Bud Light was once known as a staple of American beer with the slogan “easy to drink, easy to enjoy.” However, the newest Vice President of Marketing at Bud Light came into the job with very different plans for the beer’s brand image.
Alissa Heinerscheid, the current Bud Light VP of Marketing, claimed the brand is in “decline” and requires more diversity in its target audience. “I’m a businesswoman, I had a really clear job to do when I took over Bud Light, and it was ‘This brand is in decline, it’s been in a decline for a really long time, and if we do not attract young drinkers to come and drink this brand there will be no future for Bud Light,’” Heinerscheid said.
Shortly after these comments, it was revealed Bud Light would seek a brand partnership with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney. Heinerscheid emphasized that the brand needs to be more inclusive and even slammed existing customers as “fratty” and “out of touch”. “It means inclusivity it means shifting the tone. It means having a campaign that’s truly inclusive and feels lighter and brighter and different and appeals to women and to men and representation is it sort of the heart of evolution, you got to see people who reflect you in the work and we have a hangover. I mean, Bud Light had been kind of a brand of Friday. Kind of out of touch humor, and it was really important that we had another approach,” she said.
Bud Light has since seen a plummet in sales as backlash mounts against the beer for ignoring its target audience. Jeff Fitter, the owner of Case & Bucks restaurant and sports bar, told Fox News, “I think society flexes it muscles sometimes and reminds manufacturers that the consumer is still in charge. In Bud Light’s effort to be inclusive, they excluded almost everybody else, including their traditional audience.” Fitter claims sales of bottled Bud Light dropped 30% over the past week while draught beer fell 50%. The Daily Wire reported on other instances of decreased demand for Bud Light:
It wasn’t just Case & Bucks that saw sales of Bud plummet. Brewhouse owner Alex Kesaris told Fox that 80% of Bud Light drinkers ordered something else this week, “while the 20% who did order the beer ‘weren’t on social media and hadn’t heard yet.’”
A national beer-industry analyst told Fox Business that Bud Light’s move was a “bad decision” that defied “virtually every rule in building brands and marketing.”
The analyst cited a scenario in Texas, where Bud Light has long sponsored a weekly dart league that draws more than 100 players every Thursday. The bar usually blows through three kegs of Bud Light at the event — nearly 500 12-ounce glasses.
Aside from anecdotal stories of sales plummeting around the country, Anheuser Busch lost billions in market value since the inception of the Bud Light brand deal with Dylan Mulvaney. According to The National Pulse:
On March 31st, Anheuser Busch had a market capitalization of 132.38 billion dollars. By April 10th, that figure had dropped to $128.4 billion, with signs that the stock price will continue to fall.
DC Draino tweeted, “On March 31, Anheuser Busch had a $132.38 billion market cap As of today, it’s now $128.4 billion You know what that means? The Woke Bud Light campaign has already shaved off nearly **$4 BILLION** in company value Don’t let Dems lie to you – Conservative Boycotts WORK.”
On March 31, Anheuser Busch had a $132.38 billion market cap
As of today, it’s now $128.4 billion
You know what that means?
The Woke Bud Light campaign has already shaved off nearly **$4 BILLION** in company value
Don’t let Dems lie to you – Conservative Boycotts WORK pic.twitter.com/xLGbs6F1MV
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) April 10, 2023
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