Budweiser Popularity Plummeting

Budweiser Popularity Plummeting:

1.Budweiser:

The self-proclaimed King of Beers, is giving away free samples Sept 29th to drive brand familiarity and brand awareness in a fruitless attempt at slowing their rapidly shrinking market share.

2. Budweiser’s market share fell 9% in 2009 and has already fallen 9% so far this year. This contrasts strongly with craft beer (aka micro-brew) sales which are up 9% by volume and 12% by retail dollars in 2010 after growing 7.2% in volume and 10.3% dollars in 2009.**

3.This contrast between the trend-lines for Budweiser and craft beers couldn’t be starker. But at least Budweiser has company – light beer and import sales are shrinking too, as are overall beer sales, although not by as much. See my previous post for more on this topic:  Light Beer sales are down! I’m Shocked! . The gains in both market share and in revenue for craft beer are really remarkable especially if you consider that they’ve grown market share for a premium-priced product during a recession.  

4.I find it interesting that Budweiser sees the problem that they are having, as one caused by a marketing deficiency given how much they spend on marketing already, and not a problem with their product. This is a fundamental misdiagnosis of the problem, but an understandable one when you consider the fact that beer drinkers have lost loyalty to Bud every year for the past seven years, according to research firm Brand Keys. Bud’s ranking among national product brands slipped from 16th in 2003 to 220th in 2010.

5.Of course the real issue is that increasingly people are choosing which brands of beer to drink based on flavor, marketing and price instead of being influenced by marketing and price alone. This trend doesn’t bode well for Budweiser, a beer known more for its Clydesdales than for the results of its “beechwood aging”.  To support this free sample campaign, Budweiser has trademarked the slogan and tagline - “Grab some Buds”. Which highlights the painful truth that the days of Budweiser’s marketing team coming up with a catchy and compelling slogan are long gone.

-Compare and contrast these two ads. The first ad is from when Budweiser really was the “King of Beers” and the second is a more recent Budweiser effort from the 2010 Super Bowl.