The New York Times reviews a book, “Buying In,” about marketing to young, ‘savvy’ consumers. Blah blah blah.
But, here’s where it gets good. Pabst Blue Ribbon has been marketing itself to hipsters, the type that live in Williamsburg, Portland, Seattle, etc. by NOT marketing… at least using typical media like TV, magazines and newspapers.
The hipsters, you know, bushy beards, floppy hair, skinny jeans, ironic T-Shirts, have flocked to PBR like the plague because it’s oh so anti-establishment. The joke, as usual, is on them…
“In reality, Pabst Blue Ribbon’s anticapitalist ethos is, as Walker puts it, “a sham.” The company long ago closed its Milwaukee brewery and now outsources its operations to Miller. Its entire corporate staff is devoted to marketing and sales, not brewing. “You really couldn’t do much worse in picking a symbol of resistance to phony branding,” Walker writes. But P.B.R.’s fans don’t care. In the new era of murketing, image is everything.”
Ha… nice. Some may even say brilliant. Though marketing to a group of insecure consumers who define themselves by dressing, eating and drinking exactly like their peers doesn’t seem too difficult. Fish in a barrel, anyone?
