4 ms·
"If you’re going to compete, you have two choices. The first is to spend a boatload of money on advertising—like Microsoft. The second is to create something so
by patrickk 16y ago
"If you’re going to compete, you have two choices. The first is to spend a boatload of money on advertising—like Microsoft. The second is to create something so unique and different that people can easily recognize your product—like Guinness."
Guinness also spends boatloads on advertising (here in Ireland they're not that unique as we've got several choices of stout for sale, the main ones being Murphys and Beamish apart from Guinness). I'm sure Guinness also advertise heavily in the US and other markets. So it's incorrect to present this as two choices. Two major advertising campaigns Guinness used in recent months include "Arthur's Day" celebrations and the Guinness ads throughout the decades. The former seems a bit of a gimmick to me, but the latter was interesting IMO as a way of showing how advertising changed over the years.
- masklinn 16y ago> I'm sure Guinness also advertise heavily in the US and other markets. Indeed they do, but I'd say it's advertisement to make themselves known at all, not to differentiate themselves. Outside the british isles, there are few Guiness-like beers outside of Guiness itself (or more precisely the others are pretty much unknown to the vast majority of the populations).
- theBobMcCormick 16y agoReally? Here in the Denver area every microbrew place has at least one stout.
- philwelch 16y agoYes, exactly. There's one internationally marketed stout massively available throughout the US, and then there are local and regional microbrews. This isn't to say that microbrews couldn't give Guinness competitive pressure, but there's only one nationally marketed stout and that puts Guinness in a unique position.
- jrockway 16y agoSure, there's Guinness. But that's not really all that's widely available; New Belgium stuff tends to be massively available, and Dogfish Head is not that far behind.
- masklinn 16y agoLet me quote my own comment: > or more precisely the others are pretty much unknown to the vast majority of the populations
- dabent 16y agoI've seen Guinness ads plenty here in the US. I also see plenty of ads for other "unique" products. Even if one makes a stand-out product, people still have to know about it.
- patrickk 16y ago"I also see plenty of ads for other "unique" products." I guess that's the whole "build it and they won't come" argument. It requires good marketing to convince people to try a Guinness or buy an iPad or whatever (although the iPad is probably a bad example as it's not unique, Microsoft had the courier in 2003).
- naner 16y agoBrilliant! http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=guinness+commercial+brilliant http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=guinness+commerc... Guinness does plenty of advertising.