BUSINESS
How far has Bud Light fallen in monthly sales? Company under pressure after poor 2023
The parent company of the beer has seen its sales plummet through this year with questions being asked of senior management for a new direction.
Polling from company YouGov shows Bud Light rated 15th in the US’s most popular beers. While the amount of people liking it, 42%, has remained near constant since polling began, the proportion of people disliking it increasing has seen it drop out of the top 10. This is behind direct competitors Coors and Miller.
A paid advert featured transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, with the company sending a personalised can of Bud Light to commemorate 365 days since her gender transition, prompted a rebuke from conservatives back in April.
Is this important? Polling doesn’t afffect a company’s stock value so probably not. Despite the supposed boycott of Bud Light by the Amercian right-wing, the beer’s parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev is trading at the same levels as December last year. The biggest drop actually came in May, a full month after the beginning of the boycott. That hasn’t stop senior bosses swinging the axe for what they see as advertising failures that have thrust the beer into the news cycle.
Two of the executives that were behind the attempt to widen Bud Light’s appeal, Daniel Blake and Alissa Heinerscheid, were put on leave. This is because of their role in a marketing campaign with Dylan Mulvaney, who is transgender. This wildly infuriated American conservatives who demanded a boycott. Trying to pin-down the financial fall-out will be difficult until the next earnings report from Anheuser-Busch InBev.
In a general statement in the aftermath of the campaign, the company said: “We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer.”
The plea from the Anheuser-Busch CEO
Changes have been made in Anheuser-Busch InBev though as mentioned there are unlikely to be lasting financial damage from the ‘boycott.’ There has been a swift change in the advertising of the company, which has pivoted towards patriotism and a sort-of ‘everyman’s’ drink.
Speaking to CBS, CEO Brendan Whitworth said that the marketing will be focused on getting back to what the brand means to people which they’ve been told is “good times, goodwill, and easy enjoyment.”
Whitworth also said in the same interview that the impact on the employees “weighs the most on me,” after what is likely to have been a gruelling few months, especially from the bile on social media. There were also bomb scare reports at company locations in April.