Pirate's Cove

It’s actually not a lot of direct employees, but, this will surely effect those who work with AB. First, though, let’s jump back about a week

(The Street) Anheuser-Busch Chief Executive Michel Doukeris has been in damage-control mode since the company decided to partner with the transgender social-media influencer Dylan Mulvaney. That deal — which was not a major promotion — blew up in the company’s face, leading to boycotts of its products. (snip)

Doukeris has basically admitted that the mistake his company made was doing something that made its product political. Past ads for Budweiser products generally leaned on Americana, sports, and the “fratty” humor that Heinerscheid wanted to get away from. (snip)

One challenge is what you call the misinformation and confusion that still exists. We will need to continue to clarify the fact that this was one can, one influencer, one post, and not a campaign and repeat this message for some time,” he said.

See, y’all are just confused about Bud Light giving a special can to a wacko who demeans actual women with his “girlhood act”, but, he’s missing how the marketing directer smeared the consumer base, and he and the rest have just continued digging that hole. Apologizing now is way too late. They just don’t get it. So

Anheuser-Busch to lay off employees after Bud Light loses spot as top-selling beer to Modelo in May

Beer maker Anheuser-Busch said Wednesday that it will lay off positions across its US corporate staff.

In a statement, an Anheuser-Busch spokesperson said the restructuring “will simplify and reduce layers within its organization.” The layoffs will not include frontline staff such as “brewery and warehouse staff, drivers, and field sales, among others.”

The job eliminations represent “less than 2%” of the Anheuser-Bush US employee population, the statement said. The company’s website says that it employs “more than 19,000 employees nationwide.” Two percent of that figure would number about 380 positions.

“Today we took the very difficult but necessary decision to eliminate a number of positions across our corporate organization,” said Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth. “While we never take these decisions lightly, we want to ensure that our organization continues to be set for future long-term success.”

It’s a shame that those folks are being laid off, you hate to see it, as well as all those others, like distributors, who are being affected, but, this was a self inflicted wound, and they keep inflicting it.

(Yahoo Finance) The CEO of Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE:BUD), the multinational brewing company behind Bud Light, is reportedly planning to go on a tour this summer to listen to consumers. But “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary, also known as Mr. Wonderful, doesn’t believe it will turn things around.

“I don’t think that’s going to work,” O’Leary said in a recent interview with Fox Business. “He’s going to get an earful, there’s no question about it. The problem with that tour and that idea is it keeps it as a frontline press item.” (snip)

“Beer is a commodity, the only difference is brand, so you really have to protect your brand every way you can,” he said.

“If you don’t understand who’s buying your brand and you enrage them, which seems to be what happened here, you don’t know the outcome. And now we can measure it — 25% market share.”

That part about keeping it on the frontline is important. Bud Light should have just chilled, forget the advertising, forget about trying to woo the customers back, just go dark. No stupid grunting commercials or anything. Just let the whole issue die down and hope it blows over. A listening tour is exactly the wrong thing to do.