I'm so embarrassed that the US has spawned this aberration

No Apple Jacks were harmed in the making of this wax sealer...

 

Ha - no thanks

 

Couple of good choices there to drink, especially since by time you get there it'll probably be too late in the year to see if Santa's Butt is any better than its reviews.

 

This is to much...Ridiculous.

 

People need to lighten up. I think it's clever considering he product. I guess if Sweet Baby Jesus came with a peanut butter cup around it's neck all would be fine?

 

Have you tasted it?
How do you know its "average-ish"
Some might say that the St.Berardus Abt. 12 looks childish or Maine Beer Co. labels look too much like bad home brew and therefore the product should be treated as such.
Judge the product not the packaging.

 

I will buy it if I see it. Probably will take a while to get to my area...the froot loops will be faded by then :/

 

It reminds me of some legit craft breweries that do "bloody" beers or margarita beers. Basically taking their light pilsners base beer and trying to replicate "popular" mixed beer styles (ie chelada, and bud light lime-a-rita). It seems to draw in enough variety of people. So I can't fault them for trying. As long as their other beers stay gimmicky free and taste good, I am happy.

 

Apple Jacks: sugar (42%); wheat, corn, oats; fibre (10%); <2% colour, oil, vitamins etc.

That brewery chose an expensive way to buy sugar.

 

In a fight for shelf space it isn't the first gimmick beer, and certainly not the last. I'll pass.

 

Sure, I don't think I ever said it was "just marketing", but you pointed out one minor marketing mis-step for Bud Light and ignored the 20+ years of best in market advertising (granted, I think Budweiser's marketing is better, but that's another discussion for another time). It's also somewhat important to bring up the old pt Barnum idea of "it doesn't matter what you say about me, just make sure you spell my name right" which suggests there is no bad marketing, even if to some people it's a questionable statement about sexual assault. Also, if I remember correctly, up for whatever was already on its way out and the bad press didn't really do anything but kill the campaign that was at the end of its life anyway. It isn't like a minor marketing misstep caused them to change the packaging from blue to purple and send Carlos Brito on a nationwide apology tour with the masses running to coors light.

Trying to bring things back to a more current example for beer though, because somebody is going to angrily suggest I'm endorsing sexual assault by point out that the bud light label didn't materially affect sales. Let's look at the three main hard root beers right now, nyfrb, Coney Island and best damn root beer.

NYFRB - First to market advantage, actually convinced some people it was a craft beer and had great packaging and a good product (well...for what it is)

Coney Island - Seemed to me like a "me too" from BBC, not a ton of marketing, ok packaging (seems too busy to me) and a product that has more of a sassparilla flavor with spice and such, probably more focused to the craft customer.

Best Damn Root Beer - last to market by a mile, a decent amount of marketing (I've seen a few commercials and a ton of billboards), great packaging and branding (simple, to the point and catches people's attention) and a product that tastes like the A&W hard candy (if you're into that type of thing, I think it's the best of the three but haven't drank nyfrb in a year)

So, which strategy is working? Nyfrb is out selling best damn roughly 1.5:1 right now nationwide (and closing). Best damn is outselling Coney Island by almost 3:1.

It would pretty much appear that with three similar products, all brand new with no brand equity the one that appears to me to be the best marketed is giving the first to market a run for its money. Without any one being a significantly better product than the other.

So, I'll repeat that while there is always more than just marketing, but I think it's what really moves the most liquid. So...enjoy your GINORMOUS ASS BLOWING STOUT, or your arrogant bastard, or even your best damn root beer (golly, they used damn on packaging, think of the children!) and realize that the naming, branding and marketing really is powerful and if you want to move beer, get some hot women to take pictures drinking it or something. If you believe it's selling out, that's fine, but the people who will hand the hot chick with big boobs wearing their brewery shirt holding a bottle on a motorcycle is going to sell more beer (even if the beer sucks)

 

I don't know. This kind of dumb gimmick is far less embarrassing than every third IPA being named "hop-something" or "something-hop."

Hey everyone! We are releasing our brand new Russian Imperial Stout this Friday! We are still working on a name, but rest assured it will contain a whimsical reference to the Tsar or communism, and will definitely feature a backwards "R!"

 

So that seems to mean that when you said:

"Great marketing drives the vast majority of beer sales, not the liquid in the glass."

That it wasn't meant as strongly as it came across and did not really mean, as so many do, that Bud Light or any other AAL drinkers only drink such beers because of marketing, or as you seem to be saying in your last paragraph if it weren't for the hot chicks with their brewery shirts more people would choose favorful beers rather than choose them because they prefer lightly flavored beverages.

 

But I know of someone who can make America great again things will get better. drumpf 2016!

 

It's gimmicks, eh? I got your gimmicks right here:



You can thank Sound Brewery and Warner Brothers for this stuff.

 

Hulk Hogan Sex tapes, Kardashians, Trump threatening to win the nomination, Flint water poisoning, Housewives of <fill in city>, woman awarded $165k for walking into a ladder while texting... This is sooooo low on the to be ashamed of meter...

 

Eh, whatever. No worse than Rogue's pink bottle of garbage juice.

If it got good ratings I'd purchase it, like any other beer.

 

You tell em Relic! (where's Nick?)

 

There was a huge hidden cheat in that, think about what the vast majority of beer sold is.... Looking at the light lagers (which all have heavy marketing), yes it is absolutely important. Budweiser has completely reversed course as has Miller lite in the last year. New liquid? Nope, new distribution? Nope. Significant macroeconomic changes improving beer sales? Nope. Beer growing as a share of the beverage alcohol market? Nope. So, what does that leave us with? New packaging, pos, ad campaigns, etc.

Bmc drinkers also have extremely strong brand loyalty, I think a lot of that is brought on by marketing and then maintained by marketing.

I have to be more careful on the next part. I personally believe that in many cases, the liquid in the glass could be easily switched without the drinker knowing. I know of a bar that ran out of Miller lite and just hooked up coors light and bud light kegs until their next delivery and not a customer said a word. If somebody did the same trick with Sam Adams Rebel Grapefruit and Grapefruit Sculpin, I think you would hear few if any questions from customers. Similar things with Stella and Heineken, glbc Elliott Ness and Boston lager, I could keep going. This isn't to say that any of the above beers are in any way an inferior beer, but instead that customer's palettes can be easily manipulated. Heck, this theory has been proven in university studies where sommeliers were given samples of the same wine with different descriptions and then rated them differently.

 

I reread and realized I went deeper than I needed to. Yes, if brewery x had great marketing, it could lead an aal customer into a more flavorful beer. Now, to have that customer ever buy a second one they have to enjoy the first. If they take a first sip of an iipa and spit it out and see bud light on tap, craft beer has lost a customer. But yes, if craft beer was better marketed, it would win market share both compared to weaker craft breweries and possibly get traffic away from aal.