Budweiser (Anheuser-Busch)

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For the Czech beer also known as "Budweiser", please see Budweiser Budvar.

Image:StLouisABPackaging Plant.JPG Budweiser, usually simply called Bud and often marketed with the slogan "King of Beers", is the primary brand of beer made by Anheuser-Busch. Budweiser is an American lager brewed using mass production techniques. Like other American lagers, it is lightly flavored and heavily carbonated; it is among the mildest-tasting of internationally distributed lagers.

There are numerous Budweiser breweries located around the United States and the rest of the world.

The company is known for its sports sponsorships, video game sponsorship (Tapper), and (often) humorous advertisements. Advertising campaigns have included a nude Ganymede grasping a beer bottle and borne aloft by a bald eagle, frogs saying 'bud-weis-er', lizards doing the same, and Clydesdale horses. Anheuser-Busch is also known for its repeated legal attempts to obtain complete control of the Budweiser trademark, which have been generally unsuccessful.

1 Market share
2 Marketing
3 The name
4 The beer
5 External links

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Market share

Anheuser-Busch has a market share in the United States of about 50% for all of its brands of beer combined. Despite its wide commercial success in the United States, it has a very poor reputation with beer enthusiasts, both foreign and domestic, who typically object to its use of adjuncts, and to the taste of American lagers in general. In spite of that reputation, the company's 2005 annual report cites figures which demonstrate Budweiser brands are proving to be quite successful in three markets outside of the U.S.:

in China, where Anheuser-Busch has had a brewery in Wuhan since 1995, 3.4 million barrels of Budweiser were brewed in 2005.
in the United Kingdom, where Anheuser-Busch owns Stag Brewery in Mortlake, Budweiser is the number one on-premise, premium packaged lager in bars, pubs, clubs and restaurants.
in Canada, where Labatt Brewing Company brews and packages Budweiser and Bud Light for the Canadian market; Budweiser has been the country's number one brand for two years.

Budweiser is also widely available in Mexico due to Anheuser-Busch's half-ownership of Grupo Modelo, through which Budweiser and Bud Light are distributed. In Ireland, Budweiser is the one of the leading lager brands; it is brewed, marketed, and sold by Guinness. Budweiser is also available in Italy and Argentina because of partnerships Anheuser-Busch has with major brewers there.

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Marketing

Budweiser is one of the major breweries that emphasizes humorous advertising campaigns, such as the "Real Men of Genius" radio commercials for Bud Light, recently moved to television. The spots feature an over-the-top, 1980s-style rock ballad sung by David Bickler, the former lead singer of "Survivor," describing ordinary activities as if they were heroic. The campaign originally was called "Real American Heroes," but the name was changed after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Some Bud advertising campaigns have entered the popular culture in the U.S.. They include a long TV advertisements in the 1990s featuring three frogs named "Bud", "Weis", and "Er", and a campaign built around the phrase "Whassup?".

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The name

See also Budweiser Budvar.

With globalization of brands, the existence of the Czech beer of the same name has caused problems in some markets. A long-standing agreement with the Czech brewer divided the rights to the name "Budweiser", so that the Anheuser-Busch product is marketed as "Bud" (in France and elsewhere) and "Anheuser-Busch B" (Germany), where the Czech beer has the rights to the name. Anheuser-Busch has made offers to buy out the Czech brewing company in order to secure global rights to the name "Budweiser", but the Czech government has refused all such offers, considering keeping the Budweiser name Czech to be a matter of national pride.

The name was coined by the founders of the company. They chose "Budweiser" because it was German sounding and would appeal to other German immigrants, and it was easy for Americans to pronounce.

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The beer

Anheuser-Busch brews several brands of beer:

The Budweiser Family
- Budweiser
- Budweiser Select
- Bud Light
- Bud Dry
- Bud Ice
- Bud Ice Light
The Michelob Family
- Michelob
- Michelob Light
- Michelob Ultra
- Michelob Ultra Amber
- Michelob Honey Lager
- Michelob AmberBock
- Michelob Golden Draft
- Michelob Golden Draft Light
Busch Family
- Busch
- Busch Light
- Busch Ice
The Natural Family
- Natural Light
- Natural Ice
Specialty Beers
- B^E
- Bare Knuckle Stout
- Anheuser World Lager
- ZiegenBock
- ZiegenLight
Non-alcoholic
- O'Doul's
- O'Doul's Amber
- Busch NA