Budweiser is an American-style pale lager produced by Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, a large multinational beer company with headquarters in Leuven, Belgium. The producer is investing vast amounts of money (as much as $449 million) into the marketing of the beer, which makes Budweiser the most advertised drink in the United States. These attempts to popularize Budweiser are not ungrounded: the beer has a lot of direct and indirect competitors.
Direct competitors include Coors, Molson Coors, and Diaego; indirect competitors are Miller and the Sierra Nevada. The most relevant competitors in each category outlined must be Coors and Miller. While all of the brands listed market their goods internationally, the ones that are singled out are headquartered in the US and have Americans as their target audience.
It is possible to compare and contrast Budweiser against its most relevant competitors by using the following three criteria:
- Market expansion. Budweiser has a slightly larger market share as compared to Coors and Miller;
- Product expansion. In terms of retail sales, Budweiser trumps its competitors: $5.65 million against $2.38 million for Coors and $2.06 million for Miller;
- Retaliatory or defensive strategies. As of now, none of the competitors have used retaliatory or defensive strategies that could impede Budweiser’s marketing campaigns (Aaker & Moorman, 2017).
Budweiser has a certain competitive advantage over both Coors and the Sierra Nevada. While these drinks are well-known across the US, Budweiser seems to take better advantage of social media and electronic word-of-mouth in marketing its product. For instance, as of 2019, it has gained 154,000 Twitter fans as opposed to 14,000 for Coors (“Budweiser’s Competitors, Revenue,” n.d.). Using social media is especially important now when new customers usually locate products online. Moreover, if a brand wishes to attract younger audiences, it should build a strong online presence, which Budweiser seems to be successfully doing.
References
Aaker, D., & Moorman, C. (2017). Strategic market management. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Budweiser’s competitors, revenue, number of employees, funding, and acquisitions. (n.d.). Web.