In the context of the beer industry, a soft launch is how one might describe trialing a new brand. Step one: Choose a test market. Step two: Give away a bunch of samples. Step three: Gather feedback and send it to the corporate offices. Ideally, by the end of this journey, the brand is ready for a national rollout. Today, we’re going to be talking about one of the most important soft launches in the modern American beer business with someone who was there for the whole shebang.
On this episode of “Taplines,” we’re joined by Kimberly Clements. While she’s now the co-founder and managing partner of beverage industry consultancy Pints LLC, Clements’ family roots run deep in beer distribution. She’s here to talk about Anheuser-Busch’s introduction of a beer you may have heard about before, Michelob Ultra, for which August Busch III personally tapped her family’s Arizona distributorship to help test out in advance of a national release.
Twenty-two years later, Michelob has, for better or worse, reordered the way Americans think about beer and has become AB InBev’s post-Bud Light flagship in the process. But it all started back in the early aughts. Tune in for more.
