Ch. 7 - Business Marketing

In the traditional sense, Anheuser Busch and its products, like Bud Light, do not fall into the business marketing category, as Bud Light is marketed to consumers for personal consumption, as opposed to a business to business sale. Rather, Anheuser Busch's business marketing consists of the relationship it has with the Anheuser Busch wholesalers. There are currently 500 different Anheiser Busch wholesalers spread across the United States. These wholesalers work closely with Anheuser Busch to provide seamless and consistent distribution of all beverages.

The system of having wholesalers is unique in the beer industry and different than most companies who distribute directly to retail stores. The three tier system in place, where one company makes the beer, another ships it, and a third sells it, has been in place since prohibition. It was originally designed to create a more consistent system and keep aggressive sales tactics in check. Anheuser Busch has recently begun to encourage consolidation of its wholesalers, and has even acquired some itself. Anheuser Busch already owns 14 distributorships, which it refers to as "branches", and has encouraged its other wholesalers to consolidate.For instance, the largest wholesaler in Florida sold last year to two different existing distributors, dividing the territory in half but consolidating by merging into the two other existing territories.
The relationship between wholesalers and Anheuser Busch is an extremely lucrative one. Wholesalers typically acquire Bud Light for $4.00 a case, on average, and resell it for an average of $19.79, a markup of more than 300%. These business to business sales result in huge profits for wholesalers.