Posted on 05/11/2023 12:09:41 PM PDT by Morgana
HSBC has downgraded Anheuser-Busch InBev stock to hold amid a "crisis" following Bud Light's marketing campaign featuring transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney.
Carlos Laboy, managing director at HSBC's global beverage sector, told CNBC that there are "deeper problems than ABI admits" after the social media partnership with Mulvaney in April.
"Is ABI’s leadership getting the brand culture transformation right? It’s mixed," Laboy wrote Wednesday in a note.
At Ambev, we think the answer is ‘yes;’ in the US, we think it’s ‘no.’ The way this Bud Light crisis came about a month ago, management’s response to it and the loss of unprecedented volume and brand relevance raises many questions," Laboy continued.
Laboy cited a Beer Marketer's Insights note which reported a drop in beer sales of possibly over 25% in April.
"Why did its US leadership underestimate the risk of pushback given the recent experience of other firms? Is A-B hiring the best people to grow the brands and gauge risk?" the analyst added. "If Budweiser and Bud Light are iconic American ideas that have long brought consumers together, why did these marketers fail to invite new consumers without alienating the core base of the firm’s largest brand?"
Ambev is a Brazilian brewery also owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev.
In the first three weeks of April, sales in the U.S. of Bud Light dropped to the equivalent of 1% of the company's global volume for the time period.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxbusiness.com ...
How can this be? All I hear is how conservative boycotts have no effect.
Haha!
Alissa replies "Of course they are! Why do you ask? I have an MBA from the Wharton School. I'm the best there is! There's no one better than me to grow the brand."
Time for AB to pull Bud Lite off the market and after a reasonable period of time introduce another lite beer under a difference label.
Her next job: “Paper or plastic.”
She won’t be able to ask “Would you like fries with that?” at Carl’s Junior any longer.
Given the undeniable fact that the VP of Marketing disregarded every cardinal rule of advertising testing in favor of her personal politics, a resounding NO. From a corporate point of view, "How could you not know?" is a perfectly justified question.
"What are we going to do about it?" is a much more difficult question, which is why they pay that level of management the big bucks. At the moment it looks like they're dead in the water. If they don't have an answer by Memorial Day they all should be looking for other work.
Or better yet, picking up garbage on the side of the freeway!
I’d like to see her eating out of trash cans and sleeping in a cardboard box!
A-B isn't hiring the 'best and brightest', they're hiring based on sexual kink, color and NEPO (who's you're daddy and 'connection')... Bite the dust haters..
Corporate boards take heed - or else fail utterly.
Simple as that.
Her next job: “Paper or plastic.” or, “You want to super-size those fries?”
I’ll do what I can to save them as long as they keep selling Platinum
Just popped another slim lost count
If that “one can” did not exist the result of the crossdresser being the new symbol of Bud would have been he same. The problem is not one picture on one can at all.
Someone give that horse a sugar cube and a brush down
Make it hurt.
Oh my beer stock is plummeted.
Not
I have an MBA and can tell you this was the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen in marketing. Rule #1 Know you customer.
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