The parent company of Bud Light, AB Inbev, is seeing its stock price decline amid news that its Bud Light brand enlisted the support of Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender, to promote its beer.
In the last five days, the company’s stock price has fallen more than 2.5% as investors consider the potential impact from angry consumers. This, as the Dow Jones Industrial average was slightly higher during that same time frame.
Already, consumers have begun boycotting the peer and, if the boycott continues, the company could face a major decline in sales.
On her podcast, Trish Regan said the problem was the company’s marketing department didn’t understand marketing 101. One of the most important lessons of marketing, Regan explained, was to never alienate your customer in an effort to attract new consumers.
“It’s called marketing 101,” Regan said. “Capitalism should dictate that you want to appeal more to your brand. And sure, you want to grow it, but you don’t grow [your brand] by alienating the very customers, the very people that brought the brand to the dance!”
The VP of marketing for Bud Light was reportedly inspired to hire Mulvaney because she feared the beer brand was too “fratty” and out of touch.
Appearing on a podcast called “Make Yourself at Home” on March 30th, Alissa Heinerscheid explained that, as a business woman, she had “a really clear job to do when I do over bud light, and it was ‘This brand is in decline, it’s been in 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 stressed that her mandate was “super clear” and that she wanted to help the brand evolve and elevate means to incorporate “inclusivity, it means shifting the tone, it means having a campaign that’s truly inclusive, and fells lighter and brighter and different, and appeals to women and men.”
Trish Regan to Bud Light: ‘If You Want to Improve Sales, Fix Your Beer’
But, the marketing seems to have backfired – or at least investors think so. Five days ago, AB Inbev (trading under the ticker symbol ‘BUD’) was at nearly $67 a share. It opens trading on Wednesday at roughly $65 a share – and this includes a minor bounce of 0.15 cents a share on Tuesday. The stock continued trading lower in the after hours market.
Meanwhile, many social media users have lamented the quality of the product itself, complaining about its taste. Regan came right out and said it. “If you want to fix things over a Bud Light, make a better beer. I mean, the beer, it’s awful. Let’s just be honest. Man to man, woman to woman. It’s a terrible beer…nobody drinks the stuff!”
Investors worry that the few people that did drink it, may not longer want to go near it. And consider all the other beers AB Inbev, a Brazilian company, owns and runs including:
Corona
Stella Artois
Anheuser-Busch
Heineken International
Beck’s
Natural Light
Hoegaarden
Michelob Ultra
Modelo Especial
Rolling Rock
Goose Island
Brahma
SABMiller, and many more.
