The St. Louis Business Journal reports that as Anheuser-Busch looks to revive the flagging beer category, it may be taking a chance by focusing on products that could diminish its traditional brands and alienate its core consumer.
“At a recent meeting with the company's management and its distributors,” the Journal writes, “the company rolled out concepts for about a dozen new products with various flavors, including blueberry. Among the products being tested or planned for testing are Wild Blue, a blueberry-flavored beer; Bluestone, a still drink made with grain, blueberries and red grapes; and Blue Horizon, a blueberry flavored malt beverage.”
The goal is to appeal to younger consumers who like sweeter drinks.
“At a recent meeting with the company's management and its distributors,” the Journal writes, “the company rolled out concepts for about a dozen new products with various flavors, including blueberry. Among the products being tested or planned for testing are Wild Blue, a blueberry-flavored beer; Bluestone, a still drink made with grain, blueberries and red grapes; and Blue Horizon, a blueberry flavored malt beverage.”
The goal is to appeal to younger consumers who like sweeter drinks.
- KC's View:
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It’s hard to know what is the right move here. On the one hand, the beer companies can’t afford to let other libations simply steal their market share…but they have to be careful about not alienating the core market.
We wonder if it might not make more sense to set up a separate company and brand for these kinds of products, sort of the same way that Lexus and Infiniti were extensions of Toyota and Nissan. That way, they could grow new sales and attract new customers but keep the old business pure.
There’s a beer precedent. One of our favorite beers is Blue Moon Belgian White…but we’d been drinking it for some time before we realized that it is made by Coors.
