CSR Management at Anheuser-Busch

Anheuser-Busch “is among the global company’s largest and most technologically capable breweries” (About, n.d.). On Anheuser-busch.com, you can find a lot of information about the company and their products. The headquarters of Anheuser Busch is located at One Busch Place St. Louis, MO 63118 (About, n.d.). The most known beer families that they produce are the Budweiser and bud light Family. There are numerous brands that Anheuser-Busch produces aside from Budweiser and Bud light. Initial searching for Bud Light Company because most of my family is enthralled by this beer, and upon further researching the beer brand, it was surprising to find that it was actually owned and manufactured by another company, Anheuser-Busch, that also manufactured

The evolving practices around corporate social responsibility (CSR) provide dynamic, and complex opportunities for business. Overall, businesses are modifying their core purpose from creating shareholder profit toward creating shared value across their stakeholders, with shareholders being only one of the many stakeholders. This paper analyzes the 74th ranked 2014 Fortune Global 500 Company Kroger. Kroger started in 1883 as a local Cincinnati, Ohio grocery store, and has expended to be the second largest retail grocery store in the United States, and fifth largest in the world, owning retail food and drug stores, jewelry stores, and convenience stores in the United States (Kroger, 2015). Kroger remains headquartered in Ohio. An overview of Kroger, and specifically Kroger’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy and implementation will be discussed, followed by a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) CSR analysis informing a concluding plan to enhance Kroger’s CSR maturity.

In regards to business-level strategies and overall cost leadership, Anheuser-Busch is the undeniable industry leader when it comes to beer sales. Even if Anheuser-Busch beers aren 't the cheapest, they still are bought for their quality and Anheuser-Busch has gained tremendous market share for this. As for their focus, Anheuser-Busch focuses on a broad segment of customers producing a variety of beers for a variety of budgets to suit all personalities ' needs. Their differentiation factor is that even though Anheuser-Busch produces such cheaper beers as Budweiser and Bud Light, they also produce premium, more expensive beers like Bare Knuckle Stout and Shock Top Belgian White. Anheuser-Busch produces over 100 different brands of beer and

The Boston Beer Company states that it makes several charitable contributions to many foundations such as the

Anheuser-Busch Inc. is a dominating global leader in the beer industry, specifically in the United States. Its roots can be traced all the way back to 1852 from the Bavarian Brewery in St. Louis MO when Adolphus Busch traveled from Germany to join his father-in-law. In 1876 Budweiser was founded and rooted its brand in values, ethics, and quality. These core staples of the company evolved all the way to 1982 when Bud Light was introduced. Today Bud Light is the best selling beer in the U.S. and the #1 beer sold by volume in the world. Let’s take a look into the marketing mix that makes this product so successful.

In 1999, they achieved record sales and earnings, selling over 100 million barrels of beer worldwide for the first time in history. August A. Busch III, Chairman of the Board and President, says his company owes its success to, “The combination of outstanding domestic beer industry fundamentals, the highest quality and freshest beer in the industry and exceptional marketing and sales execution.”

The Coors Brewing Company was founded back in 1873 by two German immigrants Adolph Coors and Jacob Schueler. The two combined invested $20,000, $18,000 of which came from Schueler and the other $2,000 from Coors. The location of the brewery was in the mining town of Golden, Colorado. This location was picked because Mr. Coors believed the key ingredient in beer was the water source. The river that flowed through this mining town was perfect for his beer. The two investors worked together for seven years until Coors bought out Schueler and became the sole owner of the brewery in 1880. When prohibition finally hit Colorado in the year 1916, Mr. Coors was forced to find other means of making money. The brewery was converted to produce malted milk which he would then sell to candy companies. Four years after Adolph Coors passing, in 1929, prohibition is ended and his son, Adolph Coors Jr., takes over the family business. The distribution range of the company quickly expands and by 1948, it stretches across 11 states. It would remain this way for almost 30 years before they start to expand to try and reach a nationwide audience. In 2005, now in its fourth generation of Coors family management, the Coors Brewing Company votes to merge with Molson Brewing Company in Canada to form the Molson Coors Brewing Company. Together they are the world’s seventh largest brewer. Two years later

In 2008 Anheuser Busch merged with international brewing company InBev. Due to this merger the company is now able to reach a more broad market. AB was already strong at that time, begin rated as the number one brewery in the world by volume. However, with this merger with InBev they have firmly secured their place at the top of the beer market. Beer enthusiasts all over the world are looking or more variety and now with this merger AB-InBev is able to reach more customers internationally than before. In addition, AB-InBev can also increase their distributor base. Having that connection with an international company allows them to distribute to more countries and customers.

However, New Belgium Brewing and Anheuser-Bush InBev have different ways and action to indicate the social responsibility. “Corporate social responsibility can either be through their actual business practices or though extracurricular activities” (Musafer, 2012). Both companies are willing to protect our planet, which the New Belgium Brewing especially have adopted a triple bottom line approach to business. New Belgium Brewing is implementing the corporate social responsibility through their daily business. They use reuse water to reduce pollution and set wind power from the utility to save CO2. While Anheuser-Busch InBv is executing other extracurricular activities to improve corporate social

Anheuser-Busch is a company that concerns itself with the manufacture, marketing as well as distribution of alcoholic beverages. Anheuser-Busch according to the company website, "is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev" (Anheuser-Busch 2011). I chose Anheuser-Busch for this discussion based on its relative size and market share. Currently, the entity is considered one of United State's largest brewing companies. Hence it is likely that given its relative size and the huge chunk of the market it controls, Anheuser-Busch would have to contend with quite a number of economic issues. Indeed, the continued success of Anheuser-Busch in the highly competitive alcoholic beverages marketplace largely depends on how it handles these issues.

Adolph Coors year of 1985 was a great one. All the sales were record high while everyone else’s was dropping. The significance of this was astounding since the beer industry was down all together. People didn’t drink a lot of beer but, Coors beer jumped by 13% during that time. This shows how Coors can adapt with the industry and even though the industry may change Coors can still keep the competitiveness up with other vendors. If Coors continues the way they are and stay on top of the industry, they will be able to stay competitive and be the best brewing company in the United States.

Anheuser- Busch is the largest beer distributing company in the world. This is because over the years dating back to 1852 they have been pioneers in both their product production and distribution. Over the years they have faced a lot of criticism and setbacks. Most notably during Prohibition from 1920 through the early 1930s. In 2008 they were bought by the European company InBev and currently hold 49.6% of the market share. Today through the modern era they have also been one of the most successful companies when it comes to marketing their products.

In its attempt to monopolize, Anheuser-Busch InBev has set a primary focus on forming stronger relationships with distributors throughout the country, including in Cincinnati. Some of these relationships have gone as far as Anheuser-Busch InBev buying-out distributors. This dynamic worries Dan more than any other aspect, as a local microbrewery’s success is based highly on its relationship with distributors and their ability to effectively sell the product. This monopoly has shown an interest in and ability to strangle Listermann’s at the distribution stage, causing the microbrewery drop offs in profit and reputation in the eyes of distributors. Some small breweries have already caved in under the pressure, as part of this monopolization includes buying up any microbreweries that are willing to sell. If this trend continues, it could be disastrous for Listermann’s, because Dan has used the same strategy of relying on consistent distributors ever since he opened, and he has never had to repair that relationship or find a new strategy. In addition to their attempt to buy-out distributors, Anheuser-Busch InBev has shown the money and resources to buy-out employees from small beer producers like Listermann’s. Dan pointed out that this trend has already begun, as he has lost more employees

The New Belgium Brewing Company and Anheuser-Busch InBev Company both are in the business of selling beer to their customers who enjoy it. The size of companies operations, employment, and influence differ in many ways. Both company set similar goals to better the environment, better customer satisfaction, and better the lives of people in communities that they can spread their message as well as their products. The priorities and practices that each company follows, allows both companies to be unique as well as similar in their fight to build a better planet.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is something that affects all companies and should be an active factor in the company’s decision making. It is something all corporations need to care about. CSR is when business’ or corporations take part in an initiative or campaign for a cause that will benefit society and/or in some way make the world a better place (Taylor, 2015). Initially, Corporate Social Responsibility started to take shape around the 1950’s, but some say that it dates all the way back to the 1800s, the idea of CSR was seen (Carroll, 2007). One may think that because it is dated so long ago, it doesn’t have an important impact today nevertheless, it is proven that Corporate Social Responsibility is a pathway for entities to self benefit as they are in the process of benefitting society.