Introduction: As mentioned in the first part of this social media analysis project, Budweiser and Bud Light are owned by the same beer company, however they have many different ways to market themselves. Budweiser is portrayed with a nostalgic image, with more of a focus on the idea that the drink symbolizes a timeless tradition after a hard days work. On the other hand, Bud Light advertises itself with a focus towards the younger generation since it is a lighter, lower calorie version of Budweiser. For those who have tasted both and compared them, it is reasonable to say that Bud Light would be the popular preference. Bud Light’s social and humorous demeanor they embody makes this beer more marketed towards the college aged crowds. These differences can be noticed through their advertising strategies in their commercials. To set the tone of what these brands are all about, here are two commercials that each brand published to air on television. Notice the difference in each advertisement and think of what customer/consumer demographic they would fit.
Bud Light:
Budweiser:
Objective: In the second part of this project, I wanted to focus on how the two brands maintain buzz around their names. After all, they are just cheap beer brands and people could easily just buy the cheapest beer that is on sale at the liquor store. I wanted to use online tools and databases to break down how Budweiser and Bud Light planned promotional campaigns throughout a year’s time. Previously, I looked at a Google Trends chart that showed the spike of both brands because of the Super Bowl, which is one of the most watched annual sporting event on television. Both brands released well thought out commercials that followed the characteristics as mentioned, I also put links of the videos in part 1. In addition, I also wanted to use Social Mention to compare how much each brand grew since the last time I checked their popularity online.
To start off, I wanted to address the followers update on each social media account for each brand. On Facebook, Budweiser has just over 14 million likes and Bud Light has a little over 8 million. Both are continually active posting daily content and interacting with customers.
On Twitter, each platform continues to rise in followers, with Budweiser going up from around 4,800 to 5,010. Bud Light went up from 175,000 followers to 176,000. On Instagram, both brands stayed similar to the number of followers in part 1 of the project.
To find out when Budweiser and Bud Light published campaigns, I used Google Trends to precisely map out on a year timeline as to when they produced a spike in the line graph. As you can see, Budweiser, labeled red, reigns supreme to Bud Light in terms of popularity. This graph covers an area of the past 5 years, so I was able to really pinpoint and research the campaigns that both companies air on all mass media platforms.
I also used the geographical and popular search query feature that shows where in the world the brand is most popular in as well as what keywords people search in google. As mentioned earlier, the humorous twist that Bud Light puts into their ads fare well among people, as it is the most popular keyword. For Budweiser, it can be inferred that based on the keywords, it is more prominent among the older generation since there are no real silly, out of the box queries as Bud Light.
Another thing I found really interesting that Google Trends made me notice was the timing of launching campaigns and promotions. According to my data, the spikes that happened for each brand in the line graph occurred in February, May, and June. Here are some specific dates that show the launch date for campaigns from the past 5 years. These campaigns can vary from introducing a new phrase to the beer (such as “dilly dilly”) and using media to promote it, or creating limited edition cans such as the “America” cans that Budweiser released last summer.
Budweiser:
- 4/16/10
- 10/25/10
- 4/26/11
- 2/7/12
- 5/28/14
- 6/12/14
- 12/9/14
- 1/28/15
Bud Light:
- 1/28/10
- 10/8/12
- 1/23/15
- 5/18/17
- 10/16/17
- 1/23/17
Social Mention: I wanted to utilize this tool to be able to get more of a precise idea as to how the brands target audience interacts with them on various online platforms. I set the filters to search within the last month as opposed to anytime. I felt like this was necessary to best read and listen to the groundswell and make suggestions for improvement.
Budweiser:
Bud Light:
As you can see, Bud Light has a much better ratio than Budweiser. This may be because Bud Light has their popular “Dilly, dilly” phrase that has become internet memes all over. Not to mention, Budweiser does have a solid online presence, but compared to their neighbor, they need some help improving. Or, they need to develop an online media campaign that puts their name out into the online stratosphere. Also, it makes sense considering the age gap of the target audience for Budweiser as opposed to Bud Light, the younger generation probably includes lots of avid social media users.
Analysis
Strengths:
- Anheuser-Busch In Bev, the company that owns both Budweiser and Bud Light as well as many others around the world, has done a great job managing brand image.
- As a result, both brands know their target audiences very well. They are creative in their marketing and portray themselves in a fun but professional way. Their sponsorships also help their exposure to the public, which adds to their extremely successful resume.
Weaknesses:
- Budweiser might be a little behind Bud Light’s progress to adapting to the social media platforms. According to the Social Mention screenshot above, their reach has not been as up to par than Bud Light in the past month.
- I wouldn’t say that their social media presence is suffering, but there are certainly ways to engage more with the online audience thanks to features like “going live” on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. I think this sort of feature can be used to be able to have customers see the brewing process for the beers, just as an example. Other features like voting in polls as to what type of beer their customers like the most can stir up some online buzz for the company, which is what they need to do more of.
Opportunities:
- There are plenty of opportunities for Budweiser and Bud Light to take control of or to improve. I think they will gradually get better at social media as more apps get developed that revolve around posting content on it.
- Also, Snapchat is another platform that I think both brands should utilize more.
Threats:
- The only threat that I would be aware of if I were Anheuser-Busch InBev is their production of commercials. In January of 2016, Bud Light launched a campaign that had Seth Rogan and Amy Schumer talking about politics while drinking Bud Light that received some backlash. This was aired throughout the 16 months of preparation for the Clinton vs. Trump election day. The video clip addresses wage gaps and how women have to pay more for certain things. As a result, the campaign was cut short due to poor quarterly sales by Bud Light. If I were to give any advice, the integration of politics as a parody commercial is not smart and should be avoided in the future by both brands. It is too sensitive of a topic.
Goals and suggestions:
- Be more engaging on all of your social media platforms equally. Both brands can use these growing social hubs to publish more and more of their content with exciting incentives that can help market their brand. Instagram polls, posting to Snapchat stories, and interacting with customers when they post a question on Facebook are all very important engagements that can be utilized or improved on.
- Create a backup plan. The Amy Schumer and Seth Rogan politically satirical skit didn't fare well for Bud Light. If the company ever finds itself in a hole that they dug themselves into accidentally, then having a backup campaign to immediately launch in response to negative backlash can be very helpful.
POST Analysis:
People: Bud Light and Budweiser have a really solid idea of what their target audience is and how to reach out to them. They do this by portraying and creating brand image and dynamically producing and presenting them to mass media platforms.
Objectives: Both brands have already crowdsourced enough to the point where they have a solid groundswell. Will they be creative in marketing themselves on social media platforms that they do not use as much? Such as Instagram or Snapchat? I think as a company, Anheuser-Busch should try and stay ahead of the game and challenge themselves to keep creating new ways of engagement. The societal world of communication changes at such a fast pace as Li and Bernoff say, so it is important to have a solid internal groundswell for your marketing employers so they can work at their best.
Strategy: I think both brands should stick to their strategy now and not change it. Only look for areas to improve based on collected data from websites like Social Mention and Google Trends. I would not try to introduce new platforms such as Pinterest unless there is a reason the groundswell is utilizing it. Other than that it is not worth it.
Technology: The commercials that each brand launch are well produced and well thought out. The only cog in their marketing machine is energizing their groundswell. Some examples of ideas I thought of was organizing contests that are run through one social platform such as Instagram. With the use of hashtags, users can easily spread the word of Bud Light or Budweiser while simultaneously being entered into a contest. This would be an easy experiment to conduct if either brand wanted to try it out.
Conclusion: As Budweiser and Bud Light continue to dominate the beer industry, data does not show them slowing down. Their campaigns are well timed and well thought out and stays true to their brand images they have developed over the years. Investing in the internet is something all companies have to do in order to stay relevant. Both brands have done a great job through their social media platforms. Now is the time to start stepping into a new mode of communication, being extra loyal to consumers. Being interactive with people online is such an important characteristic for marketing. The groundswell allows for this bond to be shared amongst friends and friendly beer drinkers.
