We are waking up every day to the reality that seems like a sci-fi movie. These are the times of a pandemic from breaking news setting the background scores and the frequent updates mimicking each one's own personal the control room. As this slow-motion movie of reality plays out, this blog brings you short trailers of byte-sized reality.
One of the brands that have been affected by the wake of this pandemic is Constellation Brands’s very own Corona Beer. With many confusing the beer brand to the virus, it has been a railroad for publicity. The beer got scores of memes and TikTok videos on the internet. Even as a couple of surveys captured the negative sentiments of Americans towards the brand, Constellation Brands recently announced that they had seen a 5% growth in their sales.
Starting from cleaning wipes, to digital products, this fatal pandemic has left customers from across the globe stashing everything from toilet papers to canned food leaving isles empty. Brands that have seen unprecedented growth at the wake of this pandemic are the disinfectants - Reckitt Benckiser’s Lysol and Clorox.
As compared to last year Lysol's sales had increased by 32 per cent says, Nielson. Brandwatch notes that Lysol's social media mentions reached over 100,000 since January. As the pandemic started to spread the per day mentions shot up to 7000 per day.
A representative from Clorox stated that "What we don’t do is market to fear”. Clorox has pulled all stops to prevent market gouging through third-parties on Amazon. Their sales have increased by 9.8 per cent.
Many luxury brands have steered into the production of towards the booming hand sanitizers. LVMH which cater to brands including Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton, recently announced that they are utilizing their perfume lines to create hand sanitizers and provide them to the hospitals in France. The WHO advisory stating the use of alcohol-based rub, Purell 's sales saw a YoY increase of 54%, even at spaces where there has been no reported illness, the sales and the shelves seem to have emptied.
In the current times, advertising comes under heavy scrutiny. Hershey and Coors’ new advertisement on spreading the cheer with handshakes and hugs was pulled out by them to take into account this pandemic.
The KFC’s ‘Finger Licking Good’ recently came under scrutiny with the UK Advertising Standards Authority received 163 complaints. KFC has pulled out these creatives for the time-being and has postponed their ad placements for the next few months.
Purell had advertised that they could using their product could prevent from people catching the flu. After FDA sent a warning, their advertisements now read that their product can make non-porous and hard surfaces virus free.
Constellation Brands’s Corona is however staying the course with its ad on new launch of Seltzer which reads ‘Coming Ashore Soon’ which has received a lot of criticism.
The brand can either pull out or modify their advertisements which would improve their brand perceptions. They could choose to continue with their existing ads but come across as being insensitive in testing times. The choice to pause promotions or pull out ads can cost the brands, a lot.
After taking the first hit, China is the frontrunner in dealing with the aftermath of this pandemic. Even as the malls open, there is palpable tension around the sale of luxury goods. Luxury brands including Versace, Gucci and Armani have either cancelled or postponed their events to later this year.
The reality of all industries that rely on social activities from live events, tourism, offline entertainment, and dining is grim. With this is triggered because of the pandemic, these brands reel under pressure to sustain in testing times.
As the world holts and jolts through this pandemic with social distancing, quarantine and reeling with unfortunate loss at personal front. With the increase in information available on the digital media – WHO has given detailed guidelines on maintaining healthy mental health. We urge you to stay safe and prudent through social distancing.