Posted on 04/16/2024 1:25:00 PM PDT by Cronos
...Our findings indicate that in the three months following the controversy, Bud Light sales and purchase incidence were about 28% lower than the same time period in prior years. Notably, this initial decline was more pronounced in predominantly Republican counties (as measured by the 2020 presidential vote) than predominantly Democratic counties. Both sales and purchase incidence decreased by about 32% in more Republican counties versus 22% in more Democratic counties.
However, unlike with other consumer boycotts, Bud Light has not bounced back quickly. The sales decline persisted for close to eight months, with sales and purchase incidence down by 32% in Q4 2023. Interestingly, the sales decline in Democratic counties became even larger over time, shrinking the gap between Republican and Democratic counties. This additional decline in sales is likely a result of retailers and distributors reducing shelf space for Bud Light, illustrating how boycotts can lead to a negative feedback loop. What started as a consumer-led boycott generated downstream adjustments from retailers and distributors. These supply-side adjustments hurt the brand’s visibility and further exacerbated the negative impact on Bud Light’s performance.
...To study the substitution behavior of consumers, we identified Bud Light “loyalists” in the Numerator household panel as frequent beer drinkers who purchased Bud Light more than any other brand in the first four months of 2023. Comparing purchase behavior post-controversy to the same time period in 2022, we estimated that in the three months immediately succeeding the boycott, 15% of previously loyal Bud Light customers shifted their primary spending to other brands as part of the boycott. Of those boycotters, 38% transitioned to Coors, 23% to Miller, 14% to Yuengling, and 7% to Modelo. The remaining boycotters distributed their spending across various other beer brands.
(Excerpt) Read more at hbr.org ...
Light Beer is light beer, one can change their "taste" and preference in weeks by going to another similar beer and then becoming loyal to that new beer with no reason to change.
I dropped all AB/Inbev products.
Kill the Beast.
Only homos drink Bud Light.
We don’t boycott often but when we do it sticks. A word to corporations Know Your Customers.
Swill is swill.
Don’t hire someone from Harvard to market products to working class people.
All true, switching a light beer is easy and dropping one of them permanently is easy, I have never heard anyone ever express a strong attachment to a light beer.
Demonstrating that dims are slow on the uptake. That’s why they’re dims in the first place.
Frankly I am surprised it’s ONLY 28%
What does a company have to do, to piss off 50%? I switched razor brands since Gillette pulled their stunt; and will never go back.
I’m skeptical that this is a boycott, that it’s political. If you associate Gucci with homeless bag ladies to market to that demographic, are Gucci’s core customers more or less likely to continue buying its products? Having a cross dresser represent Bud Light was going a niche too far. Imagine Colt putting Stephen Paddock’s face on its AR-15 ads to market to potential mass shooters.
😆😂😅🤣🤣🤣
(Gillette)
I have never bought Gillette since their stupid stunt.
IF it was 90%-95% off on clearance I would
That’s about the only way
My wife has been drinking Bud Lite for decades. She has ignored the boycott.
It’s blacks getting razzed as homosexuals for drinking Butt Lite by their buddies.
No straight guy will willingly touch the stuff.
I still think “boycott” is a poor description of the consequences of the Mulvaney stunt - a boycott largely an organized effort; with Bud Light, people were just individually disgusted, and as such mostly reacted spontaneously to find something else to patronize (which in the light beer world, isn’t all that hard to do).
All light beer tastes bad, those who drink it have atrophied taste buds. It’s not like offended normal people are losing any drinking “pleasure” by changing to a brand that has not insulted them.
Agreed
/echo Permanently!
Can Harvard Business Review be objective on this subject?
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