The Marketing of No Marketing

I found this article to be very interesting, because I've experienced a lot of what is written about in this article and I think it is a great look inside the marketing plan behind it, as little as it is. As a cyclist myself (not a PBR drinker though), I've known many people that are fans of the brand for many of the same reasons mentioned in the article, and it is interesting to hear the background behind company and how it is currently approaching its marketing. I think the culture/s that are mentioned in this article are exactly as the are portrayed in terms of rejecting larger corporations and favoring home-grown, local companies, and brands (despite whether they may or may not be). The interesting thing about Pabst's marketing plan is that is focuses primarily on local and small events, to give the local company feel, and yet do that on a national level. The thing Pabst has going for it, that few companies do, is they already have a "group of people who embraced the brand" as Neal Stewart from the article puts it. That gives Pabst the advantage of having a select demographic of people who embrace and share the brand of Pabst with no advertising or marketing needed.
It was also interesting to read about how some of the marketing people/firms hired by Pabst came from many of the larger breweries nationally, and essentially had to stop themselves from doing what they were trained to do and re-think about how to brand and market a company to a culture that doesn't pay attention to or rejects traditional marketing. It is a funny approach to go into everything trying to "always look and act the underdog" as Stewart said. Most companies approaches would the complete opposite. It is a very interesting article because it looks at how marketing is evolving in this time of relentless advertising all around us, and how perhaps for the future companies will focus more directly on how the market to people effectively without bombarding them with ads.