Posted on 05/07/2014 4:10:36 AM PDT by Olog-hai
Mission
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Bud light is the top selling domestic beer. It alone sold more than the top 10 imported beers. Bud light could best be described as "non offensive" in that it doesn't taste like much of anything. It's sales has declined almost 1% in the last year. Scary? A sign of changing tastes? To put it in perspective if sales of bud light decreased by 50%...it would still be the top selling domestic beer.
A 1% dip is most likely the result of stale advertising, not Americans suddenly realizing that our most popular beer tastes more like water than beer.
“It’s sales has” wow...Apologies it’s like I slipped into poorly spelled Ebonics or something.
I blame Prohibition for the crappy taste of American mass produced beers. Prohibition wiped out the small local and regional brewers and only the large producers survived. When Prohibition ended the large brewers produced a lager style beer that could be brewed cheaply and in large quantities. Americans were happy just to have beer again and readily drank this swill. Mass marketing, the absence of affordable good beer alternatives and the beer industry becoming a concentrated oligopoly through mergers assured that American beers would remain watery and tasteless. The emergence and regional marketing of craft beers has changed the beer market and particularly younger consumers are now choosing craft beers over the mass produced product. I see the beer industry has evolved into two markets: The concentrated oligopoly of Anheiser InBev/SA Miller/Coors Molson and the monopolist competition market for craft beers.
Sam Adams is what my beer drinking family members choose.
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Well they bought a NY brewery but I think that was only $40 or $50 million. That deal has to close by June. I also heard they are making 2 additional acquisitions but they have not yet been announced as far as I know.
Brings me back to St. Pat’s and the parade boycotts.
Hmmmm, I quit drinking last quarter! /kidding
It is a little ridiculous. Bud, Bud Light, Bud Light Lime, Bud Select, Bud Ice (did all the ice beers finally go away?), Bud Black, etc.
Do they still make Michelob Light? Mich Ultra is a big seller around here.
I enjoy a Stella every once in a while.
Yeah, but that is primary a west coast beer.
“Hamm’s the beer refreshing...Hamm’s the beer refreshing.”
“Brings me back to St. Pat’s and the parade boycotts.”
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That it does. What a strange world we are living in.
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My fellow freeping beer-drinker; here is what I actually typed in post 15:
"Consumer tastes are changing, however...bad beer simply isn't tolerated the way it used to be."
Which explains the growth of craft and microbrewed beer.
"Bud light is the top selling domestic beer. It alone sold more than the top 10 imported beers."
We are discussing a few different topics from net profit, to gross sales, to marketshare of an individual offering...I can go with that. Here's an interesting nugget from The Motley Fool from January:
"Consider the beer market numbers in recent years. Since 1999, beer's percentage of the total alcohol beverage market share has dropped 7% and has declined in four of the past five years. From 2007 to 2012 big beer has lost .03% of barrel market shares.
"Compare this to craft beer, which has seen a 10 % annual growth for craft beer in the same time period. According to The Brewer's Association, the trade group for craft beer, craft beer sales were up 6.5% by volume and 10.5% in dollars in 2012. The same stats through mid-2013 were up 15% and 17%, respectively. Not to put too fine a point on it, in a market that is contracting, all the growth is coming out of big beer's hide. And to add insult to injury, big beer is losing this business despite its huge ad expenditures. Craft breweries, on the other hand, spend almost nothing on advertising."
"Big beer might be able to convert some of their 20-pack customers to their premium beer category, but they are just cannibalizing existing product lines, which are already in decline. Sales of Budweiser, "The King of Beers," for example, declined 29% from 2007 to 2012."
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/01/06/the-story-of-craft-beers-growth-and-how-it-boosts.aspx
That said, I agree that "big beer" isn't in danger of going under...but they are having to adjust to market conditions. It not as easy for them as before and consumers are likely now to be able to sniff out changes to recipes that InBev and others do in an effort to cut costs.
Full disclosure; I have NoDa Hop Drop and Roll IPA as well as Miller High Life Lite in my garage fridge. One is for cutting the yard and the other isn't. OK, all this has made me thirsty...Cheers!
Bud Lite. Cheap junk that isn’t cheap. I’d drink even Busch before Bud, and prefer Guinness or Bells.
I get a chuckle out of the redneck beer PBR becoming the hipster beer. Is Old Mill next?
Picky.
OK. Why don’t we compromise on ‘Spanish Netherlands’ then?
“I get a chuckle out of the redneck beer PBR becoming the hipster beer.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N3iVHxP8FQ
LOL...I guess.
The Budweiser brand is wildly popular overseas. The “beauty” of Budweiser is that it tastes the same wherever you buy it around the world, as AB/InBev imports the water for brewing so the taste is consistent. This was AB’s claim to fame when I took their brewing school at Busch Gardens years ago.
I think their biggest problem is that they’re trying too hard. You see how many products on which Budweiser slaps their name? Bud, Bud Light, Michelob, Michelob Light, Ultra, Shock Top, Bass, Boddingtons, Goose Island, Rolling Rock, Stella, Busch, Kirin... these are all Budweiser-owned brands. They try to soak up markets by inject themselves into them, but they only serve to dilute the purity of certain beers types (i.e. lagers, ales, porters, stouts, etc.) and piss off the hipsters.
I’ll take a Bud Light after a long day working outside, because I know the taste I’m going to get is the same. A lot of the micros and specialty brews I’ve had are inconsistent on the palate.
Interesting the American Dream is being replaced by Socialism here at home, and the American Dream isn't selling in America.
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