FT ComMetrics Global 500 blogs case study: Beck’s beer

Hi

This post shows clearly that some of the main marketing or advertising agencies seem to fail to understand how social media works. No question, Beck’s blog is not user-friendly.

As well, I am not sure what target group this blog is supposed to serve. I like my Beck’s beer once or twice a week. Nevertheless, this blog turns me off. Am I as a 35 year old professional not part of the clientel the blog is supposed to serve?

I am not happy to see Beck’s spend this kind of money and than produce such a flop. A flopt it will turn out to be, no doubt in my mind.

I wonder if you know of any other brewers or beer brands that have launched blogs, such as South African Breweries, Heineken and so forth. Can you help? I am curious to know. Look forward reading your or one of your reader’s answer(s).

I look forward reading more case studies about FT 500 Global corporations.

Thanks

Dear Irene and James

Both of you thanks for the comment left on our blog here reflecting on my post regarding Beck’s blog.

I tend to agree with Irene and I am not sure if James is correct. Since Beck’s webpage goes clearly beyond the U.S. I must ask James to back up his claim that the brand wants to reach 18-25 year old males only as he says.

Most brewers record shrinking beer sales year after year. Therefore, reaching women as well might help in at least slowing down the drop in beer sales in the U.S. or Canada. Yes of course, Russia and China both show great promise to pick up some of that slack as Carlsberg has found out.

Finally, your MTV generation claim sounds great and that you like the content is wonderful. Nevertheless, the site is neither

– user-friendly nor
– does the comedian’s content travel well beyond the narrow cultural bounds of the US or UK…..

But Beck’s has a large customer base in Germany (where the firm orininates from). The Internet knows no boundaries and, as importantly, the blog tries to reach out to everybody (e.g., when you visit, you have to enter where you are located – country). So how well does its content suit 18-25 year olds outside the US. – I doubt very much that they like it…

I look forward to your answer that clarifies some of these issues including Beck’s target market being 18-25 year olds. I would appreciate being set straight by your insights and facts that you might very well be aware of and know about. Thanks very much.

HI Irene and Urs,

No Irene you did not hit any nerve and no I do not work for Beck’s or anyone associated with them. Like I said previously I am a student studying marketing in London.
To address some of the points you raised, you mentioned that Beck’s should not turn you off, I do not see how they are turning you off it is clear that Beck’s are targeting the 18-25 youth market as evidenced by the sponsorships of Beck’s Fusions and other music events and other art events. By your logic Irene, I could say that I enjoy to drink PG Tips tea but when I went on their website it was aimed at 40 year olds, therefore I should not drink PG Tips.
You both mentioned that Beck’s are limiting themselves by aiming for the UK/US markets – this would make sense to me being as they are their main markets. For the other markets and your Russian friend a cursory search of google shows that there is an Italian, German and Serbian ( I think) local websites, so people can check out their own local site and perhaps they will enjoy the content more.
I have read the website and as I said before the flash design is tedious but I think you should give Darius a chance after all, he beat almost a 1000(?) other people to get the job and he is writing interesting stuff on a daily basis. When I commented on this topic I did not want to get into an argument but I felt compelled to answer some of the points. The irony is that I do not even drink Beck’s let alone like it!

James

Richard

Thanks for the visit and taking your valuable time to write a comment.

I read your comment with interest and was curious how you could come to the conclusion that my post sounds like:
Adrant – Beck’s Launches Blog. Does Everything Wrong.

I just now searched and read the above post, quite different than ours and way more negative for sure. Nevertheless, everybody is entitled to his or her opinion of course.

I fully agree with you that blogging is not restricted to marketing people only. I would support your point. In fact I would go further and state many blogs have little if anything to do with marketing. Instead people’s interests such as technology, games, politics and so forth determine what a blog will cover over the weeks or months.

I still feel that asking people to have to go through several hoops (including question about country one is located in) before getting access and offering a blog that causes you trouble if using an Apple or a Windows operating system with the Firefox browser is not that fortunate. This is especially true, if we consider how much effort was put into selection Darius for being the ‘host’ and the money spent for this project (including but not limited to the art and design work).

Nonetheless, the future will tell us how successful Beck’s blog will be. I appreciate your remarks that indicate we have to give it time. For instance, as our analysis for the HSBC blog for start-ups (review coming up within a day or so on this blog) indicates, most corporate blogging ventures take some time before we are can assess if they succeeded in reaching their objective(s) or failed to do so.

Thanks again for the gracious feedback and I invite you to subscribe to our blog (upper right – enter e-mail). Happy Holidays.