According to consumers polled from YouGovPolimetrix, the reputation of four beer brands with considerable history - Busch, Ice House, Keystone and Milwaukee's Best - are so bad that the breweries should consider retiring them.
YouGovPolimetrix' Brand Index, which tracks 30 beer brands, found none of those four brands have a single positive score in the ranking based on surveys of men from January this year through mid-April. The scores are based on satisfaction, quality, impression, reputation, value and recommendation.
Ted Marzilli, SVP and global managing director for YouGov, told mediapost.com that the four brands have ranked at the bottom in the two years the research firm has been following the category. Keystone and Milwaukee's Best rate much lower than Busch and Ice House
Milwaukee's Best, owned by Miller Brewing Co. and introduced in 1984 as its budget label, had a minus-20 ranking. That was followed in ascending order by Keystone, Ice House and Busch, at minus-10. The industry average in the index is currently around 4.9.
Keystone, owned by Coors, was introduced as a budget label by Coors in 1989.
Busch, owned by A-B/InBev, is relatively popular among 50-plus consumers, lower-income consumers and those in the Midwest, according to Mr. Marzilli. The brand was introduced in 1955 as a value alternative by Anheuser-Busch.
Icehouse, which Miller Brewing launched in 1994 and one of the first beers made using the ice-brewing process, "has a niche among African-Americans and is rated more highly by women; its selling points are that it is less bitter, and crisper than others," said Marzilli.
The top five beers in the rankings in order were Samuel Adams, Heineken, Guinness, Corona and Michelob.
YouGovPolimetrix's Brand Index interviews 5,000 people each weekday from a representative U.S. population sample, constituting some 1.2 million interviews per year.
Discussion Question: What criteria should guide when a brand should be retired? Which of the four potential "retired" brands mentioned - Busch, Ice House, Keystone and Milwaukee's Best - is worth saving and why?