Whose Beer Blog Is This?
Anheuser Busch and Miller have historically fought over the beer market, with the former ahead by nearly 30 percent of sales. Beer blogging, however, could change all that.
Enter Brew Blog, the brainchild of two Miller communications consultants who created the web media arm as a source of daily-updated beer industry analysis. It's not trying to be Miller-centric, but instead cover beer news, with topics ranging from new Australian craft beers to those Heineken mini-kegs and Costco's creation of a generic-brand German lager. There are, however, a bunch of Miller press releases sprinkled in between. The site doesn't hide its Miller affiliation, showcasing the "brought to you by..." message prominently on the homepage, but corporate blogging asks an interesting question: Can a site aiming to cover an entire niche market come from one corporation's mouthpiece? [Via Wall Street Journal]
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4 Comments:
No. I think that corporate blogging is stupid. I've been to marketing meetings where they talk about how they can use blogging as a way to use new media... all that shows, to me, is a profound ignorance of the internet and blogging in particular.
Any use of a blog as a marketing tool is not only sleazy, it is stupid and transparent and the minute the masses get a whiff of it, it loses all credibility. It is fine to have PR on your website, but not try to pass it off as the thoughts of the average joe or jane. And getting a ligit blogger to shill for you does the same. If you want to use blogging, send your product to a real blogger and ask them for their honest assessment of your product or service. You might even gain some followers because you actually understand the medium.
Obviously I feel quite strongly about this subject. Sorry for the rant. Back to eating and drinking and all that good stuff.
jpolk at 3:16PM on 04/29/08
Great poins to make jpolk - although, corporate 'guest bloggers' usually expose themselves through some lame one-sided commentary, usually to a defense of some product or another.... Oh well, isn't this what usually happens to all great concepts, they get widely adopted, and then become the child of some large bulky, slow moving corporate organization, only for something new and innovative to come out and show them up again.
GingerSnap at 3:51PM on 04/29/08
actually, looking at it now - it reads like some trade news magazine...pretty lame!
GingerSnap at 3:54PM on 04/29/08
Can a site aiming to cover an entire niche market come from one corporation's mouthpiece?
A site, Brew Blog, aiming to cover an entire niche market, is sponsored by the Miller Brewing Co. I hope that answers your question.
Any use of a blog as a marketing tool is not only sleazy, it is stupid and transparent and the minute the masses get a whiff of it, it loses all credibility.
Both masthead and metadata clearly proclaim the blog to be a product of the Miller Brewing Co. If anyone of the masses had read the article, they would've noticed it revealed not only the ownership of the blog, but also its intent: to further message control in the age-old war between cheap beer manufacturers. Also, as a small note, the Brew Blog is trade publication, with little of interest to people outside of the specific industry. It is not seeking an honest assessment of its product or service, and the fact that they're using a widely adopted concept (the blog) to needle their competition and put anachronistic newsletters out of business is what makes it blogging great.
jayfallon at 5:01PM on 04/29/08