Puma Beer!

The World Cup is just ahead and many companies are getting ready to use this spectacle to promote their brands. In particular major sports brands can not afford to miss out and need to make sure that their campaigns leave a positive mark. Puma has been riding on a fairly positive wave over the past years and now they are teaming up with brewers Collective Sao Gabriel to create a special brew for this year’s World Cup. For many people, sports and beer is a match made in heaven and brands use such partnerships to reach a wider customer base. The particular product they are launching is the Puma Unity Beer with the message of promoting sportsmanship.

I like the positive message behind it and I am sure that they will reach a wide spectrum of consumers with this initiative. Furthermore, extensive media coverage might give the brand the desired exposure and many consumers will conceive it as an amusing way to market a product. However, I don’t really see a clear link between the Puma brand and a beer manufacturer. On top of this, if the beer does not satisfy the taste buds of the consumer, it might affect the brand. Don’t get me wrong, I am an advocate of creative marketing and taking some risks. I might be proven wrong and this turns out to be a huge success, but my initial gut feeling tells me that it won't. It is just my opinion, what do you think?

On the other hand, I can’t wait for the World Cup to start as there will be some exciting games and new ads that will entertain marketers even during commercial breaks. Cheers!

Rebranding Valentine's Day!

Last year I talked about branding a day, in particular "White Day". Now I have come across this article on rebranding Valentine's Day, which I think is worth taking a look at. A few creative minds have done what they are paid for, be creative! They are trying to add some freshness to well established Valentine's Day icons, in some cases creating a completely new look and feel. Icons are used in marketing to establish a quick connection between the consumer and the brand. Ideally, as soon as the consumer identifies such an icon he will know which brand is "talking” to him. In this case we are not talking about an icon representing a corporate brand, rather icons that stand for a feeling or emotion linked to Valentine's Day. Should those icons be changed? I think it is worth a try and let the market be the judge!

There is a short article published in FastCompany. It provides some nice examples on the proposed changes. Just check it out.


Link to the article