Posted on 06/06/2023 10:15:01 AM PDT by SoConPubbie
Memorial Day customarily kicks off summer and the beer beverage industry generally looks forward to the enhanced sales that come from summer. However, if the recently published reports of Anheuser-Busch sales are accurate, which includes a stunning 60% sales drop during the holiday, the brand position of Bud Light is in freefall.
While the impacts do have a regional trend based on consumer boycotts and patterns, when the Daily Mail reports, “numbers are suffering primarily due to a decline in Bud Light sales that reached as high as a 60 percent drop off over the week that ended on Memorial Day,” we can be certain the executive offices of A/B are watching closely. The feedback from wholesalers and distributors to the parent company must be something beyond alarm.
Worse still, the forward-looking data trend doesn’t offer any hope. Things are getting worse for the parent company.
(Daily Mail) – […] For the week ending May 20, Bud Light sales across the US fell nearly 26 percent compared to the same period last year. For the week ending May 6, in-store sales plummeted 23.6 percent. And the week before that, ending April 29, sales dropped by 23.3 percent.
This follows declines in sales for the week ending April 22, which saw a 21.4 percent decline. Seven days earlier, the dip has been 17 percent, according to NielsenIQ data provided to Dailymail.com by Bump Williams Consultancy.
The data – showing that US sales of Bud Light are dropping by as much as 20 percent each week – is being uniformly viewed by industry experts as a negative trend that may not reverse itself anytime soon.
Beer Business Daily editor Harry Schuhmacher told Fox News Digital that the ‘whole industry is in shock’. (read more)
It is safe to say the Bud Light brand is now firmly connected to the image of transgender ideology. As a result, it would appear that anyone who holds a Bud Light beverage is essentially identifying themselves as a transvestite pickle-puffer, and that could potentially draw considerable side-eyes from anyone in a public place outside the region of San Francisco, California.
As further noted by the New York Post, “Demand for Bud Light over the crucial Memorial Day weekend — the official kickoff of the summer beer buying season — was lukewarm with many store shelves still holding cases of the once mighty beer, Williams said after a spot check of local stores. At least one store was trying to unload a 24-pack of Bud Light for just $3.49, according to Beer Business Daily.”
Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Michel Doukeris reportedly addressed the ongoing boycott’s impact on delivery drivers, salespeople, and wholesalers on a recent earnings call. It is a little bit odd to see A/B positioning themselves as victims of their customers.
“This situation has impacted our people and especially our frontline workers: The delivery drivers, sales representatives, our wholesalers, Bud owners and servers,” Doukeris said, according to ABC News. “These people are the fabric of our business. They are our neighbors, family members, and friends. They are in every community in America. We’ve been doing everything we can to support our teams.”
It would appear that Anheuser-Busch the corporation, are refusing to accept or acknowledge their responsibility in creating this crisis for their brand. The brand image issue was not forced upon them. These were decisions made by the marketing division of the company, and now they place blame for the consequences on their customers.
Every time, in every story, in every print and broadcast update, as the ongoing events are told or written – every visual aide that accompanies the news includes that weird guy with the Bud Light beer in his hand. This is now a bizarre marketing self-fulfilling prophecy. The articles and news telling updates to the story are now optically affirming the Bud Light brand as a beverage exclusively for transgenders.
This level of ongoing public relations failure is something for the record books. I wonder if Target Inc is paying attention.
“This is not a boycott in the conventional sense . . .”
Spot on - the electorate didn’t ‘boycott’ George Bush when he broke his “read my lips, no new taxes” promise - they just realized they wanted no part of him from that point on. I can drink pretty much any cheap light beer out there if I want something to wash down my picnic hot dog - why in the hell would I want a Bud Light after they pulled a stunt that essentially shoved some silly perversion in my face?
HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?
Whatever
“The first mistake was putting a women in charge of their advert. Those who picked her quickly forgot that it’s mostly MEN who make the Beer Runs for picnics and occassions of celebration. It goes with the manly thing of cooking on the grill.”
I don’t think male vs female is the issue here.
I think was in hiring a super woke, “I am smarter than all you beer drinking rubes”, Ivy League, left-ist.
Giving them the explicit instructions and direction to market this product to an “inclusive” and “ diverse” group. to expand their reach.
And then throwing her under the bus when it all blew up.
They’d be better off to basically terminate the brand altogether. Don’t they have other lite beers?
Dump AH Stock now; its going to the bottom.
The ‘unwoke’ masses are telling the ‘woke to WAKE UP! We all smell blood in the water, and are sending a message to the woke companies: Forget the idiotic woke BS, and listen to your customers. We want beer, not Bull####. If we can bankrupt AB, maybe they’ll get the message.
I have heard a-b inbev is a donor of trumps.
That would explain the trump families reactions to this.
You said.....”I don’t think male vs female is the issue here.”.....
Oh I absolutely do...... Most men in her position would not have even considered putting that face on a beer can let alone promote him the way she did. Understanding ones customers is the first considration in any marketing event. Women think differently than men as this stunt absolutely proved.
A-H, and InBev, might to watch out for contagion if that perception starts bleeding into other brands.
We are looking for some one or something to punish to express our unhappiness and Bud Light just saddled up and rode eyes wide shut into the Woke box canyon and then got ambushed and scalped.
Looks like we have another conspiracy on our hands .....
the lady with no top teeth ....
who is behind .... “THE beer of Trans””
could this be a case of “Tranny want-a-be?”
Can a secret cabal of tranny want-a-bes be behind the
“ABANDONMENT” of one of the pillars of backyard bar-b-ques and frat parties?
And to what end ? ....
” in Kroger. Nobody is buying it.”
..so our entire food distrubution system is at risk as stacks of BL clog the artery of commerce.
hmmm .... this could go deeper then we know ....
No doubt
“Oh I absolutely do...... Most men in her position would not have even considered putting that face on a beer can let alone promote him the way she did. Understanding ones customers is the first considration in any marketing event. Women think differently than men as this stunt absolutely proved.”
I have little doubt that she did EXACTLY what AB asked her to do.
IMO. AB wanted to be “more inclusive”, pro lgb. less “frat-boy”. And show off how good and WOKE they were.
When it all blew up, they threw her under the bus.
Which also explains why she has not been fired.
I understand he prefers that position.
Target, Bud Light, Miller Lite, and other CEO’s that destroyed the stock of the companies they were entrusted to keep profitable should commit suppuku to demonstrate their loyalty and fealty to the company to which they injured.
The displays at Wal-Mart are pricing it at less than $1/aluminum bottle, and about 50 cents per can.
The good news for AB is that the year to year weekly sales numbers for Bud Light will not be falling much a year from now. Some of their brands may actually show increases, because their portfolio is so large that most consumers don’t realize all the brands owned by or affiliated with AB, and consumers may switch from BL to Modelo, for example. If that happens the furloughed advertising execs will take credit for the increases.
Great news!
Please don’t forget to not buy any other AB InBev brand, too.
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