AB-InBev’s losing game: why you can’t beat the blogosphere – Comment
Perhaps it is because I happen to live in Mr Rumsfeld’s Old Europe that I wonder if this Blogger Culture, or Blog Fest, or Blogosphere is not just a lot of intense navel-gazing of zero relevance. If all that collected outrage that can be found on www.stltoday.com/blogzone/lager-heads/ really had an impact on how consumers feel about long-cherished beer brands, surely people would stop buying AB-InBev products.
I fear, though, that Joe Six-Pack in the U.S. is not an avid reader of this blog. No reports have hit my side of the Atlantic yet that sales of Budweiser and Bud have declined dramatically since the brewer was taken over by “Bulgarians”. There does not seem to be a direct correlation between vitriolic electronic anti-Budweiser diatribes and AB-InBev’s beer sales.
Guess what? This is exactly the argument Mr Brito’s entourage is using to justify their not doing anything about the blogosphere.
Initially, I thought Mr Brito would become the Obama of the brewing industry, using blogs, mass texting and online phone banks to inspire Britomania. After all, their campaigns coincided: Obama was running for President while Mr Brito was vying for ownership of A-B.
By the time Mr Brito took on A-B’s board, Obama’s campaign managers had already fine-tuned their strategies. All Mr Brito would have had to do was to learn from the best.
When I saw Mr Brito’s first video post, I searched InBev’s site for leads as to where I could sign up for “Brito Mobile”. Surely A-B’s employees, distributors and suppliers would have been grateful for round-the-clock inspirational text messages? Mr Brito texting “InBev cares about you”, or “Yes, we can” would have gone down well.
Imagine how relieved A-B’s workers would have been to read the following message from Mr Brito only seconds after he had secured Warren Buffett’s support: “We just made history. All of this happened because you at A-B gave your time, talent and passion to this company. All of this happened because of you. Brito."
Well, obviously none of these were sent out. In the end, Mr Brito managed to clinch the deal without webroots support.
Perhaps business and politics are still two worlds apart. While bloggers have an undeniable influence on American politics beyond their own online culture, the viral (self-) marketing of business leaders Obama-style through blogs may yet have to catch on.
One thing is sure: Whatever the disgruntled A-Bs, the reluctantly InBeved and all the others writing under assumed names (including Brito’s – and these are always the funniest entries) have to rant and moan about – it cannot be without consequences. No brand, no company, no CEO can afford that kind of negative publicity forever.
