Have you ever considered how current and national events relate to a brand strategy? As the coronavirus sweeps the globe, products still practically fly off of the shelves. As a matter of fact, products like toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and disinfectant cannot be kept in stock. This is no surprise. The fear and perceived need to stock up on necessities become inevitable with an ensuing pandemic. However, this begs the question: “What about the sales of other non-necessities?”.
Though it may seem counter-intuitive, sales of other items will, for the most part, remain unaffected. The possible exception to this might be the businesses that deal with activities and travel. As is the nature of such a pandemic, the coronavirus has increased the risks involved with travel and interactions with large groups of people.
Brands’ slogans, logos, and names are powerful symbols in today’s society. It is hard not to associate everyday words, shapes, and colors with popular brands on the market. The image of an apple with a bite taken out of it, for instance, will most likely evoke thoughts of cell phones, laptops, and watches. The phrase “Have it your way.”, on the other hand, might bring to mind a burger and fries. These associations can be powerful tools in brand marketing strategies and are just a few brand strategy examples. Many of these strategies are meticulously planned and fostered to bring specific attention to a brand.
Is Negative Attention Bad or a Brand Strategy?
A common misconception is that negativity will hurt a brand. This is not necessarily true. When it comes to brands and brand marketing strategy, the quality of attention that a brand receives is not as important as the quantity. The more attention a particular brand or product receives, the better. The power of repetition is immense, as is the power of suggestion. The goal of many marketing strategies is to simply ‘plant’ associations into the consumers’ minds that are strong enough to ensure a product or brand is the first thing that comes to mind with the intended prompt.
Sometimes, a company will ‘get lucky’ (or perhaps unlucky) with certain current events or connotations. As long as the ‘unlucky’ connotations do not directly impact or correlate with the integrity of the brand or the image of the brand, unlucky connotations can still give a brand an advantage.
What Does Beer Have to Do With It?
By this point, you are probably already considering the effects of the coronavirus on Corona beer. Corona beer has, in fact, not been negatively affected by the stigma of the coronavirus. Thus far, the coronavirus has only put the Corona brand at the forefront of consumers’ minds. Even simply contemplating the question “Has the coronavirus affected the sales of Corona beer?” ensures that when the subject of beer is brought up, Corona is the first brand to come to mind.
Repetition is a brands’ best friend.
Another avenue of indirect attention that the brand Corona is currently benefiting from is happening online. It is no secret that search engines and websites keep track of the frequent use of words. This is to keep tabs on market trends and to ‘tailor’ advertisements to fit users and their demographics etc. Keywords and keyword research play a huge role in marketing in the online realm. The more a word is searched by a user, the more related advertisements a user will see.
It is easy to see how this relates to Corona beer and the online attention that the coronavirus is getting. Therefore, it should be no secret that the Corona brand is receiving and benefitting from all of the hype about our recent pandemic. It would also be no surprise if the brand even used the hype in upcoming marketing strategies.
Click here to learn more about brand strategy and how to increase the attention that your brand or business is getting. Sometimes, it only takes a few strategic nudges in the right direction to bring your product the attention it deserves!