Budweiser 1933 Prohibition Repeal

Frankly, I'm often puzzled by "buds" marketing strategy. They have a number of products that, at least to my eye, appear to compete largely only with other bud products (I honestly have no idea how one chooses between a delightful glass of National Lite and the cup of bliss otherwise known as Busch lite). I keep on thinking that they're going to cull the herd one of these days, and maybe limit themselves to two or three entries in the light lager swill category (BA data base shows 10 or 11 of them at present). Maybe that would increase overall sales in the remaining line-up, and perhaps even free up some brewing capacity for things like B1933.

Quick story (to illustrate my point). Many years ago, back when InBev-AB was just plain old AB, AB experimented with a "craft" line-up under the pseudo brewery name of Elk Mountain (I think there was a EM red and EM amber). I first saw it on a menu at a café in North Lake Tahoe, and just assumed it was some new microbrewery (back in those days - early 90's - it seemed like a new brewpub or microbrewery was opening every month in California). I ordered a glass and was very impressed, It was delicious. I asked the waiter if he could check the keg to see where it came from (who had made it), and he came back and told me "AB." The café had several AB products on the menu, so I just assumed he must have looked at the wrong keg. The waiter laughed and assured me it was the correct keg, noting that the same thought had crossed his mind, and so he double checked to make sure he had the right keg. Then as now, I was no big fan of AB products, but even so, I felt I had to call a spade a spade. The beer I tasted was quite good (and so I vowed to keep an eye out for it, and to look for it at my local store).

This is where things get weird (and where my story becomes at least somewhat relevant to your post). I think I saw EM a couple of more times over the next few months, but that was it. Given that the beer was made by AB, with all their brewing capacity, and given that it was obviously superior (at least I thought so) to every other beer they'd ever made, I couldn't believe the market wasn't flooded with the stuff. As it turned out, I went to the GABF that year (94), and planned to stop by the AB booth and inquire about EM, assuming it was there at the fest. Unfortunately, they weren't pouring EM at the AB booth (though they had the whole line-up of "pre prohibition" beers available to sample), but then of all things, I ran into an entirely separate EM booth elsewhere in the auditorium. Some young woman was pouring beer at the EM booth (she was the only person there), and I went right up to her, gushing about the beer and what a triumph this was for AB (IMHO). It became obvious very quickly that she was not the least bit pleased that I was aware the beer was made by AB, and became very sarcastic and nasty when I told her how impressed I was that AB could make a beer like that.

I think a year or so later I read in the Celebrator that AB planned to discontinue the EM line-up, apparently due to lagging sales. A thousand different "actual" reasons came to mind at the time, but to this day I wonder about AB's decision to make a beer like EM, and their reasons for not trying harder to promote the beer. Anyway, your comments and observations about B1933 immediately put me in mind of EM.

 

Understood and completely agree, but you do have to wonder at what point does a brewery decide they've reach the point of diminishing returns. Arguably, AB-Inbev could grab even more market share from Miller/Coors if they produced a half dozen more lite beers, but at some point the amount of gain would likely be negated by the cannibalization they would start seeing from other brands under the AB-InBev umbrella. The net gain simply wouldn't offset the net loss and increased expenses they were incurring.

My point was to suggest that perhaps the saturation point has already been reached, and that perhaps the savings achieved by brand consolidation might offset any market share loss they might experience (which frankly, I expect would likely be pretty minor, though of course there's probably no way to be absolutely sure of that).

If memory serves, there was considerable speculation about what would happen at AB once it was absorbed by InBev. Many folks speculated that with possible duplicate and triplicate offering now in various style niches, it would make sense for AB-InBev to consolidate brands at some point (I know I certainly expected this to happen). Granted, my impression is largely based on what I've read and seen online, but that really doesn't seem to have happened. At least not to any great degree.