Sunday, December 7, 2014

Living Up To Advertising

Advertising is serious business. Better advertising is based on the core values of the company. These values can serve as the basis for enduring relationships with customers.

This 1971 classic Schlitz beer commercial shows how the brand stood behind the values of hard work, family and friendship. Archetypical stories reminded consumers to make the most of their lives.


Unfortunately, the brand lost its status as the number one beer in America.

In the kinds of cost-cutting moves that have become commonplace throughout industry, the company behind the brand failed to deliver on its core values. A series of product modifications designed to reduce materials costs and struggles with labor to reduce manufacturing costs took the "gusto" out of the brand. One might even say the company management took the "gutso" out of the brand.

By the end of the 1970s consumers came to recognize that Schlitz beer no longer lived up to the brand promise so admirably communicated by the advertising. This is an important lesson from a generation ago that remains strikingly significant today.

  Copyright © 2014 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved. 

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