What’s your company’s non-market approach? Is it to respond only once pressures become too great to ignore, or is it proactive and do you try to anticipate issues and stem them before they take root?

These questions are now facing Budweiser’s marketing department.

Recently the company started a promotion called Team Pride where university themed cans of Bud Light have taken the shelves near major university campuses. This has started a controversy that focuses on the issue of underage drinking.

Opposition against the promotion is growing from groups such as the Collegiate Licensing Co., University of Michigan’s lawyers, and university doctors. Marketing campaigns that touch on volatile non-market issues, such as minors and alcohol, will inevitably attract interest group pressure and wind up hurting the bottom line in the long run.

Take the 1988 example of Hallmark and their graduation cards. In time for university graduations the company printed coming-of-age greeting cards that featured alcoholic beverages on the front; coincidentally one card featured a can of Budweiser. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) rallied against the cards, suggesting that they would promote underage drinking amongst high school grads. MADD captured media attention and ordered the cards off store shelves. Hallmark conceded.

The short-lived cards cost the company printing and delivery costs for a situation that would have easily been avoided had they been more proactive in their non-market mindset. The attack on Hallmark came from an angle that the company perhaps failed to consider – the concurrent release of the cards with high school graduation. MADD’s opposition was an unintended consequence to a message that has wide cultural acceptance when considered in the right context. Hallmark simply failed to see all the possible angles and threats.

Budweiser, on the other, has walked right into a seemingly obvious non-market threat. Even to the uniformed, the company deals with a product that has clear outside threats, which is why this particular campaign reveals Budweiser’s true marketing colors and non-market approach - act now and respond later.

In order to quell some of the opposition, Budweiser may have considered an outreach program prior to the promotion coupled with a different communications strategy. Communication with university health organizations and messaging that stressed responsible drinking would have been effective – Show Your Team Colors Responsibly, rather than Show Your True Colors.

A non-market approach that uses the “act now, respond later” approach is fine given there is preparedness for the outcomes. In Budweiser’s case they made the choice to respond to pressure once it occurred. Their only option at this point is to be responsive, which they have done by responding to requests to remove product from stores near campuses. However, that said, with the incorporation of an anticipatory non-market strategy this campaign would have been more a success.