Branding Bud: A Profile of the Anheuser-Busch Merchandising Team

Adolphus Busch knew how important keeping a brand name in front of consumers is. An early consumer giveaway item was a corkscrew emblazoned with the Budweiser logo. But the founder of Anheuser-Busch Cos. also knew that brand-building means nurturing business relations as well, so he always had a stockpile of Bud-logo pocketknives ready to hand out at company meetings.Though the business of selling beer has changed mightily over the past 150 years, Anheuser-Busch still strives to maintain good relations with its consumers, wholesalers and retailers. That's no small task considering that the company now deals with more than 700 distributors, offers nearly 40 different brands, and has some form of marketing presence virtually everywhere alcoholic beverages are sold. Producing P-O-P that can meet the needs of such a diverse marketplace can be a challenge.That task falls on the shoulders of the company's retail sales promotion group. They must balance the needs of a far-flung yet fragmented marketplace and provide the field with merchandising materials that can speak to all.Revamping the TeamThe need for P-O-P and promotional programs that effectively hit home with consumers and wholesalers has caused the company to revamp its approach to P-O-P. The company has designed teams for each promotional program to tap into a wider knowledge base of how P-O-P is produced and what can make it most effective at retail."We've come a long way in the past five years because we've gone from what used to be a more departmentally-focused approach to an overall team-and process-focus," says Michael O'Sullivan, director, merchandising systems. "Not only has it gotten our P-O-S to market faster, it has allowed us to extend our buying power and give our wholesalers more materials for the same money. It has also created a much friendlier, team-like relationship internally. Now we have this group where everyone understands what everyone else is doing."The team includes representatives from a wide variety of departments including the brand team, the retail promotions group, purchasing, the promotions agency, P-O-P vendors, printers, film separators, and anyone else who has contact with the project. The idea was to provide everyone with the complete spectrum of available information -- not just the minimal information required to accomplish specific tasks. This approach keeps the team open to new suggestions and quite often leads to new ways to take advantage of efficiencies."Purchasing used to just take a handoff [from retail promotions]," says Don Orf, director, marketing materials, corporate purchasing. "They would develop the project, get it all ready and then say, 'Go.' Now, we come in up-front with the team. We bring a supplier with us so that if it's a temporary promotion, we have our printers sitting and talking with these guys and with the agencies and separator. Then we can come up with a way to get the project through the system quickly, painlessly and efficiently. That saves everyone time and money and gives our wholesalers what they need to sell, when they need it."Depending on the project, a variety of different suppliers are called upon to add their expertise. Though not inclusive of all its suppliers, the company regularly uses Everbrite Inc., Greenfield, Wis.; Gage In-Store Marketing, Minneapolis; and Grimm Industries Inc., Fairview, Pa., for its permanent P-O-P. Rapid Displays, Union City, Calif.; Phoenix Display, Thorofare, N.J.; and Chesapeake Corp., Winston-Salem, N.C., are often used for temporary pieces. All concepts and artwork are designed by outside promotional agencies."When I first came to the group, every group did their own thing and passed the ball on as it went," says Kurt Witzel, senior manager, retail sales promotion. "Now, the teams work together to get things done quicker and more efficiently. A lot of times when you're discussing things in a group, a third party, who you wouldn't think would know anything about it, will come up with a new concept or idea -- like if you took a quarter-inch off of the size of that table tent, you could put four more up on a printing press and save yourself x amount of dollars. That's been tremendously helpful to us."Wholesale ChangeAnother significant change has been the way the company communicates with its wholesalers. To help stay on top of wholesaler P-O-P needs, the company established a panel of 25 wholesalers who serve as a merchandising advisory committee. Twice a year, this group assembles in St. Louis to assess different promotional and display issues. "We use the group as a sounding board," says O'Sullivan. "We present ideas and concepts to them and they provide us with immediate feedback on how they think it's going to work. Because we have people from all over the country attending, we bit on different perspectives about how things work in different geographic regions of the U.S., as well as certain markets that may be more skewed toward chain accounts or maybe convenience stores. We take that information and implement it in the programs that these guys come up with.""It's the job of the wholesalers who are members to get feedback from other wholesalers in their particular region of the country," says Dan McHugh, director, retail sales promotion. "That really helps out. If there is ever an issue, a wholesaler in the region knows to go directly to his member of the committee, write the issue up and present it to us through that member. It's a great way to take big numbers and get it down to a manageable group, yet everybody's voice is heard in the system."The merchandising advisory committee recently discovered that wholesalers were having a difficult time managing the large number of national promotional programs that Anheuser-Busch produces annually. As a result of the committee's work, programs have been trimmed in number from well over 100 to a more manageable 40. Anheuser-Busch also simplified existing programs, eliminating complicated collect-and-win games for a more immediate approach, instant-win programs. "It's a perfect example of how we've taken feedback from the system and said, 'You're absolutely right. Let's get down to a more manageable number of programs on a national level,'" says McHugh."One of the things this company is going toward is looking at total system cost, which is a production kind of thing that started with the breweries -- but you can look at it from our point-of-view, too," says Orf. "What we're doing is taking cost out by streamlining the process."The company's P-O-P is produced and organized through the retail promotions group. McHugh is responsible for managing temporary P-O-P for both national and geographic, localized programs. Michael Ivester, manager, creative development, oversees permanent items, such as neon signs, wall signage and pool-table lights. O'Sullivan coordinates promotional programs and P-O-P with the distributor network, while Orf handles the purchasing and works with P-O-P suppliers.Under the current system, retail sales promotion impacts consumers via three tiers. Tier #1 is the national umbrella program that all wholesalers can utilize, such as Bud Bowl and Bud Summer. The second tier is called into action when certain geographic regions of the country would be better served with a different program. For example, in Florida, the Daytona 500 overshadows the Bud Bowl program, which runs in January. The geographic marketing group, working within the retail promotions group, took advantage of the region's affinity for the race and produced a different program to capitalize on Daytona."The third tier is to try to do something completely separate and individual for a chain account," says McHugh. "We'd rather be in tiers #1 and #2 versus tier #3, but that's the philosophy that we believe in: Provide the national umbrella program, which is done through our trimester allotment process. Then, when that doesn't work, we go down to the localized customization level, by geography or by account."A Sign of ConsistencyTo add flexibility to the three-tier system, in 1998 the company started a signmaking initiative that enables individual wholesalers to make custom signs for their accounts. Each dealership now has the opportunity to purchase printing and signmaking equipment to produce customized P-O-P. While Anheuser-Busch shares in the cost, the wholesalers own the equipment. They were given the choice of purchasing a 42-inch wide-format printer or smaller printers, as well as die cutters and laminating equipment. "It was up to the wholesaler to understand the needs of his market because some signs fit certain accounts and some don't," says O'Sullivan, who oversees the signmaking program. "The wide-format works great for banners, but if you're going to print cooler stickers or shelf talkers, that fits better on a different type of machine."Wholesalers are given access to image templates via Abmarketing.com and distributed on CDs, which can then be customized. The templates include a variety of different promotions and branding campaigns, as well as celebration occasions, such as birthdays and anniversaries.Maintaining the consistency of the brand was an obvious concern when the program was being organized. As a result, the equipment has been tested to yield the same color curve. The company is also working on a continuing basis to train the wholesalers on the use of the equipment and branding strategies.For example, when wholesalers purchased the equipment, they received three days of training. The company also has a contract with technical support groups to help when problems arise. "We have a 1-800 number that they can call to order supplies or, if they have some technical support issues," says O'Sullivan. "We also have a hardware support company that goes out and fixes any problems. It's a pretty comprehensive program."In addition, wholesalers are wired to the Busch Satellite Network, which broadcasts daily programming to distributors on upcoming promotions, P-O-P and other sales issues. The network includes a live technical support call-in show so that all wholesalers can benefit from the program in real-time. The company also provides additional training at its headquarters, which includes how-tos and best practices techniques.The signmaking initiative continues to be an evolving process with the company, though marketers now feel that they're just waiting for technology to catch up. "Right now, our only limitations are technological," says Ivester. "We're constantly looking at things like bandwidth and satellite linkups and so on. As the equipment gets better, there might be a situation where we'll upgrade.""It's been one of the most successful programs that we've ever had," says O'Sullivan. "We've done some surveys and we have a very high percentage of wholesalers participating in this. We've also done surveys to find out how they're satisfied and 95% of our wholesalers are very satisfied with the program. Statistically, that's a very high number."

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