Case study of Stella Artois advertising campaign and consumer choice

Stella Artois

This case study presents a strong and nuanced presentation of one European beer brand that appears to have a strong level of self-awareness regarding its image, demographic and how to present itself to the public. One of the issues that Stella Artois appears to need work with is an overall level of brand consistency. Tim Lindsay, president of TBWA, an ad agency in the UK and Ireland, explained the problems that Stella Artois experience -- problems that it largely brought on itself. "Stella built its name on the 'reassuringly expensive' campaign. Unfortunately, it then discounted the product vigorously through both on and off trade, failing to deliver on the brand promise. 'This has led to ubiquity and by becoming a plentiful cheap, strong lager; it unwittingly became 'wifebeater' the beer of choice for angry men in white vests" (brandstrategy, 2008). This is a classic example of just how detrimental it can be when a brand abandons, even temporarily a marketing schema that has been effective for it. Brand identity is a crucial thing and to abandon that identity in any shape or form is akin to presenting the public with an altogether different product. Members of the public need to know that they can trust the brand fully and totally and rely on its ingredients and image. Even changing something like the price, without touching the contents or packaging is akin to a drastic re-imaging of the product, something which can rapidly alienate previously loyal customer.

By changing their price, it was almost as if Stella Artois had made a concerted effort to undermine their own success, by undermining the brand and image that they had previously worked hard to create.

"A strong brand enables an organization to build customer loyalty as they trust the brand and its quality, e.g. season tickets for professional sports clubs are sold years in advance (Manchester United FC, Montreal Canadiens). This is the phenomenon of the brand 'religion', where the value of the brand becomes so high in the mind of the consumer that he/she will always stay loyal to it, regardless of fluctuating results or momentary crisis..." (Peterman, 2004). In fact, Stella Artois, in lowering their prices, demonstrated that they were comfortable with undermining the value of their own brand. If anything, if they were going to adjust their prices, they should have lowered them. "Consumers are prepared to pay a higher price for products and service offered as a brand also creates trust and confidence. Indeed, a strong brand presents a proof of competence for the customers. It suggests quality and bestows image and prestige to its buyers" (Pederman, 2004). Thus, by lowering their prices, Stella Artois showed consumers that they were less valuable and less prestigious and overall less desirable than their competing brands. And the results of such actions were nearly catastrophic: the brand was devalued so much that consumers developed a disparaging "nickname" for the brand, something that undermined the years of strategy and planning that the entire brand had worked so hard for.

The work that the company engaged in to save the face of the brand, however, was intelligent and strategic (Kotler, 2007). The brand has been a major sponsor of elite film festivals like Cannes and Sundance. "As well as its strong ties with film, it has been associated with tennis for the past 30 years, but the sports tie-up has now ended, replaced by a more unusual project: sponsoring the first commercial airship offering flights over London. Hilger says this type of activity is necessary for Stella Artois to reinforce the image of being an upmarket brand: 'It is a unique experience that people haven't seen before; that is what premium brands should offer. They should be vehicles of new surprising experiences" (brandstrategy, 2008). This excerpt demonstrates the type of intensive work that Stella Artois had to engage in so that they could win back their audience and consumers and so that they could win back the original brand identity that they had created. However, this excerpt demonstrates the extreme lengths this brand had to work to shed the image of the "wife-beater" and to re-establish itself as a high-class brand, desirable by consumers with money.