#1153 2022 · Migros (Coop mit WIRZ) · Grocery retail
Migros named a beer after each possible vote — the verdict became its launch
the problem
Migros could not settle whether to sell alcohol: its cooperative members had to vote on ending a century-old ban
background
Migros was founded in 1925 as a cooperative that refused to sell alcohol, and since 1983 the ban was anchored in its regional cooperative statutes. By 2022 the board wanted the freedom to sell beer, wine and spirits, but changing the statutes required a two-thirds majority vote of 2.3 million cooperative members — a hot, identity-loaded question where pro-alcohol advertising could read as the company browbeating its own owners, and where a yes might win a reputation war it never intended.
The obvious moves all pick a side and spend money arguing it. Brag about the right to sell alcohol, shame the anti-alcohol members, or fund a lobbied persuasive campaign to flip the vote — every one is a fight over a decision Migros could not buy outright, and every one risks turning the vote into a crisis a cooperative could not weather. Migros needed the referendum itself to stop being a threat.
what everyone would do
Every conventional response argues about the decision itself: run a pro-alcohol campaign to flip a yes, counter the temperance lobby, buy social media reach, or quietly lobby the members most likely to cave. All of them spend money trying to own a verdict Migros could not control, and all of them risk turning a cooperative's identity vote into a public relations war that damages the brand no matter who wins.
what they saw
A vote Migros could not win by spending was a product launch: naming the beer after the verdict made its members' identity the engine, so the decision could not disappoint — it gave them a bottle to buy.
the move
Instead of campaigning, Migros pre-built two beers: an alcoholic 'OUI' and an alcohol-free 'NON'. It publicly promised that whatever its members decided, the matching beer would go on shelves — regions voting yes would stock OUI, regions voting no would stock NON. The vote came down against alcohol on 16 June 2022, so 'NON' was launched, a beer literally named after the members' refusal, done with WIRZ and brewed by local Swiss breweries.
why it works
The move converts a binary, uncontrollable outcome into publicity under any branch of the tree. Whereas a normal campaign must persuade and risks losing, this one functions by commitment: Migros announced it would stock OUI or NON depending on the outcome, so the very act of debating the vote — on either side — publicly names and recommits to the product in hundreds of thousands of everyday conversations and in the national media. Every delegate argued about which beer the cooperative would carry, which is the cheapest, most credible product placement possible because the speaker is not advertising, merely reporting. When the vote landed 'no', the crushed yes-faction's disappointment turned into curiosity about the NO-branded beer, and the whole public debate pivoted from 'should we sell beer' to 'which bottle appears', leaving Migros holding not a lost referendum but an alcohol-free brand with its launch narrative already told and its market already primed.
the payoff
NON became Migros' top-seller alcohol-free beer; entry claims #2 with a 10-point share gain, and trade press confirms sales up ~80%.
where it breaks
It fails whenever the 'decision' is outcome zero-sum with no buyable artifact that honours the verdict: there is no product you can name after a 'no to buying the factory' that turns a business-side board rejection into retail. It needs the decision to have a public audience debating it, a committed two-sided product line the firm can genuinely deliver, and voters who will forgive the verdict either way — if a 'yes' would have legitimately killed the franchise's core promise, a pre-committed celebratory OUI could ring hollow instead of charming. And the creative strength, not the mechanism, decides whether a company that would not even discuss the topic profits: a firm whose voters see the stunt as mocking their identity will get nothing but a faster revolt.
what came after
The NON brand — born from a 'no' vote — grew into a family of over five alcohol-free varieties (lager, IPA, panaché, sparkling wine) and kept expanding, so a referendum that might have fractured the cooperative instead left it with a durable, growing trademark.
references
- [1]persoenlich.ch — MGB lanciert Bier zur Alkoholabstimmungpersoenlich.com (Swiss marketing trade), 2022persoenlich.com
- [2]watson — Migros baut alkoholfreies Sortiment auswatson (Swiss news), 2023watson.ch
- [3]foodaktuell — Migros baut alkoholfreies Sortiment weiter ausfoodaktuell (food trade), 2026foodaktuell.ch
- [4]WIRZ — Demokratie zum Trinken (case page)WIRZ agency (self-report), 2023wirz.ch
Widely retold, only partly documented. Filed as hearsay.