The real bosses, in the capitalist system of market economy, are the consumers,” the economist Ludwig von Mises famously wrote in his book Bureaucracy. “They, by their buying and by their abstention from buying, decide who should own the capital and run the plants. They determine what should be produced and in what quantity and quality. Jon Miltimore Bud Light's Sales Implosion Explained
The real bosses, in the capitalist system of market economy, are the consumers,” the economist Ludwig von Mises famously wrote in his book Bureaucracy. “They, by their buying and by their abstention from buying, decide who should own the capital and run the plants. They determine what should be produced and in what quantity and quality.
Brands are funny things. As marketers, we craft our brand's stories ideally to align our values, ideas, and archetypes with our target audiences. We create, build, and share so the world can own our brands so our brands walk our talk. The shift from brand creator and owner to curator is difficult, as the current Bud Light controversy proves.
When Budweiser, a brand I heard described as a red-neck brand in a video this morning, hired an LGBTQIA+ spokesperson, they angered their target audience, those loyal beer drinkers who made Bud Light the top beer brand. Budweiser and the Belgian company AB InBev forgot they are more brand curators than creators at this point in Bud Light's journey.
New-Coke level blame flows toward their VP or marketing (see the Martin DeCoder video for more), Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) investors and banks, and woke-ism. Losing thirty points of market share and having Kid Rock shoot your products with shotguns aren't good things, but today's Flipboard Friday focuses on five marketing tips to help your brands, companies, and products not get shot by Kid Rock or anger people who love you, your products, and company.
Use the links below to learn how to be a brand curator and avoid Bud-Lash happening to the brands, products, and companies you've worked so hard to create.
Erving Goffman, a sociologist I remember reading at Vassar College, was ahead of his time. His study of social identity feels relevant to an era of online and virtual identities. In Goffman's view, individuals manage social identities through the process of "impression management," a concept he introduces in his book "The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life." Our social dentity is akin to a theatrical performance. We all use different settings, props, costumes, and postures (what Goffman calls "sign-equipment") to convey impressions to our "audience,s" or people we interact with.
Extend Goffman's social identity to the realm of online or virtual identities and influencer marketing and it is easy to see how Bud Light's campaign became out-of-step with their audience. In digital spaces, individuals can manage and perform their identities in ways that may be different from their "offline" identities. For instance, individuals might present themselves differently on professional networking sites, like LinkedIn, compared to personal social media platforms, like Instagram. In a digital age identity becomes more fluid making "impression management" crucial. Impression management is the process by which individuals (or brands) attempt to control the impressions others form of them in social or digital interactions. Goffman suggests that social interaction is similar to a theatrical performance, where individuals, or "actors," present themselves in different ways depending on their "audience" (other individuals in a particular situation).
The key elements of Goffman's impression management framework include:
Performance This refers to the activity of an individual to present themselves in a certain way according to the role they are playing. The performance is shaped by the environment and audience, and can be conscious or subconscious.
Front Stage and Back Stage Goffman describes two regions in any social interaction - the front stage, where the performance is given (public actions), and the back stage, where individuals can be themselves and shed their performance (private actions).
Face-Work This involves maintaining face or the positive social value that a person claims for themselves in a given interaction. Individuals use face-work to preserve their own dignity and the dignity of others.
Sign-Vehicles Goffman describes how individuals use different sign-vehicles to present a particular impression to others. These can include settings, appearances, and mannerisms.
Role Distance This is when an individual plays a role but separates their identity from that role to avoid being completely tied to it.
Bud Light forgot about their college sociology course or they wouldn't have selected a "sign-vehicle" that would anger their core audience to the point of boycotts and shooting beer with shotguns, so how can your brand curation and influencer marketing work for instead of against your brands? Discover five tips that will help your brands and company stay in step with your target audience in the Avoid Bud-Lash tab.
If the Bud Light brand team followed these brand curation tips, they wouldn't have blown up the most popular beer. Here are five brand curation tips to help you move from brand creator to curator and avoid the wreckage Bud Light is experiencing now:
Know Your Brand Identity Before curating content for your brand, understanding your brand's values, mission, and personality is a good idea. Your curated content should reflect and strengthen this identity, not detract from it. I'm old-school, but at M&M/Mars, we had "Brand Books," where we captured the company's core values and identity. Today, those physical books would be digital, but the act of writing things down, gaining consensus, and having references when questions arise helps protect your brands.
Know Your Audience Understanding the interests, values, and needs of your audience is crucial. Curating and creating content that will resonate and help educate them provides value and builds stronger relationships with your target audiences.
Quality Over Quantity Sharing fewer pieces of high-quality, highly relevant content beats "Red-army marketing," where large volumes of content flood your audience, hoping they will engage, connect, and share. In this digital age, we are all overwhelmed, so brands that tell emotionally relevant stories in engaging ways win. And if you read that last sentence as support for video marketing, you saw my subtext.
Give Credit Where Credit's Due Sharing the digital assets you've worked so hard to create with others is one of the most powerful brand curation strategies few understand fully. Attribute content to its source, send links back to the content's source and mention your appreciation on social media. Treats your contributors as you would like to get treated, and you won't receive blue-backed paper saying your brand's online content violated someone's copyright.
Creating a group of helpful brand ambassadors these days is as easy as putting a form on a website, so ask for help, value the service provided (i.e., listen to and use what your brand ambassadors say), and you'll never blow your brand up.
Martin DeCoder defines what happened to Bud Light and how they created marketing out-of-step with their core audience and didn't curate the most popular beer brand with any of the tips discussed in Avoid Bud-Lash.