The Boston Beer Company

The next project was bottling Gordon Biersch signature beer and retailing it. This had three biggest challenges: this project was entirely Gordon’s baby and demanded time and attention; secondly the freshness of the bottled beer versus the freshly brewed was an issue for which they decided the beer would have a shelf life no longer than three months. Thirdly and the most exciting challenge was the head-to-head competition with other microbreweries and premium beers. Despite the tough competitive environment, Gordon Biersch aimed to achieve 11% of the market in three years (by 1996). This retail venture required huge investment, thus they decided to start small to prove to the investors that they could pull it off.

Boston Beer Company Mission statement is to “seek long-term profitable growth by offering the highest quality product to the U.S. beer drinker”

Busch needs to publicize the idea that Busch is a light, and therefore, refreshing drink, perfect for relaxing with after a long, hard day at work with lots of friends and family. The strategy is to take the negative ideas of the product, and make them positives; because the product is at the feeling, and low-importance position on the Foote, Cone, and Belding model, using emotional-based advertising would be the best approach. For example, honing in on the idea that the product is cheap, so buying multiple cases for friends and family would be easier; or the drink is “thin” and “watery” (4), and as a result, feels lighter, (like water), and more

Because Samuel Adams prides themselves on being a top notch craft beer producer, a lot rides on their reputation. Boston Beer and Samuel Adams have a strong reputation that rivals even the biggest of beer producers.

In order to stay on top of the industry, The Boston Beer Company needs to find new, innovative ways of being the most appealing craft beer available to the average consumer. While The Boston Beer Company offers many different varieties of seasonal beer, they should begin to shift their focus to year-round specialty beers, such as a line of regional flavors based on their consumer’s regional taste preferences.

Samuel Adams has long been one of America’s most popular beer companies. The Boston Beer company prides itself on great tasting beer for the consumer, and profitable growth for the company. Although Samuel Adams beer is a popular beer in New England, it only holds just over 1% of the market share of the beer industry. Overwhelmed by popular brews such as Bud, Coors and Corona, Samuel Adams struggles to gain market share. Even with their low market share, they are still a profitable business. Their mission statement reads:

Anheuser-Busch started brewing Budweiser again and due prohibition, the palate of Americans taste had changed. Instead of the dark ales, Americans had grown fond of a sweeter taste, like the bootleggers homemade brews. After the invention of the aluminum can in the early 1930’s and the end of WWII, Budweiser and Anheuser-Busch started experienced a rapid

Even though it may leave out the younger consumer market, they can still draw interest from those individuals as they get older and become more likely to trying specialty beers. They could also look for ways to market

“The beer industry in the United States generates $75 Billion in annual sales.” (Abelli, 4)

Boston Beer’s strategy is primarily focused on growth through differentiation. The sources of its competitive advantage can be classified as a company that provides high quality beer with unique flavors, a market driven approach, and a very efficient contract brewing strategy.

As a company[s main mission to be the greatest beer in the world, they have achieved competitive strategies to be able to protect their business-level strategies; Sprinkler Expansion strategy, Aggressive Marketing Strategy and Consumer Responsiveness Approach.

     In this paper I will be talking about the U.S. beer industry and in short an overview of the brewing industry worldwide. I will talk about the barriers to entry, economies of scale, government intervention, pricing, current market trends, product differentiation, and imports. The focus being mainly on the U.S. brewing industry oligopoly. The U.S. brewing industry has three major players: Anheuser-Busch, SAB Miller, and Coors/Molson. Anheuser-Busch is currently the largest brewer in the world, producing over 100 million barrels a year. Anheuser-Busch currently owns over 50% of the market in the United States, with Miller trailing behind at 20% and Coors at about 11% with the rest of the market occupied by imports and craft breweries. When analyzing any industry, how easy it is for newcomers to enter the market is a great importance. If there are high barriers to entry

“As a brewing company in love with beer, we’re always looking for ways to challenge the expected and bring something new and exciting to our drinkers”

The purpose of this research study was to find out that consumers who drink beer and who shop at grocery stores which sell beer, will buy different or more food products items, will trial different beers and will buy beer more frequently from grocery stores. Additional objective was to find out if beer drinkers and grocery store shopper will buy beer from grocery store which sell beer as it offers more convenience than buying beer in small pack sizes from the Beer Store or the LCBO. The results of the survey stated that more people will support beer in grocery stores and they will buy their groceries from grocery stores which carry beer and that they will also purchase beer from that grocery stores. The results said that consumers will expect deals on food items if they buy beer from that grocery stores and frequently purchase food items from that grocery store. So if the grocery store have beer in their stores their other products sales will increase and generate more traffic resulting in more sales and at the same time the beer sales will also increase. The results also stated that many consumers who buy and drink beer will prefer to buy their beer at grocery stores as they believe it will be a one stop shopping for both beer and groceries, more respondents believed that it will be convenient

The trend towards premium beer consumption has slowed somewhat in the recent economic downturn; however, down-trading is limited and there are notable instances of consumers continuing to trade up, both into beer and, within the category, into premium products. Over the past decade, the beer industry has seen significant consolidation and this trend continued during 2008. On a pro forma basis, beer sales by the top 10 players now total approximately 65% of total global sales compared to less than 40% at the start of the century. In recent major developments, the division of Scottish and Newcastle’s business between Carlsberg and Heineken was completed during the first half of 2008 while InBev acquired Anheuser-Busch in November 2008.