Examining The Beer Industry Through Philip Van Munching's 'Beer Blast': The Risks Of Growth

There is a running theme in my articles about Beer Blast, Philip Van Munching’s history of the beer industry in the late 20^th Century. That theme is that change is often bad for companies.

In my first article about the book, I described how companies’ introduction of new products often only damaged their brands. In my second, I showed how trying to change a beer brand’s qualities to save money or to make it more modern also damaged their brands. In both of these articles, change was bad for beer companies even when it was desired.

Growth is probably the type of change that companies desire most. Growth, after all, is what drives stock prices up. When a company is growing, it can hire new employees and promote old ones. And, of course, leading a growing company brings benefits for management. Managers, like most people, enjoy seeing their areas of responsibility expand. Such expansion comes with bigger salaries and higher status in their industries. No wonder corporate executives are always trying to grow their companies.

However, Beer Blast shows that even growth, the most desirable form of change, can be more problematic than anyone can imagine. (Read More)

Examining The Beer Industry Through Philip Van Munching's 'Beer Blast': Brand Image

In my most recent article, I discussed the beer industry’s quest for new products as seen in Beer Blast, Philip Van Munching’s history of the industry in the late 20^th Century. Van Munching argues that the industry’s constant introduction of new beer varieties has diluted the value of existing brands, hurting beer companies’ brand image.

However, Beer Blast does not only discuss brand image in the context of new products. Van Munching was the advertising director at Van Munching & Co., the former US importer of Heineken (HEINY) (HINKF). As a result, his book goes into great detail about the image strategies of several major American beer brands, offering insights about both their successes and failures.

Though Van Munching’s book was written in 1997, I feel such insights remain valuable for investors. For example, Beer Blast shows that beer companies are similar to luxury goods companies. Customers often use the brand of beer they drink to define their self image and the image they project to others. In this, they treat beer the way they treat luxury goods such as fashion items, which are similarly used to craft one’s personal image.

This may seem obvious, but...(Read More)

Examining The Beer Industry Through Philip Van Munching's 'Beer Blast': The Quest For New Products

BeerBlast: The Inside Story Of The Brewing Industry’s Bizarre Battles For YourMoney is a history of the beer industry in the late twentieth century. Philip van Munching, the book’s author, was once the advertising director at his family’s company, the former US importer of Heineken (HEINY) (HINKF). Though the book was written almost two decades ago, I feel it still offers valuable insights, both for those interested in investing in the alcohol industry, as well as for investors in general. 

In my opinion, the most important lesson of Beer Blast is how dramatic the beer industry’s history has been. Alcohol companies have been portrayed as safe, “defensive” investments. The common wisdom is that they do well in any environment because demand for their products is persistent. That may be true, but Van Munching’s account demonstrates how even such defensive companies can be surprisingly chaotic. Defensive companies are often driven to innovate, change, and try to grow as much as their more volatile peers.

Beer Blast shows one example of this tendency by depicting the beer industry’s quest for new, disruptive products. When I read the book, I felt this pressure to innovate was stronger than I had expected of a “defensive” industry selling a product with an ancient history like beer. The book also shows how Anheuser-Busch (BUD), the leader in the US beer industry, has used its market position to be successful in this quest for product innovation. (Read More)