Marketing 101

I'm not sure if this story is just made up by Sean Combs (P. Diddy) or is the vodka mogul Martin Silver is really letting himself get caught up in "Beef" in which he has no chance of gaining market share only loosing some to Mr. Combs. The New York Post which has become more of a gossip magazine as of late reports that Sean Combs has angered other vodka manufactures when at an event he got on the microphone and stated

"If you're not drinking Ciroc vodka, then you're drinking pee pee.""

Outside of the fact that you can tell dude has some young kids when the phrase Pee Pee is in his everyday lexicon. It is reported that Mr Silver owner of Long Island based Star industries (Liquor and Wine Import) flagship Vodka brand is Georgi Argent Vodka. Is one of the angriest competitors and planning a public protest as KJHE reports

"Silver and a group of protesters will show up outside Combs' New York offices demanding an apology, reports AllHipHop.com. A statement from the vodka wars coalition reads, "They will be putting liters of Ciroc into a large toilet bowl and having it delivered to Diddy's offices near Times Square." KJRH

I'm not one to criticize the business acumen of a man who has built his own empire and is attempting to buy the New York Mets from Mike Wilpon who has lost a lot of money in the Madoff Ponzi scheme. C'mon he should see this shit coming from a mile away. Diddy is just going for market share that Georgi Argent (High End) currently has by egging on MJ Silver. Combs has already convinced the minority urban market to embrace Ciroc as their vodka of choice, and would like blatantly more white people to drink it and bars to offer it. Their are only a couple of things that can happen

1. Diddy laughs at their protest and challenges them to a taste test to be settled by everyday people
2. Georgi Argent traditional drinkers get embarrassed by their favorite brand image of "Beefing"
3. The protest makes the news, but Combs is the only identifiable figure of the two. So it becomes free press for Ciroc and the Pee Pee comments continue to get played with news images of his biggest competitors.
4. Peoples perceived awareness of Ciroc Vodka goes up since a premium brand was offended by his statements "Ciroc must be in the same class as Georgi Argent" will be a common thought.

In all of these instances Ciroc gets more market share and in none of these instances would Georgi's market share go up. My advice as a communication professional is take the L Martin Silver. You have already played into Sean Combs brand, remember he knows beef he was part of the most tragic musical public beef between Pac & Biggie. Who both brands became larger than life and people who owned the rights to their music and image won, while two young men lost their lives to violence. By no means am I implying that Silver and Combs will be violent just the brand with the smaller market share always wins if the dominant brand responds. For rap heads think of 50 vs The game (Responsive) and then think of 50 vs Young buck (Unresponsive). Let that be a lesson in Marketing 101 for all of you and why people beef, everyone loves the roll of David and everyone wants the crown. Kings don't supposed to show emotions, it clouds their judgment. O yeah, after I saw these articles I went and asked for a shot of Ciroc. Diddy knows what he is doing.