Bud Light has saturated the market with their new positioning strategy: “Drinkability.” I want to address this because this, to me, is a poster-child for a bad positioning strategy. There are plenty of examples, both nationally and locally.
The goal of any marketing campaign is to differentiate itself from the competition. Tell your market how and why you’re different from the other guy so that they’ll buy your stuff. Unique Selling Proposition (or USP) is one theory that explains how to do this. A strong USP is supposed to have three components (1) it should make present a specific, tangible benefit, (2) it must be unique to that brand, and (3) it should inspire consumers to change.
“Drinkability” doesn’t mean any of these criteria. So why pick that word? Bottom line: “Drinkability” is a smoke & mirrors campaign. Bud Light is trying to edge in on Miller Lite’s position of “tastes great, less filling.” After all, “taste” and “healthy” are two very strong USP’s. The question is: will it work? All I can say is that Mr. and Mrs. Consumer and their Consumerlings aren’t stupid.
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