Who Is Budweiser's Sponsorship?

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Stella Artois, Becks and Budweiser are all well-known brands in the UK beer industry, with Budweiser (Bud) in particular, boasting respectable market share. However it has recently been reported that Anheuser-Busch (AB) Inbev, the Belgian producers of Stella Artois, Beck’s and Budweiser, experienced a lag in sales post World Cup 2014, questioning the impact of their official sponsorship of the event. Sponsorship can be defined as “the provision of resources (money, people or equipment) by an organization directly linked to an event or activity in exchange for direct association to that event or activity (Sandler, 1993)(Papadimitriou, 2008). As the official beer of the World Cup, Budweiser’s sponsorship of the tournament saw the brand introduce a limited edition gold ‘Rise as One’ bottle as part of a wider #RiseAsOne campaign, along with a Budweiser backdrop and sponsorship of the Man of the Match awards throughout the duration of the competition. This saw the brand associated with the likes of the Argentinian international, Lionel Messi, Arjen Robben of Holland and David Villa of Spain, all of whom are world renowned sports stars with large fan bases. With a peak UK television audience of 20.64 million people tuned in during the final game of the …show more content…

However, despite this achievement, the company recently saw their share in the UK market drop, as Heineken UK Ltd overtook their position as market leaders, with total volume shares of 22% (Euromonitor International, June 2014). Up to this point, AB Inbev had held the largest market share in the UK beer industry for several years, finishing 2013 at 18.9%, with Heineken close behind at 18.6% (Passport, 2014.) For these reasons, now more than ever, is the opportune time for the company to reexamine its approach to customer relationship management (CRM) and thus I am recommending that Budweiser focus on customer retention through

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