Corona Brand Suffering in The Wake of Coronavirus

Published on February 27, 2020

The Corona brand is becoming the victim of unfortunate unintended consequences in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak causing panic across the world.

The Jokes and The Brand

The similarity in names is the obvious cause of Corona’s troubles. The internet is having a field day with memes that negatively associate the brand with the virus thats killing people all over the world.

The joke is an obvious one to make, and people are taking advantage of the humor in the wake of all the panic and anxiety surrounding the spread of the coronavirus. Unfortunately, that has consequences for the Corona brand.

If you search #corona on either Instagram or Twitter, almost all the results are about the virus, not the beer. In the age of social media marketing, this is a definite problem for the Corona brand. If people are looking for Corona content, instead they find a deadly disease. Not great in terms of brand image.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B9FUYN8DY89/
The Numbers

According to YouGov, Corona’s buzz score, a score that measures whether consumers have heard positive or negative things about the brand, dropped from 75 to 51. The purchase intent also hit its lowest level in two years.

This should go without saying but it never hurts to be clear. Corona the beer brand has absolutely nothing to do with the coronavirus. Okay, moving on now.

Corona is not the only company taking a hit from the spread of the coronavirus. The stock market is falling dramatically in the last few days, and the entertainment industry is also facing struggles.

Corona has only responded to the unfortunate connection between its brand and the virus once. Corona told Business Insider, “we believe, by and large, that consumers understand there’s no linkage between the virus and our business.”

Beyond this, they have publically done little to curb the spread of memes and jokes connecting the beer with the illness.

They don’t really need to do anything to rescue their brand. While the brand seems to be taking a hit at the moment, when the summer months hit and everyone want’s to find their beach in the sunshine, Corona will be back without a second thought to the coronavirus.

Corona is the ninth most popular beer in the world. It’s been around since 1925 and will almost certainly survive this temporary hit to its branding. Every brand faces hard times, but don’t worry too much about Corona. If one thing is true, people will always love beer.

Olivia Smith is a Staff Writer at Grit Daily. Based in San Francisco, she covers events, entertainment, fashion, and technology. She also serves as a Voices contributor at PopSugar.

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