WOM strikes again with PBR

And, no I don’t mean the professional bull riding association.

Word of mouth has again been cited as the reason for the success of a brand.  This time, Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer is the winner.   I think that the reason for the 25% uptick in sales is primarily due to consumption in Brooklyn alone, but I can’t prove that with any data.  I just feel it to be true.

I’ve been drinking PBR since college, when the Seoul Brother and I would buy cases of beer bottles of Busch and PBR for like 10 bucks.  Not to say that I’m a trend-setter, but I like to think that we were pretty far ahead of the curve on that one.  I mean, that was like 10 years ago.  I’m just saying.

Anyway,  PBR spends nothing in traditional advertising.  Zero.  AND they raised prices this year.  So what gives?

Word of mouth gives.  That sounded dirty.  But it does work.  And our natural response to social pressure helps, too (I believe it’s called “social proof”) since we all seek out societal “nods” when we do certain actions, like getting totally blitzed from cheap beer.  What PBR managed to do through its marketer-established alternative-cool image is convince a small segment of people that it was cooland hip back in 2004, when they started a small word of mouth campaign among bike messengers (I kid you not, that was the target) and other young drinkers .  They planted the seed and let the barley grow.  Then, people who were supposedly going “against the grain” are actually very much going with the grain.  And falling pray to PBR’s deft marketing strategy.  This is the kind of move that Zima could have tried to pull.  I mean, that stuff was tasty!