Anheuser-Busch’s recent marketing missteps with Bud Light, particularly its controversial collaboration with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney, have placed its top-selling status in jeopardy.
Analysts predict a potential loss of its leading position in the US beer market to Modelo Especial by year-end due to a significant 30% drop in sales.
Former ad executive Robert Lachky, who guided Budweiser to its number one position and oversaw Bud Light’s rise over Miller Light as America’s favorite light beer, expressed his disappointment at the brewing company’s current predicament.
Known for creating iconic Bud commercials such as “Whassup?” and “Talking Frogs”, Lachky, now running a consulting firm in St. Louis, spoke candidly to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about Anheuser-Busch’s self-inflicted crisis.
“It took us 20 years to take Bud Light beer to the number one beer in the country, and it took them one week to dismantle it,” Lachky stated, attributing the company’s plight to a “complete lack of corporate oversight.”
Since the controversy surrounding Mulvaney’s involvement erupted a month ago, Anheuser-Busch’s handling of the situation has been inconsistent.
Initial assertions that Bud Light needed to target younger and more female demographics swiftly turned into damage control measures as backlash mounted.
The individual responsible for Mulvaney’s recruitment was reportedly put on indefinite leave, and the creative agency behind the campaign was terminated.
Despite these efforts, the controversy shows no signs of abating, with several US gay bars boycotting Anheuser-Busch’s products in response to the company’s perceived failure to support Mulvaney.
Anheuser-Busch global CEO Michel Doukeris attempted to downplay the situation by blaming “misinformation and disinformation” spread online.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Doukeris clarified, “We never intended to make it for general production and sale for the public… it was one post. It was not an advertisement.”
However, data published on Beer Business Daily indicates that Bud Light sales have declined nationwide since the controversy began.
HSBC analysts have also downgraded Anheuser-Busch’s stock due to the brewing company’s ongoing “crisis” resulting from the marketing fiasco. Carlos Laboy, a managing director at HSBC’s global beverage sector, changed Anheuser-Busch InBev’s stock to a hold status, advising investors against buying or selling the company’s shares.
Laboy questioned Anheuser-Busch’s marketing strategy, asking, “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?”
Anheuser-Busch’s current predicament serves as a stark reminder of the importance of understanding and prioritizing a brand’s core audience.
As the company navigates this crisis, reconnecting with its traditional consumer base could be the key to restoring Bud Light’s lost glory.
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