Budweiser and Budweiser Select: different brands with no real differentiation

Anheuser-Busch ran three more commercials at the Superbowl, two for Budweiser, the 200-year-old lager beer, and one for the new Budweiser Select brand, which launched just two years ago, in 2005.

In these three commercials, Anheuser-Busch again demonstrates the seemingly irresponsible advertising pattern, which cannot reasonably be expected to increase market share.

Let’s look first at Budweiser, the original lager beer brand. Surprisingly, this brand seems to have a weak marketing strategy. Beer, like the light beer market, is also very large, with sales of $ 30 billion. Budweiser is the undisputed market leader in this market and as such should be expected to lead the charge to expand the beer market, gaining new users of other types of beverages.

The same goes for your advertising strategy, or it seems that no advertising strategy exists. The two commercials featured at the Superbowl are “Dalmatian”, one 60 “long and one 30” long. Together, they gave me the impression that this was more hype for advertising.

Let’s see the first commercial. Although this is a lengthy commercial, with a full minute to play, there is no attempt at any sales idea. There is a tag line, exclusively featured at the end on a package photo.

The story is about a white dog who appears to be depressed, hungry, and neglected and neglected. When a parade passes through the local main street, the dog sees a Dalmatian sitting next to the driver of one of the horse carriages, and the dog looks at the Dalmatian with envy. The dog is then splashed by a car driving through a puddle, and the dirt that falls on the dog generates a polka dot pattern not dissimilar to that of a Dalmatian. The dog then joins the carriage on the other side of the driver and is finally petted by the queen of the parade. During the ‘lucky’ ending of the commercial, a singer sings that luck is like a ‘kick to the head’. That is all. And a “super” that says “King of beers” in the photo on the package.

The other place involves sophisticated computer graphics, with thousands of crabs on a beach that would otherwise be populated by humans. A crab sees a bucket with two bottles of Budweiser Select sticking out of the ice in the air and calls for all the other crabs to come and move the bucket to a more secluded spot on the beach. Then all the crabs gather in front of the bucket with the two bottles and adore what appears to be a crab-shaped shape made up of the bucket and bottles, with a setting sun behind it, adding a glow to the bucket / bottles combo. . Then all the crabs make appropriate worship crab sounds and movements with their claws, and the whole effect is quite charming. Here again, is the picture of the package with the tag line: “King of Beers”.

Budweiser Select is supposed to be a new specialty brand of premium beer that is especially tasty, as its “Select” descriptor suggests. Although it is supposed to be special, it is priced alongside Budweiser and Bud Light, which does not allow even the price to support its sole rationale.

The marketing strategy for the new beer brand appears to be aimed at the younger market, if only because they strive to feature rapper-entrepreneur JayZ and feature highly sophisticated computer graphics. However, as in the case of Budweiser’s core advertising, Select’s advertising strategy appears unmotivated and listless.

The 30 “single commercial is sophisticated and interesting, if only for the unusual. This ad features Don Shula, the famous former Miami Dolphins coach, and rapper and businessman JayZ playing a holographically projected football game. on the table. between them. They manipulate their respective teams with spoken instructions and hand movements. After an initial touchdown, by JayZ’s team, Don’s team scores a field goal and would have won the game, but a spectator returned the virtual ball from the virtual goal. Don then says his next game will be played in a Dome (apparently to avoid the spectator-generated weather!) and JayZ responds, ‘Next time we’ll play for rings (which implies Superbowl rings) .Select “crown”.

Overall, the three commercials, for both the original Budweiser and the new Budweiser Select, left me with the impression that there is not much strategic process in the marketing and advertising departments at Anheuser-Busch.