AB InBev Bashing Craft?

I thought the same thing with the "Macro we stand" line but then I realized that they are likely going for the young twenty somethings that have friends that either talk up craft (or micro) or slam macro. Perhaps the young good looking party folks bouncing around beach balls are peddling a good time to be had, absent from snifters and fussing over beer. The Bud brand is simply carving out their niche as a fun time party beer. I'd be willing to bet that AB has spent a ton of money on research that said "go after THIS group with THIS message".

Bashing other brands is pretty prevalent right this minute. Pepsi is bashing Coke with their "win concert tickets v. woowee - your name might be on the bottle or you can hug a polar bear" spots. Dominos is also tearing the hell out of Pizza Hut in their we ads. Sure, the picture is blurred but we all know who it is...

 

True. Also those old Mac commercials with Justin Long that portrayed PCs as a clumsy, somewhat dim-witted old man. Also also, the Rob Lowe commercials where DirecTV bashes cable.

 

Us vs. Them mentality sells product. Always has.

 

They recognize that they produce an inferior product to what craft brewers are making and also realize the inevitable rise of craft brews. My generation (20-30) right now may change the whole landscape of beer years down the road.

Right now, there are still plenty of 40-70 year olds that only drink within the macro market because they are ignorant (not stupid, but truly ignorant) of the craft world. When us 20-30 year olds who love craft are the old heads in their 70s drinking beer, the entire scene will have changed. The younger generation now is focused on quality more than ever and we like nice things such as organic food and other clean nice items. We will be raising our kids and instead of growing up seeing Budweiser cans in the fridge, they will know their dad drinks Founders All Day and Imperial Stout. They will identify that as what beer is and hopefully pick up on it when the time comes and then pass it along to their children.

I hope to see a day where macro is fighting for their life after the craft revolution is complete. Or who knows, maybe craft levels off and can only attain a certain level of popularity while macro dominates still. I hope scenario 1 is the case though

The same way that the fast food industry is losing business because of an awareness of better quality options may be the same fate of macro brewers. McDonalds fired their CEO after a huge dip in profits. We may see that in beer culture within 10 years

 

Hedging themselves I guess. Probably more likely to alienate the bud drinker, by showing a commercial with a guy drinking bud and another drinking honkers, where they're getting along famously. I imagine they've done the research, and they think it's a stronger move to keep playing the all-american man's drink card.

I'm sure the average bud drinker neither knows nor cares about the ultimate ownership of BP / GI etc. So they buy into that to get straight access to craft share. And on the Bud side, they keep on keeping on.

Also I think it's important to note that AB-Inbev owns Bud and GI, not that Bud owns Bud and GI. They're separate business units.

 

This former Beer Ad Exec's blog which quotes industry analysts and sales figures disagrees -
Thank you, craft beer: Budweiser® posts best performance in 20 years

 

I forgot about those Justin Long ads - they were pretty good.

 

Exactly. One of the owners of Elysian (in a Brewbound video interview - so I can't cite it exactly) told the story of Carlos Brito and other ABI exec visiting Elysian after the purchase and they served them their Pumpkin Peach Beer - soon after that Budweiser commercial ridiculing such a beer. Brito and his suits thought it was hilarious and took pics of them drinking the beer and sent them to the Budweiser brand manager(s) to tweak them.

 

I've made some comments to this effect before, but taking the marketing approach of skewering your competitor can be a successful strategy and increase sales/share, but it's risky for a couple of reasons:

1) It's generally a bad idea to directly mention a competitor. It should be avoided if possible (although there are obviously exceptions to every rule). Because even in cases where you are mentioning them only to demonstrate how you are better than them in some facet, getting their name out there broadcasts to consumers that there is a choice. The best marketing manages to demonstrate how your product is desirable to a consumer without having to use your competitor as benchmark. Mentioning a competitor is a risk even in pretty straightforward comparison marketing where you aren't necessarily making fun of your competitor.

2) In marketing where you are not only mentioning your competitor but making fun of them, you run into the risk of turning off customers who may not be loyal to your brand already. The Samsung "Next Big Thing" commercials where they basically make fun of iPhone users come to mind (EDIT: and the excellent examples mentioned above--Mac v. PC, Pepsi v. Coke, etc.) Advertising like that (and like the recent slew of ABInBev commercials we've seen) will often galvanize your existing consumer base, but they aren't very good at bringing in new consumers. And they tend to push away consumers who currently prefer your competitor from *ever* considering your brand (although those consumers are the hardest to convert in the first place, and therefore are not as big of a loss).

For these reason, you often only see companies use this kind of strategy if they feel they are in a compromised position in the marketplace. Usually they are either trailing the market share leader or they are losing market share.

 

Well, when the head of the company has the following approach, ya can't really expect much from them: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/d6029592-0eb9-11e5-8aca-00144feabdc0.html#slide0

 

It's about moving units. They still need to move units of Budweiser. The core audience of Budweiser isn't going to make the move to craft beer. It's an obvious ad campaign. In addition they have bought craft breweries to have the ability to keep distribution of beer numbers. It's not an emotional decision on their part.

 

Wow. I would never want to work in that environment. I'm stressed out from reading that.

 

Yep. Brito takes over, kicks out the experienced folks and replaces everyone with 'fresh blood' that he thinks can be molded in his likeness, but they have no idea what they're doing... and performance just keeps going down and down, turnover in the upper ranks is like a perpetual motion machine, and the stockholders are all just sitting around going 'meh, let's see how this plays out.'

I just don't get it man, where do these people get their sense of logic?

Oh by the way, Brito studied accounting at Harvard. Not business management. Big shock.

 

The interesting thing is that I believe they are feeding off of craft trends as well. I was watching a soccer game yesterday, and I noticed the Budweiser banner above the score box, that just came across with text that says "Beechwood aged" and "Since 1872". I know that not many people in craft circles give that statement much merit, and that no drinker, bud drinkers included have given a shit that its been beechwood aged since 1872, but I seriously think that they are playing off of current trends of barrel aging by beating the beechwood thing to death in their marketing campaigns. They can bash it all they want, but they are using it to their advantage as well.

 

Oh I'd bet the Phillies to win the World Series this year before I guaranteed the success of any marketing campaign - just saying that they've likely been handed some sort of data that suggested success in going this route.

 

I live in a rural area where craft beers are not usually available in bars, and I used to order Bud when I went out. The ads have totally turned me off, and I haven't ordered one since. Probably not a big loss for AB though, as I avoid the bars as much as possible due to a lack of good beer anyway!

 

Im sure you guys saw this from Ninkasi

 

Since buying up breweries like Elysian and Goose Island, i would say it's more akin to a brand like Toyota running commercials that bash Lexus, saying something like "Why fuss over all these fancy features when you can have an honest car that gets you from point A to point B. They're really doing themselves a disservice.