Anheuser-Busch (NYSE:BUD), noting the growing premium/boutique beer market share, is taking a new tack in its 2008 marketing. It will emphasize the quality of ingredients and brewing techniques in its core brands, Budweiser and Michelob. The strategy is an attempt to give them some of the cachet that has pushed sales of imports, such as those of its equity partners Grupo Modelo and Tsingtao.
According to the Wall Street Journal (subscription), the company will drop about $30 million on this campaign, while also increasing spending on more of the youth-oriented, humor-infused messages that promote Bud Light.
BUD is reacting to two challenges: declining/flat sales of its mainstream suds, and the competition posed by the recently announced partnership of SABMiller and Molson Coors (NYSE:TAP) to mutually market their products in the U.S. Anheuser-Busch successfully raised prices on its products in 2007, but I wouldn't expect such a move in 2008, in light of this competition.
In a campaign designed to elevate public perception of the quality of a brand, the danger lies in also elevating the public perception of the brand's cost. Too often, companies fail to find the right balance that persuades the public that they are getting a bargain, better quality for the same price. Or, in the words of a current Miller High Life campaign I feel is one of the best I've ever seen, "A tasty beer at a tasty price."
In a flat beer market, BUD's increased spending might just be enough to keep from sliding back, not a result likely to bump the stock price from its doldrums of the past 12 months.
[Photo drrt]











Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
11-25-2007 @ 6:48AM
dude said...
Don't worry Bud. You are still the number one selling beer. You might use quality ingredients but your beer is just a well marketed, weak American Lager that appeals to clueless beer guzzlers and that's all it ever will be. Are you afraid that you might lose 1% of the market share or something?
11-25-2007 @ 6:38AM
Joe Blow said...
Budweiser go upscale? Thats like Harlem going upscale, worse horse piss I've ever tasted. Real beer drinkers don't drink that garbage.
11-25-2007 @ 7:47AM
Sheri said...
I have to agree with you on that...Budweiser?...if you were weiser you wouldn't drink Buttweiser....blech!!!! That has to be the worse beer on the market...even Milwaukee's Best is better...lol
11-25-2007 @ 10:26AM
BILCO7 said...
Gotta tell ya, Joe Blow. There are few things in this world more ludicrious than a beer snob. Beer is beer, fer crissakes. And, ya don't "buy" it....Ya Rent it. Maybe you should switch to Dom Perignon.
11-25-2007 @ 8:14PM
Anthony said...
SAM ADAMS E-NUFF SAID
11-25-2007 @ 7:40AM
george said...
King of Beers
11-25-2007 @ 7:46AM
donald shafto said...
WHY GET UPSET, ITS ONLY A BUSINESS. I LIKE THEIR DRAFT BEER WHEN I GO IN TO MY BAR, BUT THEIR CAN BEER NOT THAT GOOD..I LIKE PABTS BLUE RIBBON, NOW U KNOW HOW OLD I AM.
11-25-2007 @ 9:01AM
MGL4Life said...
That either means you're a geezer who picked it up back in the 60's, or a trend-following club-hopper from South Beach following your boyfriend's tastes......dude.
11-25-2007 @ 8:00AM
web said...
THEY MAKE BEER FOR POOR GHETTO PEOPLE, BY POOR GHETTO PEOPLE .
11-25-2007 @ 8:11AM
budpro said...
Real people buy AB products people who are cheap buy those other so called beer products that cost about half of what AB costs.You get what you pay for do you see born on dates on any other beer NO because if they did have a date on them it would most likely say 1930 it has been sitting in a warehouse because nobody wants to drink it!
11-25-2007 @ 8:38AM
Frost 69 said...
That statement could only come from a Bud drinker. EVERY BEER ie. or flavored malt beverage has a freshness code on it. Humans are born, beer is made Duh!!!!
11-25-2007 @ 8:39AM
dickn2000b said...
Budweiser? That stuff is rat piss. No serious beer drinker would ever touch it.
11-25-2007 @ 8:35AM
MGL4Life said...
If A/B wants to expand it's market they should promote their Mich Golden and Mich Golden Light products. It's ridiculous that we in Florida have to wait for relatives up north to come down for 'the season' to restock our supplies because we can't get them here. MGL is THE BOMB, by far the smoothest, freshest and tastiest Light beer ever. It leaves all the other Light beers in the dust.
11-25-2007 @ 8:37AM
Dre' said...
I thought Miller Lite was the Number 1 selling beer?
11-25-2007 @ 8:52AM
pittfan said...
Milwaukee's best?Pabst? You people must have grown up drinkin piss cause u think that the beer is supposed to taste like that.Bud is crisp and clean and I don't drink beer but rarely now
11-25-2007 @ 8:52AM
pittfan said...
WEB said beer for the poor, yeah right thats why its the most expensive beer along with rocky mountain piss water. other than the imports
11-25-2007 @ 8:46AM
Pickwood Thom said...
Being brought up in the Tavern Biz in the Boston area ,where we had some good home grown brews, we used to refer to Bud as "Panther Piss". Hey AB -spend your money into upgrading the quality and improvement of the taste. Get a good German Chinese/ Mexican/Japanese Brewmaster.
Pickwick Thom
11-25-2007 @ 8:46AM
jeff russell said...
After proabition american beer makers started using corn and rice adjuncts instead of all malt in their beer.they wanted to reach a broader market.bud was based on pilsner.so they added corn to make it lighter in colour.however the flavor changed somewhat giving it that "skunky"taste real beer drinkers dispise.homebrewing took off in the u.s. in the 1980"s partally because of beers like bud.the micro brewing industry is also part of the rebellion.
11-25-2007 @ 8:50AM
Kim said...
Nothing better than a Bud Light Baby !!!!
11-25-2007 @ 11:06AM
Chris said...
I will drink to that. Bud light is the way to go. You people just dont know good beer when you taste it. Miller beer is the one that taste like horse piss.