Anheuser-Busch Expands Production of Bud Light Platinum

I don't agree. I'll agree that how you market your product is important and always a major consideration and concern, but I would argue that no brewery goes to the lengths that AB goes to. They make some of the most bland, flavorless swill on the planet, and yet thanks to a multi-million dollar marketing stratedgy, they have convinced countless consumers that they really are drinking one of the most rich and flavorful beers on the planet. I can think of no company in the world that does a more exceptional job marketing their product, and in that regard, I'll always sing AB's praises.

BL platinum is just the latest line of BS that AB has sold to the masses. That they're so damn good at it, should come as no surprise to anyone.

Me too. The only way to go is buy a single..

BA data shows of 138 Platinum reviews, Serving types had: bottle (137), on-tap (1). I'd like to try it on draft but it doesn't seem like that's A-B's plan.

What craft brewery do you know of that is heavy into marketing and advertising? Maybe it is just local because I never see a non big boy ad anywhere (TV/Radio/Magazine etc)

By market share, I'd say there is a good chance you've been using one such company's product to enter that message.

All of them.

You might want to look up the definition of marketing first. Next, look up some beer and drinks publications - oh and there's the thing called the internet where brewers advertise and market their products on its websites and social media acconts. Never saw a sam adams commercial on tv or heard one on the radio?

I get the impression that many beer geeks don't feel that you are being marketed or advertised to because you bought into craft brewers messages of "purity" of being small, un-corporate like, and in the business for the love of beer first. Or that geeks themeselves "discovered" their favorite breweries - but word of mouth marketing is still marketing. Yet the craft beer business is a beer business like the others - just because the product has more flavor, and the beers and breweries all have "background stories" (which is a craft beer marketing technique in itself) doesn't change the game of beer sales all that much - there are many parallels in craft beer marketing with industrial beer marketers that advertise on national tv - just that the techniques don't get scrutinized all that much due to the above.

Marketing and advertising is reaching out to potential customers and persuading them to try your product, everything you've listed is the other way around, I have to go to a brewery's website, or friend them on FB to get the info I want. And are you really going to use Sam Adams as an example of a craft brewer advertising?

Definition
The management process through which goods and services move from concept to the customer. As a practice, it consists in coordination of four elements called 4P's: (1) identification, selection, and development of a product, (2) determination of its price, (3) selection of a distribution channel to reach the customer's place, and (4) development and implementation of a promotional strategy.
As a philosophy, marketing is based on thinking about the business in terms of customer needs and their satisfaction. Marketing differs from selling because (in the words of Harvard Business School's emeritus professor of marketing Theodore C. Levitt) "Selling concerns itself with the tricks and techniques of getting people to exchange their cash for your product. It is not concerned with the values that the exchange is all about. And it does not, as marketing invariably does, view the entire business process as consisting of a tightly integrated effort to discover, create, arouse, and satisfy customer needs."

I think the operative word in Hanzo's post is "heavy." Obviously, to a greater or lesser degree, every craft brewery on the planet tries to do the best job they can "marketing" their product. That being said, there's literally no comparison between the marketing efforts of a company such as AB-InBev and, say, a brewery such as Burley Oak out of Berlin, Maryland. With the resources they have, AB is able to expose their product concept to many more potential customers, and with the advertising talent they can employ, they are able to successfully convince unwitting customers that have never sampled the beer, that BL platinum is both full flavored and low calorie, and that friends and other influential people will perceive them as more verile, attractive and smarter for drinking that beer. Obviously, a brewery such as Burley Oak is almost completely incapable of bringing to bear that sort of "marketing" power.

I would also argue that the more successful a company such as AB is in employing their marketing stratedgy, the less important it becomes to actually produce a quality product. The concept becomes much more important than the reality (or let's just say, the two become more interchangeable). That's clearly not the case, I would argue, for a small brewery such as Burley Oak, or for most craft breweries I think.

As for my last comment about the increased lack of connection between the message and product, IMHO, the results speak for themselves. Almost everything AB makes is so light in flavor as to be nearly tasteless. My impression is that the beers are meant to be completely inoffensive, and so appealing to the greatest number of potential customers (bold flavors would likely simply alienate the customer base). However, due to the success of AB's marketing stratedgy, I don't think most customers even associate concepts like taste and flavor with the reasons for why they drink their beer. They tend to associate drinking AB products with sex appeal, hanging with your bros, and manly behavior.

I would too. I've seen some restaurants advertising that they now carry BL Platinum. I figure it's only a matter of time before you start seeing it on draft.

3 more breweries to brew Bud Light Platinum? Are you kidding? They only need to make some new cans - everybody knows the beer is the same, the package is different.

In the game of beer sales, you win or you die.

Platinum is another Budweiser Select, just A-B trying to tap into the craft beer market with aggressive marketing. I'd be a giddy school girl if A-B actually tried to do a true small craft brew.

You should have seen the same guy from my bottle share story vehemently insist/raise his voice about how Sierra Nevada Torpedo in the can is different than it is in the bottle. . .

Sadly enough, not everyone knows the beer is the same in different packaging.

Love your name, (for the record, I closed Wolski's and have the stickers to prove it!) but I think Platinum is more of a foray into the guys who like to brag about drinking lots of diet beer. . . but got tired of craft drinkers pointing out it really isn't all that manly to drink a shitton of low abv watery product, so voila! 6% abv watery product! Now we'll show those uppity beer and math geeks!

Agreed. As near as I can tell, other than the pretty bottle, most folks seem to be captivated by this beer because of the "perceived" higher alcohol. The reality is that it's only high when compared to other "light" beers. Regardless, my impression is that most consumers like the idea that they can drink a "high alcohol" beer and still keep the calories down. Shrug. That's actually not completely inaccurate; for the amount of alcohol the beer delivers the calorie count is fairly low. However, the beer has a lot more calories when compared to other light beers, but that seems to be something that most light beer drinkers haven't figured out yet.

Last i checked the definition of a "light" beer is that said light beer has to have 30% less calories than the original beer that it is based off of. Usually this merely requires the brewer to breakdown all the un-fermentable sugars (enzymes) and actually ferment them into alcohol, then dilute with water.

Yeah it is kind of funny that it is marketed as a light beer considering the calorie content. It is inevitable that calories go up as alcohol goes up because ethanol is converted into useable energy eventually in the body...

Maybe Bud Light Plat is going for the no.2 spot they recently lost to Coors Light? I don't know.

Does this mean there is a Bud platinum on which the Bud light platinum is based? Maybe we have something to look forward to.... >_<. The thought occurred to me that this might be Bud light that is slightly less diluted, to keep the higher alcohol content, seems the easiest way to keep the flavor the same.

Hmm. I didn't know Platinum was selling that well. It's a decent beer to buy if you don't have much options.

I'm sure once they start rolling out their branded blue pint glasses, you'll start seeing it around on tap.

Take the 'xpa' out of the second word and now you have some real news!

I promise to never even try BL Platinum... I find it hard to buy Goose Island as well. Too bad.

Yeeee-hawwwww!! Look Enus, it's high octane get drunk and wreck shit in a purdy blue bottle!

Bud light Platinum=more abv for less bottles drank= less sales.

They are also charging more for it so mabye that makes up the difference. Right now the prices for it are in flux though i can find it easily near me for as low as $5.99 or as high as $9.99 ( safeway near me it makes no sense, but the shelf was empty) for a sixer.

random Side note: blue glass lets in more ultraviolet light then green and is almost as bad as clear which is why no one uses it.

And cans are best!!

It seems that when companies get to that size the aim is more to keep your customers switching between your own brands than potentially switch to a competitor. There's a natural churn in the beer market as different similarly tasting and marketed beer brands fall in and out of favor, and I'm sure their portfolio is designed to resist those fluxuations as well as possible. For similar example, look at car companies...The Toyota company owns the Toyota, Lexus, and Scion brands, which all have overlapping vehicle types in their line-ups.

i cant help but think that this crap is just natty ice

Let's not forget that in this game, Budweiser is also looking to increase their allotted shelf space in retailers. Who cares if Platinum is getting half of its sales from former Bud Light drinkers - they now own more shelf space that forces craft out of the cooler or possibly out of the store.

My bet is that there isn't trouble meeting demand for BL Platinum just yet, but the brewery is marketing the hell out of it and aiming to force even more into bars, restaurants, and stores. Moreso, if they double the output of their product (without having increased demand) they can broach into various different packaging options. Put Platinum into cans, 12 packs, 20 packs, cases, etc, etc and that's even more shelf space they get to gobble up. And that in its own right both harms the competition and helps increase sales (by default).

Thank god. If it's not on store shelves how can I walk past it?

Water?

I have seen it where I buy my beer but would never spend money to drink it.... what does it taste like?

Old, slimy, slightly dirty water mixed with seltzer water. Sounds pretty yummy, doesn't it?

I wonder if AB could face a lawsuit over calling this beer light when it is very similar calorie wise to the regular Bud. I mean Nutella just got sued because some idiots thought a chocolate hazelnut spread was suppose to be healthy.

Whats Bud Light Platinum? Is it named after a metal to make it sound like a "heavy" light beer?

They got sued because they claimed over and over that it was healthy. Their new commercials only mention that it can be eaten in part of a balanced breakfast.

Anyone who looked at the ingredients or nutrition label knew it wasn't healthy at all, but if someone made their choices based on advertising alone (which many people do, for better or for worse) they would have no idea that it was actually less healthy than peanut butter.

I remember watching the add the controversy was over in an article that and did not see any mention of it being healthy. What I remember is them talking about how it was good on all sorts of breakfast items and made them taste good, a lot of the items were "healthy" foods, like whole wheat bread.

I did not pay too much attention to the whole ordeal so I might have been mistaken on which add I saw, do you have a link for the add that got them in question?

Back to the beer part. Can it not be claimed that by calling a beer "light" you are saying it is a lower calorie "healthier" version

Its because beer is regulated by ATF not the FDA ("The labeling and quality of alcoholic beverages are regulated by the Department of Justice's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives"). So there is zero requirement for calories or the definition of "light beer" hell DFH could call 120 min and world wide stout light if they wanted with no legal trouble.

Edit: the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) deals with labeling not ATF

I would argue that Three Floyds (advertising? marketing? call it something else that essentially means the same?) is just as effective and pernicious as ABInBev's BudLightPlatinum et al. While some of us consider the people who purchase BLP to be victims of advertising, because they are led to believe that the substandard swill they are buying is actually the quality of product promised, and their advertising to be false and misleading, there are others, myself included, who find the masses paying for the opportunity to buy Dark Lord, one of the worst, overly sweet, overpriced, messes of an imperial stout that isn't even in my personal top 100 of fine stouts to be just as foolish and swayed by marketing/whatever.

Know your market is the key, and ABInBev does, and so does Three Floyds, and so does Portsmouth, and Stone (you aren't worthy? yeah, uh huh, humorous, but how many grabbed a bottle based on that line?) Anyway my point is made with just these few examples, but I am certain every one of us with the proper amount of self examining honesty can see how we are courted by the brewers whose products compete for our craft dollars.

It seems to me that people have started hating on Goose Island because they were bought out and it's ridiculous. Everyone is so concerned not to to love ABI products that they'll hate something for it's name. Goose Island still makes some damn good beer including their Honker's ale, their nut brown, any of the aged series (Sofie, Juliet, etc.) and of course the Bourbon County beers are still phenomenal.

And while their IPA is definitely middle of the road, saying that it tastes like a "hoppier version of Budweiser" just seems to me to demonstrate the blind hatred for a brewery because of who owns it and that's not what beer should be about.

Bud Light Platinum Clamato Ranch Wheat

Bad example. Lexus and Toyota do not overlap much, and Scion was created because Toyota was getting the image of an old persons car company.

The better example would be General Motors Corporation (currently knows as General Motors Company) Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, and Chevrolet all overlapped on each other, and then GM created Saturn which created even more overlap.

Look how that worked out.

A-B has the most overlap of any of the beer giants. Coors probably has the least amount of overlap, having done a good job branding Blue Moon, and Miller is somewhere in the middle.