Combative Consumers Change the Marketing Strategy for Target and Bud Light

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by Lindsey Francy May 27, 2023 News
Combative Consumers Change the Marketing Strategy for Target and Bud Light

Target recently stopped selling certain items from its Pride Month collection after a backlash from some customers that included in-store incidents. Photo: Seth Wenig/Associated Press

Target and Bud Light showed that even large corporations can be made to change their stance on social issues.

Target this week stopped selling certain items from its Pride Month collection after a backlash from some customers that included in-store incidents, and Bud Light put away two marketing executives who oversaw a collaboration with a trans person that drew criticism and real life confrontations.

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Many consumer goods companies have supported the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer community. Their opponents stirred outrage through social media, where previous corporate pressure campaigns have usually produced a lot of noise without significant results.

Pride month merchandise is displayed at the front of a Target store. Photo: Seth Wenig/Associated Press

Critics focused on the issue of trans issues, which have risen to the top of the conservative social agenda. They used social-media to communicate with people in person.

The usual patterns of purpose-driven marketing were disrupted by that. Before this year, the strategy's biggest risks were usually complaints by opponents of a given cause.

The term "rainbow-washing" was created to describe a superficial act of Pride marketing, as a result of the growing number of brands that ran ads, sold rainbow products or changed their logos.

Consumers knocked down Target displays, threatened employees and shared angry videos from inside stores. Bud Light's delivery drivers, sales representatives and independent distributors were confronted by people on the streets, in bars and in stores.

Brian Cornell told staff in an email that the company was trying to address worker safety concerns while still supporting the LGBT community.

He thanked the store and customer-service workers for their work.

It has been gut-wrenching to see what you've confronted in our aisles.

Anheuser-Busch CEO Michel Doukeris said the company’s top priority was the safety of its people Photo: BENOIT DOPPAGNE/BELGA/Reuters

The CEO of the company expressed his support for the rights of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people. The safety of our people was the number one priority.

Brand protests still rely on social media.

Some criticized the Pride-themed children's clothing in Target's collection, but others objected to the swimsuit being marketed to children. The misconception is that Target only sells swimsuits in adult sizes.

Abprallen, a brand that sells some products elsewhere with satanic references, was called out by others. Target didn't sell those items.

Allen Adamson, co- founder of brand and marketing consulting firm Metaforce, said that there is so much divisiveness in the country that it is almost impossible to send a single message.

He said that a piece of a marketing campaign can be amplified out of context.

Bud Light sent a personalized can to Dylan Mulvaney, a trans person, as part of a broader promotion. Her sponsored post about the can on April 1 was shared widely, with many people wrongly believing that it was a TV commercial or that the can was available in stores.

Research shows that companies should prepare to face more aggressive consumers.

The number of Americans who said they raised their voice to a customer service representative to complain about their most serious problems with a business has increased.

The survey found that some people behaved in an uncivil way with a business or organization. 12% of respondents described physical and verbal threats as civil behavior, which was different from the consumers' descriptions of certain behavior.

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Customer Care Measurement & consulting, which conducts the study with the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, said that the marketplace has become saturated with hostility.

Bud Light's critics used social media to single out a marketing executive who was put on leave.

The marketing executive was attacked on social media because of a Miller lite ad that poked fun at the sexist history of beer ads.

The CMO of the beer company took her social-media accounts down after she became the target of personal attacks.

Adam Collins said in an email that the company wouldn't stand by as people personally attack their employees.

Pride marketing is being done by many companies.

The North Face began promoting the "Summer of Pride" in videos starring the drag queen Pattie Gonia, while fashion houses Coach and Calvin Klein introduced campaigns featuring lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transexual (LGBT) people.

The brands that released lines of Pride-themed clothing and other products this month include Disney, Apple, Target and Adidas. Disneyland will host the first Pride Nite event next month as part of Disneyland After Dark.

But some marketers have grown more cautious in recent weeks than they were in the past to avoid being caught up in the culture war backlash.

Many of the brands I work with support the LGBTQ community. Mildenhall said that he had seen a pull-back from both levels of investment.

Fewer brands are reaching out for Pride partnerships this year according to a trans content creator. Fear caused by the furor surrounding Bud Light and Target was one of the reasons for the drop.

"For us, it's important for our customers to see themselves in our products, but also know that we see and welcome them, many of whom aren't represented or often overlooked by other brands across a wide range of industries"

The fashion brand, which recently introduced a new Pride collection, uses its marketing to support the LGBT community and related groups throughout the year.

The whole thing will hopefully blow over. The queer community can spend a lot of money. It is important for brands to work with us forever.

The era when companies were neutral on social and political issues is over. He said that the risk of creating brands that don't work is high.

They have to be prepared to live with the fact that there will be a minority who objects. The basics of crisis management are being moved from marketing to them.

You can write to Patrick Coffee at patrick.coffee@wsj.com.