February 21, 2015

Big beers in trouble

Al Jazeera America

The “Big Two” conglomerates — Anheuser-Busch Inbev and SABMiller — recognize the small beer movement is growing into a legitimate threat. Their anxiety was brought to the fore in February, when Anheuser-Busch went on the offensive against craft beer with a Super Bowl ad that juxtaposed “Pumpkin Peach Ale” — characterized as effete and esoteric — alongside their red-blooded American lager, Budweiser.

Meanwhile, across the country, pitched battles are brewing between Big Beer and small beer lobbies over distribution and franchising laws that determine access to markets. In Congress, dueling bills have been proposed to reduce the steep excise tax on beer in the United States, one of which offers a graduated tax schedule that would benefit small breweries. With their deep pockets and army of lobbying firms, Big Beer might just have its way.

But experts say no amount of marketing can change the fact that traditional low-cost American beers like Budweiser, Coors and Miller are simply going out of style. Studies indicate that younger drinkers are consuming less beer by volume (and more wine and spirits), but that when they do drink beer, they gravitate towards craft. Meanwhile, according to Anheuser-Busch’s own data, 44 percent of people between the ages of 21 and 27 have never even tried Budweiser.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

If these big beer companies would put all the advertising money into producing a good product, maybe people would buy it.

Anonymous said...

1. i've drink/drank/drunk my share of regular 'merikan beers, and most of them -including bud- are piss-water...
2. do NOT get me started on so-called 'lite' beers, which are NOT beer, but beer-flavored water...
i've got your lite beer right here: buy a regular beer, i'll drink half of it, then fill it up with water, and you can have your damn lite beer, dingleberry...
(IF you are drinking THAT MUCH beer that lite beer is necessary to keep you from being a fat pig, you have more pressing problems than 'fat' beer...)