I’m always amazed at reports like this that blame millennials for the downfall of shitty, over-marketed big brands.
Here’s a report from Business Insider, citing CNBC, about decreased beer drinking among millennials:
Millennials aren’t drinking enough beer to keep brands afloat.
According to CNBC, Goldman Sachs downgraded both Boston Beer Company and Constellation Brand on the data that younger consumers aren’t drinking as much alcohol as older generations, and the ones who do prefer wine and spirits.
“We view the shift in penetration and consumption trends as driven by a shift in preferences in the younger cohorts,” chief analyst Freda Zhuo wrote.
Beer penetration fell 1% from 2016 to 2017 in the US market, while both wine and spirits were unmoved, according to Nielsen ratings.
To be fair, Sam Adams is not a shit brand, but unfortunately for them they’re big enough that they get lumped in by many as a marketing-fueled brand not worthy of the more refined palate of hipster beer drinkers. Constellation Brands owns Corona, Modelo and Pacifico, which are exactly the sorts of beers that have been shunned in recent years in favor of craft brews once consumers realized that, 9 times out of 10, the girl sitting next to them didn’t have the perfect bikini ass regardless of how many la cerveza mas finas they consumed or limes wedges they squirted her with like a fairy sprinkling magic dust over a sentient beast to make them assimilable.
A 1% decrease in a big market is certainly enough to move stocks, but just like with that Buffalo Wild Wings report – which blamed millennials’ at-home cooking habits (get Hello Fresh!) rather than the fact that BWW produces the culinary equivalent of getting punched in the braces for the company’s downturn – it always seems that analysts, reporters and the companies themselves are unwilling to look in the mirror and acknowledge that, in many cases, their products aren’t good.
