Comments on: When Marketing Goes Wrong – Bulmers Cider

By: Pedro

Pedro — Thu, 27 May 2010 07:04:11 +0000

Surely if Bulmers are cutting their prices then that in turn means the pub owners are now getting their product at the same 10% decrease? So by doing this bulmers are giving the landlords the option to sell at a reduced price whilst still maintaining the exact same profit margin as previously?

Even cutting the price over the bar by 5% means a 5% increase in profits?!

am i missing the point here?? seems like you are getting riled by Bulmers a little much haha

pedro x

By: zsameer

zsameer — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 20:07:14 +0000

thanks for great information

By: Declan maguire

Declan maguire — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 09:31:01 +0000

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By: PI

PI — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:33:06 +0000

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.

By: Graphic Designer

Graphic Designer — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:07:41 +0000

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.

By: David Airey

David Airey — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:00:38 +0000

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.

By: brianyerkes

brianyerkes — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:57:01 +0000

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.

By: David Airey

David Airey — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:46:51 +0000

Good points, Caroline!

By: Caroline

Caroline — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:40:11 +0000

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!!

By: David Airey

David Airey — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:21:59 +0000

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.