4 Words Changed an Industry
Written By Dino Gomez
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Four words changed a billion-dollar industry. Four words. Alright, this is called and the strategy, the marketing strategy here is how to deposition your competition. Four words literally changed a billion-dollar industry. I’m going to tell you what bud light did to absolutely change the beer game forever. Let’s dive into this now.
Hey, you guys, Dino Gomez here and you are listening to the Secrets of Coaching podcast, where we break down the nuances of growing a seven-figure online coaching business. And we are about to get started in 3 2 1.
Dino Gomez here. Hope you guys are having an awesome Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Hope it’s an incredible day filled with just lots of good things. Soak it all in those words of encouragement for the day. Make it a freaking awesome day. But today, I want to tell you guys something really cool I learned recently I was sitting down with an industry friend, Marty Marion, who is legitimately the real-life madman. If anybody has ever seen that popular show, I think it’s on Netflix. I didn’t watch too much of it, but now maybe I have to. It’s called a madman. I’ve seen a few episodes, but it’s about an ad agency, right? And Marty worked as a consultant for one of the world’s largest ad agencies about 30 years ago and it was in downtown New York. And he was called in as a consultant and he was working for this ad agency. And the ad agency has these billion-dollar brands. All of the household brands would go to this ad agency because they were the absolute best. And Marty would weigh in. From a marketing perspective, is this a good decision or a bad decision?
A smart branding move or not? And so I sat down with Marty recently and he was telling me one of the coolest marketing stories I’ve ever heard, which I am going to reshare with you guys here, which is this 19 bud light ran a super bowl commercial campaign. And in that campaign, what their primary marketing message was, was composed of four words. Bud light in the super bowl, during the super bowl game, runs a series of television commercials and their marketing angle was around four words. And these four words changed the beer industry overnight. Think about four words making that big of a difference. Well, the words make a big difference. So here’s what bud lights said in their commercial. They showed people hanging out, holding a bud light, having a good time, like you normally see in those commercials. And at the end of the commercial, bud light said these four words brewed without corn syrup. That’s all they said, four words brewed without corn syrup. And it’s interesting, right? Because if I were to ask you guys, do you think corn syrup is healthy for you or unhealthy for you? Most of us know corn syrup is unhealthy for you, all right?
So bud light comes out and they say brewed without corn syrup, that their beers are brewed without corn syrup. Now, with those four words, a ton happened because you can imagine this. This is brilliant marketing, just genius. You can imagine this. People are sitting around drinking their beer, watching the super bowl, and imagine you are drinking beer, eating nachos, watching the super bowl with friends or family. And then you see that commercial, and Bud light says, we’re brewed without corn syrup. Now, if you’re holding a coors light, a Miller light, an IPA, or anything else, any other type of beer, a Corona, and you see Bud light saying, hey, we’re brewed without corn syrup, you’re going to all of a sudden look at your hand, and you’re going to look at the beer you’re holding, and you’re going to be like, what type of ingredients are in the beer that I’m drinking right now? Right? And you’re going to start to wonder, well, is the beer I’m drinking brewed with corn syrup? And so instantly, what bud light did with four words, those four words being brewed without corn syrup, they’re basically saying, hey, we have no corn syrup in our beer.
All the beer drinkers that are watching the biggest sports game on planet earth are now all of a sudden skeptical of the beer that they’re drinking because it might be brewed with corn syrup. All right? As Marty explained to me, because he is just one of the world’s best branding experts, he explained to me that this is called depositioning. So it’s about positioning yourself ahead of the competition. And with those four words, bud light effectively depositioned all of their competition almost overnight. So much so that corona sued Bud light for a ton of money, all right? So Corona felt the effects of those four words so much that they sued Bud light for defamation. I can’t even pronounce that word. But they sued Bud light saying, hey, you said bad things about us. Bud light did this perfectly, right? They didn’t mention corona. They didn’t say corona is brewed with corn syrup. They didn’t say Miller light is brewed with corn syrup. They didn’t say something else is brewed with corn syrup. They just said, hey, we are not brewed with corn syrup. And instantly, all the beer drinkers are like, holy crap. Is there corn syrup and these beers I’m drinking?
So as Marty explains, this is called depositioning. And just one of the coolest concepts ever, right? So people are now worried about the beer that they’re drinking. And it was such a big deal that on Twitter, which is normally where these big brands come back and forth at each other. So what happened is Miller light instantly responded, and Miller light’s response was actually just as witty. Miller light responded. Their PR team responded real fast on Twitter, and Miller light came back out and they said publicly, don’t forget, we’re twice the taste and half the carbs of our competition. And that was a great response from Miller Light. So basically, Miller Light, in a roundabout way, was saying, yeah, there might be some corn syrup in our beer, but we’re twice the taste and half the calories, is what Miller Light said, or half the carbs. It was either half the carbs or half the calories. So in other words, what Miller Light is saying is, hey, take your pick beer drinkers. You can either go with Bud Lights beer that doesn’t have corn syrup, or you can go with our beer that has half the calories and twice the taste.
And so now, legitimately, right? It’s like a conversation. It’s like, which do you prefer? Do you prefer something that might not have the healthiest ingredients, but do you prefer something that might not have the healthiest ingredients, but it has less calories, so you’ll look better? Or do you prefer going with something that’s all-natural, but it’s a little bit more unhealthy for you? So you kind of have a pick there, but nonetheless right, but, like, did super well with that marketing campaign that, again, it created lawsuits against them because it was such a strong marketing angle, and a lot of people switched over to Bud Light or otherwise started choosing other beers that were brewed without corn syrup just because of those four words. And so, again, this strategy in this marketing angle, it’s called depositioning, where you change your market positioning. And so the questions that Marty pointed out when I was sitting down with him is he goes, you want to always understand where you sit in the marketplace. Right? So what can you say that you offer that your competition doesn’t? So, in other words, you need to study your competition. If I ask you, when was the last time you sat down and studied your Epic Umar competition, what would your answer be?
Have you ever considered that? And you want to understand, okay, if you provide one on one coaching calls and your competition doesn’t, you should probably have that somewhere in your marketing or in your messaging or on your website, in your funnel somewhere, right. Because that is a strength that you have. If your competition is doing something that is not good, you probably want to shed light to that, that, hey, you have a more efficient way, a safer way, a faster way to get your clients results, but you need to understand your strengths and your competition weaknesses, and you want to shed light on that without mentioning your competitors names, right? So when it comes to branding and marketing, never mention a competitor’s brand or an individual’s first name. It doesn’t have to be it doesn’t have to be in a personal attack or a personal brand attack in terms of your marketing angle and message. But what you can say is, here’s how we’re better or we do something without using this tactic or the solution that you may be against. And so that’s all that marketing is, no matter regardless of industry. It’s just how you position yourself as the best solution to a particular audience, because your audience you share, your target audience is shared.
Your competition is marketing to the same audience. So what your objective is, is to say, hey, here’s why you should choose us over the competition. Here’s what our strengths are, so that your target audience can say, we like that more than the competitors alternative solution. And so that’s ultimately what marketing is. So next time you’re going to buy something and you’re looking at several options, ask yourself, why did I choose this one over the other one? And analyze the marketing. The more you analyze these different marketing angles, the better you will be at creating your own angle and your own messaging in the marketplace that stands out, and that calls in those ideal target fit clients. All right? So remember, guys, words make a difference. Words are what compose your messaging. And one of the things you want to ask yourself is, what are my strengths? What are my weaknesses as compared to my competition? And how can I craft a unique marketing message around that?
Hey Dino, Gomez here and if you enjoyed this, so be sure to head on over to the secretsofcoaching.com for more resources, downloads, videos and cheatsheets to help you grow your online coaching business. All right. And if you picked up a cool tip or strategy from this particular episode, we would love a five star review where every single month we choose one lucky winner to win access to one of our coaching programs. All right. So that is it for this episode. Guys, we will see you in the next one. Bye.
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