beverages

Bud Light Already Rebounding From Mistake

Bud Light’s brand perception is already on the upswing after a controversy last week forced the brewer to apologize, according to YouGov BrandIndex.

“[Bud Light’s score] is recovering as we speak,” says YouGov BrandIndex CEO Ted Marzilli. “The quick response (apology, a promise to remove the offensive label slogan from the portfolio and a review of the other slogans in the campaign) probably helped this storm to blow over more quickly than it otherwise would have. Unless there is repeat incident, the brand will likely fully recover.”

The negative attention came after beer bottle labels featured an insensitive slogan: "the perfect beer for removing 'no' from your vocabulary.” Many consumers regarded the slogan as insensitive and running counter to recent efforts to raise awareness of sexual assault on college campuses.

YouGov BrandIndex used its Buzz score to measure perception, which asks respondents: "If you've heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?" A score can range from 100 to -100 with a zero score equaling a neutral position. YouGov interviewed 2,500 adults age 21 and over during April.

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The misstep appears to have sunk the Bud Light brand to its lowest consumer perception level in nearly five years over a period of four days. From April 27 to 30, Bud Light’s Buzz score tumbled from 6 to -2. That put the Anheuser-Busch InBev brand five points below the domestic beer sector average of three points.
 
Bud Light’s previously reached Buzz score low of -3 happened in June 2010, when a Rolling Stone exposé of then-Afghanistan military commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal revealed he was “stuck on a bus … drinking case after case of Bud Light Lime.”

“Marketers in general, not just at Bud Light, can have a hard time predicting how a campaign theme might unintentionally offend,” Marzilli tells MarketingDaily. “Then need to think more carefully about that during the campaign creation and editing phases. And doing some research against a representative sample of the population can bring to light points of view that might be missed during the internal review process. It is an investment, but it can help to avoid costly mistakes.”

There are brands that can benefit from edginess (such as Old Spice) but brands that do business in certain categories (alcohol, tobacco) can be held to a higher standard because of the potential dangers associated with them, Marzilli says.

“Some forms of edginess are becoming more acceptable (although they can still stir up some debate) -- brands like JC Penney and Cheerios have depicted mixed race of same sex families in advertising,” he says. “Others like Nike and Starbucks have expressed support for same sex marriage.”

YouGov BrandIndex interviews 4,300 people each weekday from a representative U.S. population sample, more than 1.5 million interviews per year. Respondents are drawn from an online panel of more than 2 mllion individuals.

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