(Corona Beer not going viral)

In a story that won’t go away as the dangerous virus spreads worldwide, Corona Beer won’t be changing its business approach because of the virus.

The unfortunate beer name controversy began with reports that Google Trends saw a spike in searches for “beer virus” and “corona beer virus” between Jan. 26 and Feb. 1.

In its own keyword analysis, SEMrush, an online visibility management platform, found three new terms in being used in online searches in January 2020: corona beer virus was used in search 49,500 times; corona virus beer was used 22,200 times.

A SEMrush spokesperson said that there has never been such a huge spike in searches for Corona beer in the past four years as it happened in January 2020, and that the increased interest  “could definitely be” related to the coronavirus.

Over the same period Brandwatch, a consumer intelligence company, found more than 7,500 mentions of “corona beer virus” online along with 1,000 mentions of “beer coronavirus.

“Interestingly enough, the massive spike on Jan. 30 of ‘corona beer virus’ was actually driven by the media, as news outlets reported on the increase in search results for the term,” said Kellan Terry, senior manager of communications at Brandwatch told Adweek…

“I think searches for terms like ‘corona beer virus’ are a mixture of people who truly have no idea what’s going on, and a good number of people looking to find and/or create a meme. People are trying to find the humor in this entire situation, as the laughing emoji is the most-used alongside these terms.”

And even though a widely publicized 5W Public Relations survey in February found that 38% of beer-drinking Americans would not buy Corona under any circumstances now, Constellation Brands, who distribute the band in the US, has stated  that Corona Extra sales grew 5%, (nearly double the trend of the past 52 week) in the four-weeks that ended February 16.

Our customers “understand there is no link between the virus and our business,” Constellation Brands spokesperson Stephanie McGuane told CNN Business

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by this terrible virus and we hope efforts to more fully contain it gain traction soon,” said Bill Newlands, president and chief executive officer at Constellation Brands.  “It’s extremely unfortunate that recent misinformation about the impact of this virus on our business has been circulating in traditional and social media without further investigation or validation.”

There is, of course, no connection between the beer and the disease, which was officially named the novel coronavirus, or Covid-19, on Feb. 11.

And we can promise you that Corona won’t be releasing a Covid-19 Lager anytime soon…