon has been able to do. They’ve resisted the temptation to blow the whole thing with an obnoxious TV campaign while focusing on keeping the brand authentic.
This past New Year’s Eve presented the Blue Moon team with an interesting marketing opportunity: Dec 31, 2009 was a BLUE MOON – meaning that it was the 2nd Full Moon of the month. The marketing team smartly took advantage of this situation by releasing a limited edition Blue Moon Grand Cru in 750ml bottles. They retailed for $11.99 (at least that’s how much I bought mine for) and featured a little bit more upscale packaging via a PSL (pressure sensitive label) and sticker over the bottle cap.
This limited edition should do few things for the brand:
1. It helped Blue Moon gain a little more credibility with the Beer Geeks that might think of them as a lower-class brewer.
2. Capitalized on a key celebration and Craft Beer drinking occasion.
3. Facilitated word-of-mouth – think of all those conversations that happened when people showed up to their NYE party with one of these in their hands.
I love how Blue Moon did this. My only criticism is that the product seemed to arrive in stores a little late and retailers didn’t have much of a chance to merchandise it.
As far as the beer goes – the taste profile was very similar to Blue Moon. I looks like they wanted to stay in the Belgian White family stylistically, but I would have liked to see them experiment a little more. The Grand Cru is a higher ABV than regular Blue Moon at 8.2% ABV and it seemed to have more of a spicy character, but it was little too conservative considering that it cost $12/bottle. Maybe they could have experimented with some additional spices for this beer rather than the Orange Peel and Coriander that is also used in brewing regular Blue Moon?
Overall, I like this concept, but I worry that it may backfire on the objective of building credibility with the beer geeks. If you’re going to go for it and do something unique, then REALLY go for it. When Porsche comes out with a limited edition Boxster, they don’t put the same engine in it, do they?
I’m excited to announce that I’m writing an e-book and it will be available as a free download. The book will document my experience as the Pabst Blue Ribbon Brand Manager/Director. Here’s a synopsis:
In 2000, I up and moved to Austin, TX looking for a new career path. I didn’t have a job or any money, so I was forced to live off a credit card until I found a gig. I finally caught a break when the San Antonio-based Pabst Brewing Company had an opening for a Divisional Marketing Manager. With my credit card maxed out and down to my last chance before I would have to swallow my pride and move back home, I caught a break and got the job.
Over the next 5 1/2 years I had the experience of a lifetime. Shortly after being hired at Pabst, I was assigned the responsibility of managing the company’s flagship brand, Pabst Blue Ribbon. Although PBR was one the country’s best-selling beer brands back in the 70’s, it had hit hard times in the 90’s and lost 90% of its volume from 1978 – 2001.
In the early 2000’s the brand was primed for a comeback. Young adult consumers in the Northwest who hated the mass-marketing of the big brewers started to adopt and take ownership of the brand. The brand was on fire in Portland, OR and Seattle, but how could we replicate this success when the thing that consumers liked about the brand was that we didn’t market the brand.
From 2001 – 2008, PBR doubled its volume and has reached almost ubiquitous status in urban markets around the country. This book will dissect approximately 20 amazing things that helped Pabst Blue Ribbon make an epic comeback and help readers better understand the power of consumer influencers.
I need your help on one important piece of this project: I need a name for the book. Please let me know if you have any ideas by leaving a comment. If you’re more of an email kind of person, feel free to send it to me at nealdstewart (at) yahoo (dot) com. If I choose your suggestion, I’ll send you a cool piece of breweriana.
I’m hoping to have the book finished by the end of February.
We’re back home in Colorado. Our trip took us to Grand Junction, CO, Las Vegas, Huntington Beach and Los Angeles. On our way back we took the Southern route to avoid snow in the Rockies, but seemed to take WAY longer. (The Google told me it was only an additional 100 miles)
We drove from Williams, AZ to Denver today and it took forever. It was something like 770 miles.
Things I learned today:
-Albuquerque is way further from Denver than I thought – it’s almost 500 miles away.
-Beef Jerky is over-priced
-Just because you see a sign for McRibs being available at McDonald’s for a “limited time” on a billboard in California doesn’t mean they will have them at a McDonald’s in the middle of New Mexico.
-Eric Carmen sang that song “Hungry Eyes”
-It can snow a lot in AZ… and get really cold.
-And there are some ugly, pollution making factories like this in AZ
That’s Mt. Garfield. We’re in Grand Junction heading to Vegas. That means we get to spend most of the day in Utah!
I-70 west to I-15 south right in to sin city on Christmas.
