{"id":4255,"date":"2017-07-25T06:00:01","date_gmt":"2017-07-25T11:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/?p=4255"},"modified":"2017-07-22T18:14:10","modified_gmt":"2017-07-22T23:14:10","slug":"when-you-blame-others-you-give-up-the-power-to-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/?p=4255","title":{"rendered":"When you blame others, you give up the power to change.."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Regardless of what report one reads today concerning beer shipments or sales of beer to retailers, the numbers all reflect negative trends. \u00a0Until last week\u2019s reports, which showed some improvement in STRs, the negative numbers continue to accelerate. \u00a0Such a downward pattern has not been since the days of the Schlitz decline, with major brands like Miller Lite, Coors Light, Bud Light and Budweiser presenting large decreases in sales. \u00a0In fact, Bud and Bud Light are close to double digit negative numbers.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, these negative trends have caused pundits to throw darts at the reasons causing said losses. \u00a0The most commonly reasons sighted include: ineffective beer advertising, when compared to ads for the spirit vendors; aggressive pricing and the number of SKUs; all of which have negatively impacted and have had consequential results in today\u2019s beer industry.<\/p>\n

Much of the blame in last week\u2019s report was directed at insufficient beer ads, aptly noting that the ads proved ineffective in moving the needle in a positive direction. \u00a0One article pointed out the number of ad agencies Miller Lite had retained over the past years. \u00a0Looking at the number agencies listed, it would appear that Miller\u2019s marketing department changed agencies as frequently as most people change their shirts. \u00a0None of which have improved Lite’s trends.<\/p>\n

All the responsibility, however, does not fall on the shoulders of the brewers. The middle tier could play a much bigger role in these negative trends than initially thought. \u00a0Consider the AB wholesaler who has a draft-handle market share of 70%+. \u00a0The wholesaler prices all their craft beers at the same PTR with no programing. \u00a0Any new handle must come from competition.<\/p>\n

An incentive program does not count if a new handle comes from an in-house brand. \u00a0On the surface, this seems logical, but in reality, does it? \u00a0Such a wholesaler, who engages this type of business model, only hurts the brands they represent. \u00a0If a brewer\u2019s strategy is to employ certain tactics, and their wholesaler refuses to execute such tactics because they do not desire to have issues with other in-house vendors, who really wins? A brand cannot get any traction to build consumer demand or sampling. \u00a0In fact, it could be viewed as the wholesaler providing brands that do not match the consumers\u2019 desires or, in other words, telling the consumer what to drink, when in fact they should be listening to the consumer.\u00a0It is a double edged sword.<\/p>\n

Going forward, what will the wholesalers do if their major domestic brands continue to hemorrhage as they have for years? \u00a0At what point do wholesalers determine enough is enough and begin to support their in-house brands as their suppliers have positioned them?<\/p>\n

While there are many wholesalers that do aggressively pursue any and all programs their vendors have, there are an equal number of wholesalers who do not. \u00a0Those that do follow such programs should not criticize their major suppliers, as they too, are part of the overall industries\u2019 problems. \u00a0The middle tier is equally as deep in this mess.<\/p>\n

When you blame others, you give up the power to change.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Regardless of what report one reads today concerning beer shipments or sales of beer to retailers, the numbers all reflect negative trends. \u00a0Until last week\u2019s reports, which showed some improvement in STRs, the negative numbers continue to accelerate. \u00a0Such a downward pattern has not been since the days of the Schlitz decline, with major brands […]<\/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-16D","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4255"}],"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=4255"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4266,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4255\/revisions\/4266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}