Recently I was walking through the local grocery store and I noticed Anheuser-Busch’s new March Madness Tournament display. You know that display you walk by to get to the good beer. Well, while I was walking by it I wondered, how much do these ‘big beer’ companies put into their marketing? With a quick google search, I was able to see that in recent years Anheuser-Busch spent 1 billion+ per year in marketing in the US alone.
I know many local breweries spend little to no money on marketing. They rely on partnerships, locals and communities like Pints, Forks & Friends to pass the word around on their product. As they grow their marketing dollar will increase. Is there a point where they lose the quality of their product to get more marketing?
Is there a brewery you can think of that spends a large amount of money on marketing while still maintaining good quality Beer? Or can you think of a Brewing company that spends almost nothing on marketing and has great tasting beers?
I thought I would bring this up to start a discussion. What are your thoughts? When you take that next sip of your favorite beer, take your phone out and see how much they are spending on marketing? And is it worth it?
What are your general thoughts about marketing vs quality in our favorite drink?