Bud Lite forgot they are but one fish in an enormous sea.
Exactly right, it’s what business schools charge money to teach MBAs about - “change cost”. Sometimes the cost of change is high and a real barrier - like the old cigarette ads “I’d rather fight than switch”. Many whisky drinkers are like that - they will never consider some “rotgut” over their preferred Jack Daniels or Makers Mark or whatever.
AB Inbev thought there Bud Light customers were too, but they figured wrong. Light beer is light beer, and the change cost is minimal, just a matter of grabbing a different package or ordering a different beer at the bar.
Companies like Budweiser pay people a lot of money to know this stuff and I’m sure they did - the delicious part is, they let their drive to be woke and hip over-ride their business knowledge and totally screwed the pooch. This wasn’t a simple mistake or flesh wound, they looked right down the barrel and pulled the trigger anyway.