The article I chose to analyze is, “From the Mircrobrewers Who Brought you Bud, Coors . . .” This article examines what has been happening to the beer industry with respect to national microbreweries, such as, Anheuser-Bush, Miller, and Adolph Coors buying out regional breweries to attract the consumers who are now switching from the market dominating beers such as Budweiser, to regional beers like Pyramid Ale.

This article explores a competitive rivalry in the beer business which is broken up into two segments, national and regional microbrewers. National competitors have a wide market coverage and generally are large companies (i.e. Anheuser-Busch). Regional competitors are smaller than national in the fact that they only distribute in certain regions. Since the end of prohibition, the large breweries bought out and absorbed almost every regional and smaller brewery in North America, leaving the marketplace dominated (80%) by a handful a large producers. These producers have largely shaped the marketplace in their own image. In an attempt to appeal to the widest possible market they have literally diluted beer to suit the lowest common denominator. Discriminating consumers

It seems to me that the theme of this article is that consumers are looking for something different. We're seeing it in coffee we're seeing it in the restaurant business, now we're seeing it in beer. But as consumers around America become exposed to a greater variety of products, certain characteristics will emerge as preferred and that I think will help regional brewers gain economies of scale by increasing their demand and a need for higher production output. "What consumers want out of a beer is becoming consistent across the country (Sneath).”

According to the article “Looking for a Good Small Brewery,” today's concern is not so much for the quality of the product but for the viability of what is now a very large and growing industry. Small breweries have grown to regional status, regional breweries become national, and some of the biggest breweries acquire smaller ones and/or introduce their own versions of craft beer. “For the consumer, there hasn't been a better time to find richly flavorful beer in the mass marketplace at competitive prices. Indeed, special promotions, coupons and warehouse pricing are providing craft-beer lovers with bargains like never before (Sherer).” The margins to pay for all this growth, however, are being squeezed. Many breweries with significant debt are finding dwindling profits on ever-increasing production. Craft beer sales continue to grow at a rate of 50 percent per year. Megabrewers are scrambling to produce and position microbrewery knock-offs next to their American light lagers, while still others are getting a piece of the action by buying into authentic micro- and regional-breweries. With strong indications

Some topics in this essay:
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