Is Corona beer benefiting from sharing its name?
There are two schools of thought about sharing your brand name with a global pandemic virus.
1. No publicity is bad publicity.
2. We don’t want to be associated with a virus that has killed over 3,000 people around the world.
The start of 2020 has undoubtedly been an ‘interesting’ time for the marketing people at Corona. Their namesake the Corona Virus, or Covid-19 has swept around the world infecting over 100,000 people at the time of writing.
Depending on which report you read, this is either a disaster or a branding opportunity for the Mexican beer. All of this is before you even consider their new product launch.
It is an interesting case study.
At h2o, this has caused some debate and two main arguments have emerged. This post is arguing that Corona has an opportunity to emerge stronger. My colleague, James will be writing a counter-argument that the crisis is a disaster for the brand. I’ll leave it up to you to decide who you agree with.
This is an opportunity.
Before we start discussing the positive brand possibilities for the beer, we need to make it clear that we are not pro-Covid-19. We are sure that the marketing team at Corona is not rubbing their hands together, relishing the marketing opportunities either. Clearly, this is a terrible situation for all those affected. However, it does provide an intriguing branding dilemma.
If you ignore the fact that 16% of Americans are confused about a link between the beer and the virus that began in Wuhan, China, things aren’t that bad. Especially when you consider that 11% of young U.S. citizens can’t point out their own country on a map. I mean those statistics are somewhat embarrassing for ‘Mericans, however, we English also have our fair share of fools.
Assuming that the Covid-19 pandemic lasts months rather than years, this is a temporary situation for the brand. Nobody is going to be accusing it of infecting anyone is 6-months time.
The brand will look back at a couple of months of unprecedented levels of brand exposure. In January 2020, searches for Corona beer increased by 406% compared to December 2019.
Adweek revealed that #CoronaBeerVirus has received over 1.5 million impressions so far in 2020. This figure is partly due to all the memes that have popped up, which emerged because the beer has strong brand recognition — but also because younger generations tend to laugh at what they consider to be dystopian events as a coping mechanism online.
Engaging younger generations where your brand becomes the epicentre of user-generated brand-centric content is a digital marketers dream. Obviously, people know that beer doesn’t cause the virus, so the jokes aren’t harming the brand reputation, and are simply promoting the brand name.
Whilst it might be in poor taste to publicly ask for a Corona in a busy bar at the minute. Time and TV have a way of making the morbid, fascinating (just ask the Chernobyl tourism industry). It is perfectly reasonable to hypothesise that Corona beer will have a dark-humoured renaissance in the near future.
There are some conflicting reports about how sales have been affected. A recent survey in the U.S. revealed that while only 4% of customers have said that they would stop drinking the beer now, 14% have suggested they wouldn’t drink it in public.
One report indicated that Corona’s parent company are forecasting a 10% drop in profits. Yet another noted that sales grew 5% in the United States in the four-weeks that ended February 16. That’s nearly double the trend of the past 52 weeks.
Providing the Covid-19 doesn’t last years, and result in Spanish Flu- levels of devastation, the brand will recover. The vast majority of the population understand that they have nothing to do with the virus. On a very cold, statistical level, the increased exposure and brand awareness could be worth the alleged dip in sales.
With some careful, sensitive marketing and PR once the crisis subsides, the brand is in a position to make a comeback and be stronger than ever*.
Unless they release something really insensitive and poorly timed.
Nevermind.
Still, this unfortunate ad was swiftly pulled and hasn’t done too much damage. The future can still be bright for Corona. Bring on the limes!
