{"id":2132,"date":"2014-10-28T06:00:56","date_gmt":"2014-10-28T11:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/?p=2132"},"modified":"2014-10-27T09:28:19","modified_gmt":"2014-10-27T14:28:19","slug":"if-you-have-to-brag-about-how-good-you-are-than-you-are-probably-not-that-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/?p=2132","title":{"rendered":"If you have to brag about how good you are, than you are probably not that good!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"16<\/a>By the late 1970s, Coors had a market share of well over 50% in Kansas.\u00a0 In fact, Coors had close to 70% share in some rural markets in western Kansas.\u00a0 In Wichita, where I was, Coors had a share of 60%.\u00a0 Remember, during this time in the beer industry, Coors\u2019 houses were exclusive, and the policy was not to split draft handles, meaning the account had to be exclusively Coors\u2019 to get any draft.<\/p>\n

Wichita was the largest volume market in the state and our operation ranked in the top five in volume for Coors in their limited US marketing area.\u00a0 Kansas City, Kansas had for years enjoyed being the eastern most market for Coors, meaning they benefited from consumers buying Coors and carrying it back east.\u00a0 Now, however, Coors had expanded into Missouri ending those additional sales.<\/p>\n

Hutchinson, Kansas, was the state’s fourth largest market and geographically backed up to Wichita’s territory.\u00a0 While the state enjoyed market dominance in Hutch, Coors only had a 44% share of market.\u00a0 At this point, the owner of Hutchinson decided to leave the industry and sold his operation to Wichita.\u00a0 Once the deal was closed we quickly drove the Hutchinson market share well back into the 50% range.\u00a0 Obviously, this was a good investment for Wichita.<\/p>\n

So the question is: is the brand made by the brewery, or is the brand made by the wholesaler?\u00a0 In the Hutch case, the demand for Coors was there, but for many reasons, the distributor did not follow through.<\/p>\n

Prior to 2008, people in the industry outside the AB network marveled at the success of the AB network.\u00a0 If AB did not dominate a market, they were, at worst, a strong second.\u00a0 We all wished we had the tools that AB possessed.<\/p>\n

An associate who once worked national accounts with me was fortunate to land a position with AB after years with Stroh, Glazers, and Labatt\u2019s.\u00a0 He called me shortly after starting at AB and told me how happy and amazed he was to have all the resources AB provide for him.\u00a0 These ample resources continued until the InBev take over. Then things began to go south.<\/p>\n

Even with the strength of the outstanding AB distributor system, AB\u2019s volume continues to drop and has since 2008.\u00a0 Some of the volume losses can be attributed to the recession, but as one AB distributor just wrote, he is making more money now than ever.<\/p>\n

That being said, given the changes ABI has made, just how much volume has been propped up by their outstanding distributor network?\u00a0 With the growth of the crafts, and once the craft segment growth slows, will the brands carry the segment, or will the distributors?\u00a0 Boston Beers\u2019 dramatic growth can be attributed to their resources and adding people to their sales teams, or is their growth due to distributors\u2019 efforts?\u00a0 Could it be that the distributors are reacting to the increased support Boston is making available?<\/p>\n

The smart craft breweries will take notice of what is making these breweries grow and plan accordingly.\u00a0 If they do not, they could easily become another Schlitz.\u00a0 Just remember, if they have to brag about just how good they are, they are probably not that good!<\/p>\n

Beer Fodder: http:\/\/consumerist.com\/2014\/<\/span>10\/24\/brewery-battling-lucasfilm-after-attempt-to-trademark-empire-strikes-bock-beer\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By the late 1970s, Coors had a market share of well over 50% in Kansas.\u00a0 In fact, Coors had close to 70% share in some rural markets in western Kansas.\u00a0 In Wichita, where I was, Coors had a share of 60%.\u00a0 Remember, during this time in the beer industry, Coors\u2019 houses were exclusive, and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2xRTi-yo","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2132"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2143,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132\/revisions\/2143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}