Light Beer Going Flat

October 13, 2015 – Light beer sales have cratered 12% since their high point in 2007.  The Wall Street Journal reports that the market loss is so serious that it is a factor in the merger mania going on in the beer industry, including the potential merger of the world’s two biggest breweries, Anheuser-Busch InBev and SAB Miller.

It is also causing the major brewers to fire their ad agencies and sack some executives.  Bud Light has had five agencies in five years.  The United States is the world’s most profitable beer market and summer is the big season.  But the summer of 2015 did not go well for Bud Light, which dropped 3.3 percent and Coors Light which declined 0.7 percent.  Miller Lite managed to increase sales by 1.8 percent for the first time in seven years.  Miller did not invent light beer but it was the first to successfully market light beer debuting Miller Lite in the 1975.

So who is to blame for the falling sales of light beers?  There isn’t one particular culprit but certainly the rise of craft beer is a major contributing factor.  The young, hip and cool have moved beyond tasteless suds.  Women, too, are counting their calories elsewhere.  They comprise 25 percent of the market for light beer but are switching to cider, wine and liquor.

Do you think it could possibly be the taste?