Advertising Age reports that Pabst Brewing hopes to revive the Schlitz brand using the same sort of retro approach that fueled a surge in Pabst sales.
The problem for Schlitz and Pabst is that price apparently trumps retro, and sales dropped in 2005 when Anheuser-Busch cut prices on Natural Light and Busch.
So Schlitz – which was the nation’s third best selling beer just 25 years ago – is turning up the volume, including a reprise of the gilded bottle from the 1950s.
“They absolutely have to do something,” said distributor Don Faust Jr. at Faust Distributor Co., Houston. “If price isn’t going to get people to buy Pabst and Schlitz, the alternative has to be more marketing.”
We’ve got another suggestion. Change what’s inside the bottle.