America in a Bottle...whatever

[The Overlord]

InBev brewing up plans to bring Bud to the world


http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080720/bs_afp/belgiumdrinkbeercompanyinbevbusch_080720042015

BRUSSELS (AFP) - InBev may be based in Belgium and have strong ties to Brazil, but the brewing giant has grand plans to sell Budweiser -- what it calls America in a bottle -- to the world.

But InBev and its ambitious Brazilian chief executive Carlos Brito face a huge challenge to convince the world that it wants the iconic American brew as they try to make their 52-billion-dollar takeover of Budweiser-owner Anheuser-Busch pay off.

"Budweiser brings the great America in a bottle. That's what consumers love," Brito told journalists last week as he announced InBev's planned takeover of Anheuser-Busch.

During the month-long takeover battle for Anheuser-Busch, Brito sought to win over the sceptical board at his US rival by promising to make Budweiser the merged company's flagship international premium brew.

Using InBev's extensive international distribution network, he said he envisaged Budweiser following in the steps of other well-known American consumer products that ventured beyond US shores.

"When I look at other American companies that have done this before -- like McDonald's, like Pepsi, like Coke, like Frito-Lays, so many companies that have expanded abroad -- I'm very excited," Brito said.

"We have the footprint, we have the knowledge of those local markets," he said.

However, consumer analyst Mike Hughes at market research group Datamonitor said that bringing an iconic American product to the global market might not be as easy in the age of globalisation with countless products vying for consumers' attention.

"The thing to remember about a lot of brands like Coca-Cola is that they were introduced decades ago when there wasn't the choice we have today," Hughes said. "It's a lot more difficult to replicate than 30 or 40 years ago."

InBev, which has some 200 brands in its portfolio, has already tried to catapult brands such as Stella Artois, Beck's and Brahma into the international premium beer market.

Although InBev has had limitted success, analyst Kris Kippers at Belgian brokerage Petercam sees better prospects for transforming Budweiser into an international brand of choice for beer lovers.

He said that Budweiser was already such a well-known brand internationally that simply by making it available in stores and pubs through InBev's distribution network would "make a big difference."

"The question now is cannibalisation between the brands that are pointed out as global brands will be somewhat different," he said. "I don't know if Beck's and Budweiser can live next to each other on the same shelf. It depends on how consumers react."

While also optimistic that InBev will be able to transform Budweiser into an international premium beer, JPMorgan analyst Mike J Gibbs said it would take a lot of money to do it.

"Even with high awareness and distribution clout, building a real presence for Bud in many markets is going to require substantial marketing investment," he said in a research note.

But before InBev can convince the world it wants to buy a cold Bud, it faces legal hurdles in many countries because a century-old trademark dispute with Czech brewer Budejovicky Budvar.

The Czech brewery, which claims to have a total of 380 registered trademarks in more than 100 countries, has frequently clashed with the much bigger Anheuser-Busch in various courts about the rights to the Budweiser brand.

Petercam's Kippers said that one option for InBev would simply be to buy the Budvar brewery, although he said that would be unlikely for some time as InBev and Anheuser-Busch would have their hands full merging.

I'm going to be blunt here...my money is against this venture, but you never know, a good saleman can sell block ice to an Inuit if he wants to bad enough.

First off, I saw the listed obituaries; there are people that are 'mourning' an American icon because of the takeover of Anheuser-Busch. Problem is, an icon should be mourned only if its a good one. And that's the problem; Budweiser is fucking rat piss in a bottle. I hate the shit, and they want to market it as their flagship international brew? Good luck man.

Knowing that some things are marketed elsewhere in the world as a decent product, maybe it will work. I understand that Wal-Mart is actually regarded as a good store in China, and when my brother went to Hungary a few years ago, he found that McDonalds in Budapest are actually classy restaurants, supposedly in Moscow too...go figure.

So I'm guessing that InBev will tweak the 'king of beers' formula to fit the markets they're pushing it in, so we'll see. Thing is, InBev markets brews Stella Artois and Hoegaarden...their customers know what a good Belgian ale is, so then how do they expect Bud has a chance in hell against an honest-to-god European level beer unless they completely alter it?

I may be American but guess what, Bud is swill with beer flavoring. I drink mostly imports from Europe and the British Isles. Here in US borders most drinkers know it's really about the microbrew...mainstream beer has been broke for years.  If this is 'America in a bottle' we might want to reconsider that...hardly the time to sour world opinion any further by bottling dishwater and shipping it abroad :P

[HairyHeretic]

Yeah, I tried Budweiser once, many years ago when it was bought for me on a night out. One mouthfull was quite enough.

I'm not a beer drinker by any stretch of the imagination, but that stuff was .. I'll be generous and call it poor, and leave it at that :)

[Brandon]

Budwieser is not a beer that I want representing america in any aspect because I find it at best a poor kind of beer. That said if they want to make it as just Budwieser and not america's choice of beer Ild be fine with that. I think there are other brands of beer that represent us better and just taste better

[shadowheart]

Hmmm .... weak, pissy, arrogant, commercial, characterless .... hate to say it, but that pretty well sums up what the rest of the world thinks of America anyway.

[Trieste]

Hmmm .... weak, pissy, arrogant, commercial, characterless .... hate to say it, but that pretty well sums up what the rest of the world thinks of America anyway.

Indeed.

Besides, Budweiser is the beer of choice for college kids everywhere. And high school kids - my first beer was a Bud. Nowadays, if I drink beer, it's generally going to be Killian's or Sam Adams, but I don't feel the need to go out of my way to bash Budweiser. It just seems pretentious; let whoever drinks it drink it if they want. It's the King of Beer and has some pretty horses to back it up. Who doesn't love pretty horses?

[Sherona]

Indeed.

Besides, Budweiser is the beer of choice for college kids everywhere. And high school kids - my first beer was a Bud. Nowadays, if I drink beer, it's generally going to be Killian's or Sam Adams, but I don't feel the need to go out of my way to bash Budweiser. It just seems pretentious; let whoever drinks it drink it if they want. It's the King of Beer and has some pretty horses to back it up. Who doesn't love pretty horses?

Meh the beer wars continue. Me personally? I think all beer tastes like sewage swill. My first beer was a bud yes, then I tried Miller, and sam adams, even a hieneken(sp?) and all of them tasted exact same *shudders* Of course I have a low alcohol tolerancy so I could not drink more then a glass or bottle but that one glass/bottle is plenty to develop an opinion...just not a beer drinker.

[HairyHeretic]

I'm pretty much the same .. never found a beer whose taste I cared for. Spirits, on the other hand .. :)

[Trieste]

Elliquiy: The Intarweb Home for Lushes. <3

[HairyHeretic]

I could probably count the number of drinks I've had this year on one hand :)

[Trieste]

*sets a crown upon HH's head that reads 'honourary lush'* We still love you. :)

(Honestly, I'm in about the same boat, except Saint Pat's.)

[Sabby]

Hmmm .... weak, pissy, arrogant, commercial, characterless .... hate to say it, but that pretty well sums up what the rest of the world thinks of America anyway.

High five

[OldSchoolGamer]

I don't drink beer, so it's got about as much of an impact on my personal life as an ant farting.

[The Overlord]

I'm pretty much the same .. never found a beer whose taste I cared for. Spirits, on the other hand .. :)

This is a crucial statement here. Michael Jackson the British beer hunter once said if you say you don't like beer, then you haven't found a beer that agrees with you yet. I must concur here. There are some American beers I like for sure, but they're not mainstream brands.

[HairyHeretic]

Possibly so. I'll freely admit to not having tried that many .. maybe a dozen of the most popular mainstream brands, and none were really to my taste. I seem to favour the sweeter liquors, and I doubt there are many sweet beers out there :)

[Trieste]

Actually... I have had a blueberry brew that was fairly sweet, though it still has the bite of hops in it... And a friend of mine picked up somethign strawberry-ish that she said wasn't too bad, either. Can't remember the name for the life of me.

[NightBird]

MacTarnahan's Original Honey Beer, made by the Portland Brewing Company. *nods*

Berry ales can also on the sweeter side, like Trieste said, but the honey beers I've had tend not to be as tart. In general, microbrews have it hands down over any of the major brands.

[Le RandomBloke]

Ahh, that's the good stuff.



Oh... what?

I actually read this in the paper somewhere, I laughed at it. Why don't they use one of their decent beers?

[The Overlord]

Oh yeah, Duvel's FTW.

Thing is that you have to be wary of here in the States is a proliferation of 'Belgian-style' ales in recent years. Many of these are brewed domestically, some are even pretty good, but others wouldn't know an honest, good Belgian ale if their life depended on it. Buyer beware.

[Ignaddio]

The only "American" beer I've ever had was in the UAE, so technically they were imports. They were bottled abroad, and a lot of them contained formaldehyde. Not remotely delicious. But as far as I'm aware that's not what beer is for.. >.>

[The Overlord]

They were bottled abroad, and a lot of them contained formaldehyde.

Not being fully versed in the ingredients for brewing, this has to make you curious. If it's in there as a preservative, one naturally must ask if there's a better alternative. As it is, if you die of alcohol or something else, at least you'll look good dead.  :-\

[Kalen]

I think the boys in Monty Python (Eric Idle, I believe) said it best, at the Hollywood Bowl;

American beer is like making love in a canoe.

They're both fucking close to water!

[CassandraNova]

Actually... I have had a blueberry brew that was fairly sweet, though it still has the bite of hops in it... And a friend of mine picked up somethign strawberry-ish that she said wasn't too bad, either. Can't remember the name for the life of me.

*lovingly*  Oh Trieste.  You are such a girl.

[The Overlord]

I think the boys in Monty Python (Eric Idle, I believe) said it best, at the Hollywood Bowl;

American beer is like making love in a canoe.

They're both fucking close to water!

Sounds just about right.

[Trieste]

*lovingly*  Oh Trieste.  You are such a girl.

Nonsense. There are no girls on the internet.

[CassandraNova]

I don't think that even a boy masquerading as a girl would claim to love blueberry or strawberry beer.