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Real American Beer aims to rival Bud Light with unique marketing strategy
Wrestling legend desires to carry America again collectively, one beer at a time.
Actual American Beer goals to grow to be as “huge as Bud Gentle” by way of a artistic advertising technique that pays tribute to late founder Hulk Hogan.
It depends on campaigns corresponding to alligator searching and a bunch of “Actual American Women” to advertise its product. Everybody on the startup, led by former Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Terri Francis, was dedicated to this mission. Francis advised FOX Enterprise it had been Hogan’s dream earlier than his dying in July 2025 at age 71, simply over a yr after launching the corporate.
“His purpose was for this to be larger than Bud Gentle, and … now we have now to make that occur,” stated Actual American Beer CEO Francis, including that Hogan wished his beer firm to go away an even bigger legacy than his wrestling profession.
Hulk Hogan’s “Actual American Beer” hits cabinets at Walmart lower than a yr after its launch. (Actual American Beer / Fox Information)
“I really feel a deep duty to hold out what he began,” Francis stated.
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Actual American beer women promote the product at an occasion. (Actual American beer)
Francis stated the corporate has a artistic plan to distinguish itself from rivals that she believes have missed the mark in bringing beer to market. She stated the corporate is not going to “push a message of beer” however will grow to be a part of “extraordinary moments.” It is a nod to Hogan, who she stated had a novel skill to excite and energize these round him.
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Actual American Beer desires to distinguish itself from the competitors by making the beer a part of a significant expertise as an alternative of specializing in the product itself. In accordance with Francis, it’s a tactic that’s totally different from most beer advertising, which focuses on the product itself.
The corporate makes use of a bunch of ‘Actual American Women’ to speak in regards to the beer at occasions and join with prospects. In accordance with Francis, the corporate provides a face to a model “in a world the place there are numerous faceless manufacturers.”
The corporate additionally just lately created a marketing campaign highlighting folks ingesting Actual American Beer whereas trying to find alligators.
Alligator searching marketing campaign with Actual American Beer. (Actual American beer)
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The corporate additionally plans to spend money on nation music and broaden its partnership with NASCAR. It additionally created its personal Actual American Freestyle wrestling league with FOX Nation.
Earlier this yr, the corporate introduced a multi-year partnership with WWE, which can see Actual American Beer featured on WWE’s flagship applications, together with “Monday Night time Uncooked.”
WWE additionally grew to become a minority proprietor of the beer model, which is now bought in 20 states. In April, it struck a cope with Walmart for shops in eight states: Florida, Illinois, Idaho, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio and Wisconsin.
Actual American beer women promote the product at an occasion. (Actual American beer)
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Though Dave Williams, president of Bump Williams Consulting, stated any new beer model would “be hard-pressed to catch as much as the scale of present premium leaders” like Bud Gentle and Miller, he believes “there are nonetheless loads of lager-drinking beer customers throughout the nation, which nonetheless appears like a possibility to me.”
Significantly within the home lager market, which continues to be big, even capturing 1% of the market share may imply huge gross sales, Williams stated. However that also will not be straightforward. He famous that that is additionally probably the most troublesome segments to interrupt into as the foremost manufacturers have the sources to stay dominant with monumental advertising and distribution energy.
Actual American beer women promote the product at an occasion. (Actual American beer)
Williams famous that some regional and heritage manufacturers, corresponding to Lone Star, Rainier, Narragansett and Genesee, have managed to construct loyal followers by leaning on authenticity and native pleasure. New labels like Actual American are additionally attempting to faucet into that very same enchantment, Williams stated.
“There are additionally many properties and customers which might be nonetheless up for grabs relating to new customers of authorized ingesting age or present drinkers in search of an genuine, high quality model to name their very own,” Williams stated. “There are nonetheless loads of alternatives for any new model to seek out success. Reaching a scale that rivals an trade chief like Bud Gentle is just not a process to be taken evenly.”