Bud Light faces a loss of both consumer and retailer confidence after reporting a sustained sales slump of 30% – leading critics to speculate whether the brand will ever recover from its Dylan Mulvaney PR disaster.
Beer Business Daily publisher Harry Schuhmacher described damage to the brand as “quasi-permanent”, adding: “The Bud Light situation has actually gotten worse”.
Initial hopes of a rebound are fading following the controversial beer brand’s prolonged decline in comparison to last year, persisting during May and June.
The steady decrease in sales has led industry experts to question whether Bud Light’s consumers are “lost forever”.
“You see Bud Light is still just stubbornly down around 30% in volume compared to last year, which is where it’s been since May or June,” said Schuhmacher.
“That tells me that this is quasi-permanent, meaning those consumers are just lost forever.”
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Bud Light’s profit slump stems from the brand’s controversial response to a backlash following the beer brand marketing campaign with transgender influencer Mulvaney.
The promotional post, which featured Mulvaney as one of a series of influencers given a can with her likeness depicted on it, drew criticism from anti-LGBTQ+ consumers, who went on to boycott the brand.
However, after a vague statement from the CEO that offered neither support nor apology to Mulvaney or the trans community, pro-LGBTQ+ supporters rallied around the influencer to also boycott the brand.
Since then, the situation has escalated, with experts pointing out a loss in retailers’ confidence in the brand – a scenario that could decrease in-store promotion such as shelf and display cases, as well as visibility in stores.
“I think the industry thought it would have rebounded by now, but it hasn’t,” Schuhmacher added.
“It’s actually worse than just lost sales because now it’s getting to the point where it’s becoming systemic within the industry, and they’re losing the confidence of the retailers and that’s when it starts getting bad.”
“Displays are a big tool for the beer industry to move beer, and that could be concerning to Anheuser-Busch,” he concluded.
This statement by Anheuser-Busch ultimately says nothing, and it also says everything. After two weeks of violent rhetoric over a trans woman drinking Bud Light, the CEO is basically saying, without saying it: “We understand why you’re upset we validated trans people.” pic.twitter.com/Y2FszwdWFF
— Charlotte Clymer 🇺🇦 (@cmclymer) April 15, 2023
