The Bud Light Thing

Let’s dive into the Bud Light hullabaloo, shall we? Yes, I went there. But listen, I’m a brander and this is a branding blog, so, while it may be biased, it isn’t intended in any way to be political.

Successful brands are built on three essential elements: consistency, content, and community. While all three factor into today’s topic, I’m going to focus on the latter.

Community, darling, is your audience, their experience, and, dare I say it, their feeeeeelings about you. A thoughtfully crafted brand experience that includes positioning and core values sets the stage for who and how you target. Not only that but in today’s instant gratification climate, where trust is built through likes and follows, gaining the approval of the community is, well, everything.

Simply put, a community of consumers defines your brand. And when you go against their expectations, when you shatter their illusion of you, all hell can break loose. And, today, no company is more water cooler (OK, Facebook) fodder than Anheuser-Busch.

Look, Bud Light has been known as a man’s man brand. The image we collectively have when we think Bud Light is of strapping farm hunks drenched in sweat downing a cold one on the front porch of Americana after a long day of tilling soil and wrangling cows. I mean, I don’t really know what strapping farm hunks do, but that’s the picture. Right?

And then, Bud Light went woke.

I’m a marketer, I get it. Sometimes, you want to shake things up, particularly if you’re perceived as stodgy. When a topic is popular, it’s easy to want to jump on the proverbial bandwagon. But there’s shake up and then there’s “read a room.”

Anheuser-Busch took a beating. Their sales are down and their base consumers are pissed. I’m not arguing the nitty-gritty of this, that’s for each of us as individuals to decide. I know it brings up emotions one way or the other. But if I were head of brand for Anheuser-Busch, I would have advised them to steer clear of politics. Unless you’re rebranding to solve a whole new set of challenges with a whole new audience in mind, it’s a bad, bad, bad idea to jump on bandwagons, particularly when those bandwagons are polarizing.

To be clear, this isn’t just a Bud Light thing. It’s any time a company decides to support one thing or another as a brand. There are times when this works, like if it’s written into the company’s core values. But if it’s political, an unknown movement, or a trend, stay away, unless you’re willing to lose customers. As a business, it’s important to always fall back on who you are or you risk your marketing department or even your CEO making decisions that are fleeting, with results that could be long lasting.