Lessons from the Bud Light Boycott, One Year Later

Harvard business review ^ | 20th March 2024 | Jura Liaukonyte, Anna Tuchman, and Xinrong Zhu

[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.

[rhinohunter]

Only homos drink Bud Light.

Can’t be repeated enough….

[BlueMondaySkipper]

This is exactly what I was saying all along.

By Budweiser making this stupid move, many of their previously loyal customers picked a different beer. Now that they are drinking that other beer, there really isn’t any motivation to change back. These customers are lost FOREVER, no matter what Bud tries to lure them back.

Take the Super Bowl commercial with Peyton Manning and Emmitt Smith. Rather than dragging drinkers back to Bud, they drug fans away from Manning and Smith.

It’s a wonderful thing to see actually.

[Cronos]

Toxic Gillette showed me that there are cheaper yet better brands out there.