Getting good customer service is important for any business. When a company gets bad customer reviews, it can negatively impact their bottom line. However, when a company gets great reviews, it can have the opposite effect. The beer brand Bud light customer service recently experienced this when they partnered with Dylan Mulvaney. The transgender influencer and activist has a large following on social media, and her partnership with Bud light sparked a backlash from conservative social media users. As a result, sales of Bud light have dipped.
Despite the backlash, Bud light has not backed down from its partnership with Mulvaney. The company plans to run more ads with her, and it is hiring a new director for its LGBTQ marketing. It is also reaching out to younger drinkers who have been gravitating towards other alcoholic beverages like hard seltzer and spirits.
The backlash to the Bud light-Mulvaney partnership comes as lawmakers in several states are trying to pass bills that would restrict the lives of young transgender people, ban drag shows and out transgender students in schools. It also comes as a number of brands have faced backlash over their partnerships with transgender people, including Nike and Apple.
While it is not clear whether Bud light’s decision to partner with Mulvaney will affect its profits in the long run, it is certainly causing an uproar among some of its customers. The company’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch InBev SA, has put on leave the executive overseeing Bud light marketing, Alissa Heinerscheid, and her boss. The company has also taken a hit in its shares after the backlash to the Mulvaney campaign, and some shareholders are pushing for an investigation of the matter.
Heinerscheid’s team was responsible for Bud light’s widely praised Super Bowl ad featuring Miles Teller and his wife Keleigh Sperry, as well as the ‘Bud Light Carry’ ad, which depicts a woman carrying a bunch of beers to a table without dropping any of them. She says that ‘being female-friendly’ is a personal passion for her, and she wants to bring more of this spirit to Bud Light advertising in the future.
The company’s employee Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a critical metric that measures how likely employees are to recommend Bud Light products and services to their friends and family. Its NPS is 15 on Comparably’s scale, with 53% Promoters and 9% Detractors. Moreover, the company’s NPS is higher for women than men.