Rising from the ashes
Remember Pabst Blue Ribbon - PBR for short? That former blue-collar brew whose heydays were in the 1970s when it sold more than ten million barrels? For years the brand has been in decline not least because Pabst’s parent, the San-Antonio-based Pabst Brewing Company, which does not own a brewery anymore but contracts out, eschews conventional advertising. In 2001 sales of the 160 year old brand PBR had fallen to fewer than one million barrels. The brand’s resurgence began when young consumers in Portland Oregon adopted the brew. In 2002 sales rose five percent although Pabst only spent a total of USD427,000 on advertising compared with Anheuser-Busch’s USD419 million and Miller’s USD275 million. Last year PBR’s sales were up 15 percent, even though no one quite understands why..
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