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Anheuser Busch Targets Coors Draught Business
In what would appear to be an attempt to take away business from Coors Blue Moon, A-B is reportedly temporarily lowering the price on kegs of their new craft style offering, Shock Top Belgian White. As an added incentive for draught accounts to pull their Blue Moon handles and replace them with Shock Top, A-B distributors have lowered the pricing on their Shock Top kegs to a level that is similar to their core products-Bud, Bud Light etc...which now puts the price of Shock Top well below Blue Moon. For on-premise accounts that carry Blue Moon and were considering a change, this deep discount might just be enough incentive for them to make the switch. Many accounts I surveyed, however, reported having such a loyal Blue Moon following that no discount would be enough to risk alienating their clientele with a change to Shock Top.
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I take this latest move by A-B as an indication of just how serious they are about competing with Blue Moon and their resolve may be strengthened by the fact that Shock Top is reportedly selling through very well in the market.
These events make me wonder when the Coors folks might decide to fight back? To date, Coors seems content to simply live off its established Blue Moon business, but if this business begins to dwindle in the face of the A-B onslaught, what will their response be? Might they look at a new marketing campaign...how about some new updated packaging that is better geared towards the products' actual clientele and the consumer segment they are continuing to target?
In a related story, A-B has now released the name of the new spring seasonal that it will use to replace Spring Heat, the beer that has now become Shock Top. The new seasonal is called Sun Dog a nd is an amber wheat style ale which I can imagine fitting into the A-B seasonal rotation very well. Now if they will just replace the pumpkin flavored fall seasonal with something that would have a larger potential market. My suggestion is a true harvest ale, a beer brewed with just-picked fresh hops, that A-B could market similar to how the French wineries market their beaujolais nouveau. Although several craft breweries are now making 'fresh hop' ales, none of the larger producers have produced and thrown their marketing muscle behind a product like this. My belief is the first that does will have a tremendous hit on their hands!
For more information contact:
Paul Brown
Company: Eat, Drink & Be Merry
Email : pbrown377@tampabay.rr.com
Blog Url : http://drinksfoodandfun.blogspot.com/
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