When Marketing Goes Wrong – Bulmers Cider
posted in Entrepreneurship, Freelancing, Videos
I’m currently in Ireland on a work/pleasure trip, and just listened to a heated debate on RTE radio, Ireland’s national radio station. The topic of the conversation was Bulmer’s Cider, and their latest television commercial. Here are some details:
- Ireland is in a recession (obviously…as is the world…however, you wouldn’t think it when you see the crowds out shopping and drinking on the weekends), and the media here seems to love saying the word “recession” even more than Wolfe Blitzer on CNN.
- Irish pub owners are becoming increasingly worried as a change seems to be happening in Irish society. More people are deciding to drink at home on the cheap rather than to socialize in the pubs and this is hurting the publicans and their industry, especially the thousands of small rural pubs around the country. As a result, more bar stools are empty on a regular basis, and many pubs are apparently not making much in the way of profits at the moment.
So, most of these publicans are complaining about high costs, and not enough business coming in. This provides the foundation for the stupidity of what Bulmer’s Cider marketing team decided to do.
I imagine the Bulmer’s management and marketing team sat around a table, trying to decide what they should do to increase sales in a bad economy. Their sales have decreased, something had to happen.
So, they set out to create a television ad campaign that would let the market know that they were “cutting” their prices, specifically, the price of the pint bottle by 10c.
The ad’s theme involves an over-enthusiastic Bulmer’s staff member, Liam, at the orchard, who overhears management talking about “cuts”. So, he starts applying “cuts” of his own to everything in sight, trying to make an impact and speed up production of the cider. You can watch the 40 second ad below, or by visiting the post on my site if you are reading this via email or rss reader.
So, why is this “marketing gone wrong”? Well…it’s simple. Bulmer’s don’t control the final sale price of the pint bottle that the consumer buys in the pubs. Bulmer’s only controls the price that they sell their product to when the publican’s purchase it from them as suppliers. Guess who controls the price when it gets sold to the consumer….The publican does…..And guess who isn’t making the same profits he once enjoyed?(as mentioned above)……. The publican. …And guess who isn’t going to lower his sale price even though his cost price has been reduced? You got it.
I don’t blame the publicans that aren’t lowering the price of a Bulmer’s pint bottle. They are in business to make a profit, and if they are struggling to survive right now, they are going to be delighted with any reduction in their cost of supplies. So why should they reduce their prices?
The problem here is that Bulmer’s the brand wants to be seen as lowering their prices, and doing something good for the market. The fact that they thought that the consumer would receive these lower prices is extremely naive and quite foolish, especially with the current economic climate and the fact that the publicans seem to be struggling.
In marketing, you can come up with all the great ideas you want, produce fancy television ads, and attempt to do something good and positive for the market, but if there is no business logic or pragmatic thinking behind it, you can end up doing more harm than good.
All of the callers into this radio show discussing this topic were angered at the fact that most publicans had not lowered their prices for a pint bottle of Bulmers. Needless to say, some publicans entered into the discussion, and argued their side about the fact that they are struggling and need all the profits they can get.
Have you ever seen a case like this with another company? I am sure that this happens all the time, especially when the market is made aware that a supplier has reduced their costs, and the end seller doesn’t follow suit.
I think you bring up a good point: “[Who] controls the price when it gets sold to the consumer?”
Does the local distributor have any more control over the off-site (supermarket, store, etc.) merchandising and pricing of its product?
It would be nice to see the ‘cuts’ passed on down to the consumer, but could be a ship in a bottle: nice to look at…
here in Italy this happens with gasoline… Even if the price at the origin goes down, the price at the gas station alwais grows… What a weird thing…
Reminds me of gas prices, electricity costs, spending at the fuel pumps etc., but I’ve not seen a marketing blooper cause a reaction like this. Off-topic, Brian, there’s something up with your comment form. When I try pressing the “return” key to leave a paragraph space, the page reloads with an error message saying “error, please leave a comment”. I can go back, and the comment’s still there, but can’t leave any paragraph spaces. How are you enjoying it back in Ireland (bar the connection problems)?
Oh, what an idiot. I just realised I was typing my comment in your Twitter ID field (I didn’t see the actual “comment” field). Heh.
First of all, to be fair to Bulmers, it is a 10 PERCENT price cut, not a 10c one. I’m sure you noticed on your trip the very high prices that consumer pay for alcohol here. For us, 10% is actually quite a significant drop when the average drink is over €5. As you noted, we are in the midst of a recession here, and to be honest everybody is looking for a price reduction wherever they can get it. It’s obvious the main reason that Bulmers have invested in a campaign like this is so that people go into their local pub and ask for the reduction and as you heard people are actually going in and putting pressure on their publicans. I don’t think you can say that the campaign is doing harm to Bulmers when you heard yourself that people on the show saying “Fair play to Bulmers” “At least they’re trying” etc. They know the problem was with the bars and not with Bulmers
Before you ask, I dont work for Bulmers! Im just fed up of being ripped off by so many companies and like to see companies doing stuff like this!!
Caroline, thanks for your comments. I agree with you that it is good on Bulmers to have cut their prices and tried to help their consumers.
However, I think the campaign will only hurt them further, especially after the Joe Duffy show had the discussion about it.
The pubs are not going to reduce the price of the pint bottle because a few people ask for it. I really can’t see that happening.
Also, I imagine a lot of people that would normally drink the pint bottles in the pubs will actually think twice before they buy one, now knowing that the publican has even a greater markup on it! I regularly drink Carlsberg, and if I heard a discussion on the radio about how Carlsberg dropped their prices, but the publican didn’t, I would probably try to do my small part to not support the publican that is keeping the profits, and order a different drink.
Overall, I think the whole campaign isn’t effective, and only caused a cloud of negativity to surround it. The consumers are not directly angry with Bulmers, but the whole “price cut” announcement has indirectly angered them as a result of publicans’ refusal to lower prices.
Bulmers didn’t make their customers or potential customers happy with this announcement, they made the publicans happy because they are now making more profit.
Good counter-points, Brian.
I should stay out of any conversation I don’t know the full story on. 
Oh, and Carlsberg, eh? I bet that’s because of the Liverpool tie-in, isn’t it? Line-up a pint of black for me and I’ll see you in 20.
I agree, bloody awful advert, I used to like the swimming bottles, but then the advertising will never be able to touch those of us that are ill at the smell of cider from drinking too much of the stuff in are youth (or is that a west country thing). Nah, the Irish are at it too. Thanks for the article mate.
Good counter-points, Brian.
I should stay out of any conversation I don’t know the full story on.
Oh, and Carlsberg, eh? I bet that’s because of the Liverpool tie-in, isn’t it? Line-up a pint of black for me and I’ll see you in 20.
And the whole country is talking about Bulmers and the Price reduction that was not passed on to the comsumer by the Publicans (the portrayed vilians of the piece). Now, you see this as a marketing disaster, indeed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
