During the first years in the beer business, while riding trucks as a helper, as we would drive to the next stop, the drivers would talk about brands from the 40’s and 50’s that had died and gone away. While I found their stories interesting, little did I know that there were a number of brands in the market at that time, that soon would also disappear or become non-factors. Including, but not limited to Schlitz, Jax, Pearl, Hamm’s, Pabst, Stroh and many others.
Some years later, while at Texas Beers, I got a visit from the Spoetzl Brewery sales manager. He asked me to handle Shiner. At the time, all the brewery had was Shiner Premium, and we were lucky to sell even a pallet every two months. Shiner took off a couple of years later when Carlos Alverez bought the brewery and introduced the Bock. When Alverez bought the brand, Shiner was close to becoming extinct.
Beer Marketer’s Insights just published a list of nine beers Americans no longer drink. For some of these brands, the explanation of their demise is easy. One such beer is Amstel Light. Once Heineken Light was introduced, it was obvious what Heineken’s priority would be, and it was not Amstel Light.
The other beers that have gone extinct can be explained by pricing or lack of focus. For example, Old Milwaukee, Milwaukee’s Best (and light), and Miller High Light have all gone the way of the dinosaur. MGD lost its way, too. Budweiser Select never got off the ground, and now with Select 55, it won’t. Of all of these nine brands, Michelob is the one that should not be on the list. It really wasn’t that many years ago that Michelob was “the super-premium” beer. I can remember the days when Michelob was served at an event or party and thinking, “this is a special evening.” The iconic bottle not only stood out, but it really said something about the beer’s image.
One could say that with the great success of Michelob Ultra, Michelob is the personification of a line extension becoming the primary seller. The same is true with Budweiser and Bud Light, Coors and Coors Light, and Miller and Miller Lite. If the trend continues, Michelob bottles will soon be part of the beer can collectors’ website.
How all of this plays out in the retail trade is the real question. Can distributors, or even should distributors, continue to keep these brands alive and in these stores given their lack of support and the fact that there are many more brands, mostly crafts, that have a greater pull. These nine brands are from major suppliers, so can their pressure on the distributor keep them alive? As a former distributor I’d be inclined to offer brands that the consumer is looking for with the belief that the velocity rate will support the sales. Relationships can only go so far.
In recent years we have seen a revival of certain “dead” brands with Pabst Blue Ribbon leading the way. As I mentioned earlier, Shiner was one of those dead brands not so many years ago, Schlitz is making a small comeback effort and there are others. Perhaps in the future we’ll see Michelob return and become the powerhouse it once was. Until then, maybe all the industry is doing with these brands is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic!
Leave a Reply