Bud Light has won back 15% of the Americans who were boycotting the beer after its disastrous tie-up with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, according to a recent survey — although the beer’s sales have yet to rebound since the fiasco.
The proportion of Bud Light drinkers who say they are unlikely to buy the brand in the next three to six months fell from 18% to just 3% in July, Deutsche Bank said in its latest monthly coverage of Bud Light parent Anheuser-Busch InBev.
“The proportion of former Bud Light drinkers who are say they are very unlikely to buy the brand in 3-6 months time has reduced from 18% to just 3%, a significant improvement,” Deutsche Bank analysts wrote.
Now, just 19% of beer drinkers surveyed said they won’t buy Bud Light — down from 21% in July, the survey found after questioning 600 respondents about their brewer of choice.
Nevertheless, Bud Light sales are still tumbling four months after its controversial ad triggered a type of culture war that had conservative consumers warning brands: “Go woke, go broke.”
Per Nielsen data, Bud Light sales tanked 26.5% for the week ended Aug. 5. Volumes also slumped 29.7% in the period — a faster week-over-week drop than the week before, when volumes dipped 29.3%.
Representatives for Anheuser-Busch did not immediately respond to noti.group’s request for comment.
When considering all beer drinkers surveyed by Deutsche Bank — those who preferred and did not prefer Bud Light before its disastrous marketing flap with Mulvaney — 34% said they don’t expect to opt for Bud Light in the next three to six months.
However, not all of those beer drinkers were sipping on Bud Light in the first place.
Deutsche Bank analysts led by Mitch Collett said an ongoing boycott is most prominent among consumers at least 55 years old earning less than $25,000 per year — though this is also the demographic where the biggest improvement in consumption has taken place.
The survey also found that the most popular Bud Light alternatives are Corona and Heineken, though it was Mexican lager Modelo Especial that dethroned Bud Light from its bestselling-beer spot back in June, according to data compiled by consulting firm Bump Williams.
Sales of Bud Light have been steadily declining week by week since the Mulvaney controversy sparked boycott calls on social media.
Earlier this month, AB InBev’s quarterly earnings showed that the Belgium-based brewer is feeling the sting of the ongoing boycott, reporting a 10.5% drop in revenue and a nearly 30% plunge in core profit in the US during the second quarter.
The company has lost nearly $40 billion in value.
However, executives made no mention of the costly backlash in the earnings report, instead pointing analysts to its own survey that showed “most consumers are favorable towards the Bud Light brand and approximately 80% are favorable or neutral.”
Anheuser-Busch’s survey of over 170,000 consumers was conducted across the US during the three-month period ended June 30 — in the throes of the outrage that began after Mulvaney featured a custom can of Bud Light sent the 26-year-old to celebrate her “365 Days of Girlhood” on April 1.
Meanwhile, largest beer company in the world blamed its whopping loss in core profit — which accounts for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization — on “the volume decline of Bud Light” as well as “increased sales and marketing investments.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
