If we were Carlos Brito, Anheuser-Busch InBev’s ceo, we’d be deeply worried. Sales and share keep slipping in the U.S.
We think part of the problem is a totally failed advertising strategy that has emphasized social media and digital, which while cheap have limited reach, compared to the power of major advertising on tv and in print.
Add to that, ABI cut the number of Budweiser Clydesdale hitches traveling the country, and in many cases has charged for their appearance. It (wrongly, in our view), sold off Busch Entertainment, which owned Sea World and Busch Gardens.
And it moved A-B’s marketing staff from St. Louis to New York City, putting increasing distance between the marketers and the people who drink beer, especially mega-beers. Big companies require big brands, which makes it much harder to be close to their customer.
If advertising success hinges on keeping your brand name constantly in front of consumers, ABI has done just about everything it can to march in the opposite direction – something its sales show. But that’s just our opinion. We could be wrong.
In the end, for ABI and all bev/al marketers, the key is to get the right beer (or spirit or wine) in front of the right consumer at the right time. Here, we think, craft has the edge. In one-on-one interactions with consumers, the craft proprietor gets a good feeling for what beer the consumer wants, and can swiftly shift production if needed.
It’s much harder for larger brewers, and especially for multinational corporations like ABI. One thing they can do is to tap into a steady flow of data, and A-B is trying to do that, purchasing a stake in RateBeer through ABI’s ZX Ventures subsidiary.
That’s a good move, and we hope it works. For more on that, read this article in the Bend (Ore.) Bulletin.
But – in our opinion – the best thing Brito and all the marketers at A-B could do is get out of their offices and travel across the country, visiting every state and talking to American beer drinkers in their homes and in their pubs and clubs.