Beer Advertising

When selecting a wine from the liquor store many people rely solely on the label for their choice. A similar scenario occurs in beer buying where many people sample different beers until they find one they like. Some people however buy beer strictly because of the advertisements and promotions. These advertisements can lead to brand loyalty in beer drinkers which means that person will most likely purchase the same beer over and over even if it does not have a good flavour. In fact beer advertising is one of the largest expenditures for beer manufacturing companies. Consider advertising at the Superbowl (where the majority of ads are for beer) where thirty second commercials are sold for $2 million. The same applies to hockey and other major sports that all have a beer sponsor for their stadium. In the case of the John Labatt Center a beer company has become the major sponsor and its name is in the title of the building. With all this money going into advertising one would think that people would only buy the type of beer that advertises the most, which is not the case. My personal favourite (Pabst Blue Ribbon) does little to no advertising in Canada which leads me to think that beer advertising does very little in coaxing people to buy their product. So why do companies spend so much money on advertising if it doesn’t even work?