KillerFord1977
SAINT
Heres an industry report I get on the state of the union.
Budweiser is having some serious issues short term.
This is how corp America fails.
You have to appeal to a broad base to succeed. Whether its beer, firearms or clothes.
Bud screwed up big time. You win by spending marketing dollars equally across the spectrum. Fine to have LgBTQ, but have other genres with that like sports, racing, hiking, outdoors, hispanic, multicultural.
Bud does a lot of that already, but they went too far into one group and did not spread equally.
Reminder to keep comments clean. No need for name calling or comments against fellow citizens
Budweiser is having some serious issues short term.
This is how corp America fails.
You have to appeal to a broad base to succeed. Whether its beer, firearms or clothes.
Bud screwed up big time. You win by spending marketing dollars equally across the spectrum. Fine to have LgBTQ, but have other genres with that like sports, racing, hiking, outdoors, hispanic, multicultural.
Bud does a lot of that already, but they went too far into one group and did not spread equally.
Reminder to keep comments clean. No need for name calling or comments against fellow citizens
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May 1, 2023 |
Bud Light Demand Continues to Deteriorate |
| Dear Client: The shocking deterioration of Bud Light Blue’s market share continued apace through the third week of April — and actually somehow worsened. We’ve never seen such a dramatic shift in national share in such a short period of time. As we close out April, the controversy has fully entered the meme stage of social media discourse — meaning it has become a permanent record in the zeitgeist — and the situation has completely spiraled out of the control of the brand owner. A-B is scrambling to get a handle on it. More on that below. VOLUMES. Bud Light’s off-premise volumes slipped to down 26.1% in the week ending April 22, according to NIQ all-channel scan data provided by Bump Williams Consulting. The week before Bud Light was down 21.1%. Year-to-date the brand is down 8%. By comparison, Coors Light was up 13.3% and Miller Lite up 13.6% in that third week of the month. The domestic premium share swap between BL and CL/ML is nearly one-for-one: BL lost 8.3 points while CL gained 4.1 and ML gained 3.7 for a total of 7.8 points of the segment. Now let’s run back the above two paragraphs with dollars. DOLLARS. Bud Light’s off-premise dollars slipped to down 21.4% in the week ending April 22. The week before Bud Light revenues were down 17%. Year-to-date the brand is down 3%. By comparison, Coors Light revs were up 20.5% and Miller Lite up 21% in that third week of the month. Again, the dollar share swap within the segment between BL and CL/ML is nearly one-for-one. NEGATIVE HALO EFFECT. The damage is not limited to Bud Light. “Could this finally be that negative halo effect bleeding over?”, asks Bump Williams in a note. “Busch Light still up double-digit on the YTD as a whole so still leading the segment in the bigger picture, but troubling signs developing over the latest week.” A snapshot of the allied A-B brands: Bud red volumes down 5.2% year-to-date, down 13.1% in the week ending 04/22 Busch Light volumes up 5.3% year-to-date, down 7.5% in the week ending 04/22. Natty Light volumes down 1.8% year-to-date, down 6.5% in the week ending 04/22. A snapshot of competing brands: Pabst Blue Ribbon volumes up 2.8% year-to-date, up 20.2% in the week ending 04/22. Miller High Life volumes down 2.1% year-to-date, up 2.4% in the week ending 04/22. Keystone Light volumes down 1.1% year-to-date, up 8.1% in the week ending 04/22. EVEN MICH ULTRA? And perhaps most concerning for A-B, their growth machine Mich Ultra has hit a wall. Mich Ultra volumes up 4.4% year-to-date, down 8% in the week ending 04/22. We can’t imagine this dramatic shift in trend was motivated by anything other than the Mulvaney backlash. DISTRIBUTORS SHELL-SHOCKED, ANGRY. The handful of A-B distributors we’ve talked to were “disappointed” and “dismayed” and “pissed” (their words) at both A-B’s response in their closed door meeting in Washington last week and their response in general. “No apology … just asking us for more spend,” said one. Brendan’s press release and the Bud Clydesdales ad failed to turn the narrative — in some cases inflamed it — and their few forays into social media have been cruelly ratio’d. Over the weekend, A-B released a Bud Light ad during the NFL Draft. It is by all accounts a great ad, and as of Sunday afternoon had accumulated 9 million views on Youtube, just 2 million shy of its Super Bowl ad. But it only had 195 likes, and the comments were disabled by A-B. (Comments also disabled on BL’sInstagram account). DAMAGE CONTROL. Behind the scenes, BBD has heard from several sources that A-B has engaged its PR and lobbying partners to manage the crisis. Fox Business reports A-B hired “former Republican Senate staffers [Origin Advocacy] to woo lawmakers as it seeks to repair Bud Light’s image among conservatives”. Meanwhile, the Human Rights Campaign is now calling on A-B in a letter to publicly reaffirm its support for the transgender community, reported The Hill. There are smatterings of reports coming in of BL discounting accompanied by increases in in-market co-op spending; and A-B had previously assured distributors they were going to increase marketing spend this spring and summer, likely now to accelerated levels. (Keep in mind that A-B has had its foot firmly on the marketing spend brakes since Covid -- until this year, for which brass has promised some mega investments, like a 60% increase on megabrand media.) MULVANEY RESPONDS. After three weeks of staying under the radar, the influencer at the heart of the controversy seems bemused at the extent of the vitriolic nature of the response in a 3.5 min video posted on instagram and tiktok, which has 335k likes on IG and 2m likes on tiktok, the latter garnering 9.3 million views in two days. “I’ve been offline for a few weeks and a lot has been said about me, some of which is so far from my truth that I was like hearing my name and I didn’t even know who they were talking about sometimes,” she said. She did not mention Bud Light or A-B by name, and she limited comments on the post. BOTTOM LINE. “The vast majority of AB Distributor Leadership and employees have worked hard their entire career to build this brand to the #1 Selling Beer in America,” writes Bump Williams in a note to clients. “NOW is the time to STEP UP and make things happen, to be part of the new BUD LIGHT relaunch and rebuild effort.” “I see this as a very clear and massive opportunity for every single employee at ABI to become a salesperson today; and be part of the biggest Rebuild, Relaunch and to Reinvent the Bud Light franchise with specific, measurable, accountable and aligned goals. This problem is NOT going away no matter how much you hope it will. This is BAD for the entire Beer industry, not just Bud Light and the ABI portfolio.” A-B will have an opportunity to outline a plan of action next week as it meets with its distributors in St. Louis. |
