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[XiaNaphryz]

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...ing-bowtie-shaped-can-on-may-6-203372061.html

ST. LOUIS, April 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- This spring Budweiser will introduce a striking and original new beer can – a bowtie-shaped aluminum can that mirrors Budweiser's iconic bowtie logo.

Beer lovers can see for themselves the new bowtie-shaped can when it becomes available in a special 8-pack on store shelves nationwide beginning May 6.

"This can is incomparable, like nothing you've ever seen before," said Pat McGauley, vice president of innovation for Anheuser-Busch. "The world's most iconic beer brand deserves the world's most unique and innovative can. I think we have it here."

The proprietary can, in development since 2010, will be available only in the United States and in an 8-pack and will not replace the traditional Budweiser can.

To make the new can possible, Anheuser-Busch engineers needed to solve a number of technical challenges, and major equipment investments were required at Budweiser's can-making facility in Newburgh, N.Y. Significant capital investments also were required to upgrade packaging lines at the Budweiser breweries in Los Angeles and Williamsburg, Va., the first breweries with capability to package this unique can innovation.

Newburgh, about 60 miles north of New York City and 90 miles south of Albany, is where proprietary equipment is located that shapes the can. Creating the can requires a 16-step process – 10 steps to form the bottom half of the can, with an additional six steps to form the top portion.

The Anheuser-Busch Global Innovation Group has been investigating potential can innovations for several years.

"We explored various shapes that would be distinguishable in the marketplace, but also viable from an engineering standpoint," McGauley said. "Aluminum can be stretched only about 10 percent without fracturing, which requires that the angles of the bowtie be very precise."

An initial run of more than 10 million bowtie cans were produced in Newburgh through March 31 for the spring introduction. An additional 8 million cans are scheduled to be produced this month.

Due to the can's slimmer middle and sleek design, it holds 11.3 ounces of beer and has about 137 calories, approximately 8.5 fewer calories than a traditional 12-ounce can of Budweiser.

"This can is certainly a conversation starter: eye-catching, easy-to-grip, trendy and – according to our research – very appealing to young adults," McGauley said. "It's a beer can like no other."

Though there is no written documentation on the origins of the Budweiser bowtie, it is a brand icon found the world over. According to company lore, the bowtie was introduced when too many people were using the "Bud" bar call too frequently, so the double triangles were added to emphasize the full Budweiser name.

The Budweiser bowtie can is a natural progression from the new packaging introduced in 2011 that emphasized the iconic bowtie, a symbol that first appeared in a national advertising campaign for Budweiser in 1956.

The bowtie can is another example of how Budweiser continues to innovate, evolve and attract a new generation of beer drinkers. "It builds on the success of Budweiser Black Crown, the crowd-sourced fan favorite introduced earlier this year," McGauley said.

The launch of the can is being supported with a marketing campaign that includes digital, print and television. It will be offered for sale in grocery stores and super markets, convenience stores and packaged liquor stores.

Consumers interested in locating where they can purchase the special 8-pack can call 1-800-dial-Bud.

In other packaging innovations on the horizon in the U.S. for Anheuser-Busch, the company is announcing it is test-marketing in 10 states a new 25-ounce can that replaces a 24-ounce serving – giving consumers an additional ounce of beer. Sales of this new can will begin this summer.

Innovation!

 

[Guevara]

How long until ironic instagrams of hipsters using bowtie can as bowtie?

 

[Tenks]

Should shape it like a urinal

 

[MoonLightWave]

Why.

 

[t-ramp]

That's stupid.

 

[Tathanen]

Oh, a can where you have to tilt it farther to get the last bits of beer out. "A true innovation."

It looks like a corset.

 

[Symphonic]

Looks like someone tried to crush it but gave up. Kinda silly.

 

[Shahadan]

Looks like someone tried to crush it but gave up. Kinda silly.

 

[ToxicAdam]

"This can is certainly a conversation starter"

"Hey Bob, what happened to Billy"

"What do you mean?"

"Poor guy is drinking Budweiser out of the can. Must have lost his job."

 

[AkuMifune]

Easier to make a tin can kenny out of one I guess.

 

[Divvy]

Due to the can's slimmer middle and sleek design, it holds 11.3 ounces of beer and has about 137 calories, approximately 8.5 fewer calories than a traditional 12-ounce can of Budweiser.

Can that contains less beer, also contains less calories

Thanks genius

 

[Chris R]

0.7 fl. oz. * 18000000 = 12600000 fl. oz. = 98437.5 gallons of beer savings.

 

[Freedom = $1.05]

Interesting look for canned water.

 

[LyleLanley]

I was expecting something better than a dented can.

 

[Borgnine]

36-24-36 and full of beer. Just how I like 'em.

 

[ezrarh]

Gotta work on everything but the beer!

 

[Thorakai]

I was expecting an actual bowtie, not a slightly squeezed can.

 

[Anton Sugar]

"This can is certainly a conversation starter: eye-catching, easy-to-grip, trendy and – according to our research – very appealing to young adults," McGauley said. "It's a beer can like no other."

How much does this guy get paid?

 

[Stumpokapow]

Gotta work on everything but the beer!

Exactly.

https://www.readability.com/articles/ya1dapnp (Salon.com originally)

... Nowhere, though, is the battle between the low-price/quantity business model and the higher-price/quality business model more clear than in the world of beer. In the fevered battle between the macrobrew behemoths and the craftbrew insurgents, both sides are digging in for an epic confrontation.

The history of the face off is illustrative. For decades, the big brewers (Anheuser Busch, MillerCoors, etc.) have marketed their products less on the basis of taste or quality than on identity branding. What you drank subsequently became a statement not necessarily of what your taste buds enjoyed, but of your self-image. The Miller versus Budweiser wars and Old Milwaukee ads, for instance, were so often a pitch to guys looking for working-class street cred. Meanwhile, Pabst Blue Ribbon lately has been pitched as a retro-themed statement of hipster style.

This kind of marketing made a certain sense, because while macrobrew brands are certainly appealing, the actual beers in question are basically terrible. Produced through the macrobrews’ low-price, high-volume process, they don’t contain high quality ingredients, they don’t contain much alcohol and, thus, they simply don’t taste good. Knowing this, the macrobrews have logically designed their marketing campaigns to focus on everything (the can, the type of people who drink it, the logo, etc.) but the actual product. Indeed, if there’s one ubiquitous reference that macrobrewing companies make to the beer itself, it’s usually one telling you how cold the beer is or should be — a temperature that, quite deliberately, helps hide just how bad the beer actually is.

The obvious assumption in this business model is that Americans generally reward low price over everything else, and specifically preference beer that is cost-effective to drink in mass quantities, rather than beer that delivers more alcohol or taste in less volume of liquid. In other words, the model assumes consumers see beer as a homogenized, undifferentiated commodity and that therefore less can never be more. In this view, more is always more, and since cheaper means more, cheaper is inherently better.

This is not a silly assumption, of course, in a country whose college binge-drinking culture teaches kids to prefer quantity at an early age. However, it ignored a potentially profitable market of beer drinkers with a different set of priorities. That’s where the craft brew industry came in.

... for example, Coors Light isn’t changing it’s watered down product — it’s simply going with color-changing cans. Pabst is thinking about introducing not any higher quality lines — but instead trying to brand its products to the military. And most blatantly, Miller has just launched this television campaign promoting a new can that allows the beer to be consumed as quickly as possible.

Though thinly veiled as a mechanism for better drinkability, the new “punch-top” can is obviously developed as the first specifically engineered to shotgun beer — that is, specifically designed to drink beer in a way that makes sure you don’t actually taste the beer. The unique selling proposition of the campaign is incredibly blatant in its embrace of the low-price/high-volume model: it is screaming at you to buy the cheap product exclusively because everything about it — the beer and even the can — is aimed at helping you can pour it into your body without even having to taste or savor it. In this “punch top” innovation, Miller is effectively acknowledging that its customer base are those who drink only for volume — and its trying to thus convince more beer enthusiasts that speed drinking is a virtue.

 

[Tathanen]

For real though, designers at beer companies must just get really restless. There is nothing they can do that would ACTUALLY matter. You can't change the beer, everyone already decided what beer they want to drink. So you're left with the package. A million little fuckin tweaks to shape and size, ridiculous Blue Mountains To Indicate Temperature, but why? Will someone really buy one beer over another because of the can? Not because they actually want that kind of beer? All these expenses, and are there actually any conceivable extra sales to be had?

They gotta just fire all these industrial design people, they are in an industry where there is no actual work to be done.

 

[vas_a_morir]

How much does this guy get paid?

Not enough to have to put up with this bullshit.

 

[Dan]

The proprietary can, in development since 2010, will be available only in the United States and in an 8-pack and will not replace the traditional Budweiser can.

How much development does this dumb idea really need?

 

[drspeedy]

Gotta work on everything but the beer!

Budweiser doesn't sell beer. You're simply buying more Superbowl ad time.

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

So half of their batch went through manufacturing error, and they realized it would be cheaper to market it as "innovation" than scraping it all? LOL!

 

[Count Dookkake]

Make a can with indentations for fingers that can be easily used as a bowl for your smoking convenience.

 

[Stumpokapow]

For real though, designers at beer companies must just get really restless. There is nothing they can do that would ACTUALLY matter. You can't change the beer, everyone already decided what beer they want to drink. So you're left with the package. A million little fuckin tweaks to shape and size, ridiculous Blue Mountains To Indicate Temperature, but why? Will someone really buy one beer over another because of the can? Not because they actually want that kind of beer? All these expenses, and are there actually any conceivable extra sales to be had?

They gotta just fire all these industrial design people, they are in an industry where there is no actual work to be done.

There's plenty of interesting design work outside the Macrobrews:
http://www.luckydrinkco.com/ (actual bottle pictured)
I'd note that it's not a particularly good beer either.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

How much development does this dumb idea really need?

A whole bunch of people need to justify their jobs over there!

 

[Tathanen]

There's plenty of interesting design work outside the Macrobrews:
http://www.luckydrinkco.com/ (actual bottle pictured)
I'd note that it's not a particularly good beer either.

Hm I guess it's CONCEIVABLE that someone might try out a new microbrew with a wacky bottle for novelty's sake. It's why I bought that Ramune after all.

 

[Sye d'Burns]

It's like a can wearing a girdle. I'm not sure slim waists and Budweiser belong in the same train of thought, however.

 

[LyleLanley]

How much development does this dumb idea really need?

Seriously, did it really take over two years for them to develop a dented can?

 

[wenis]

How long until ironic instagrams of hipsters using bowtie can as bowtie?

Right in the grocery store, why wait.

 

[ced]

That actually might be comfortable to hold...

 

[vas_a_morir]

Seriously, did it really take over two years for them to develop a dented can?

if it has less beer, if only a little bit, it will save a TON of money.

 

[lil smoke]

Whats the big deal?

Sometimes you update your appearance. They have changed the font a few times, did everyone pee themselves? Would guys feel better if they changed the curvature of their bottles?

 

[SUPREME1]

Smart way to decrease beer content by almost an ounce and not have anyone pay attention.

 

[kai3345]

Whats the big deal?

Sometimes you update your appearance. They have changed the font a few times, did everyone pee themselves? Would guys feel better if they changed the curvature of their bottles?

They're charging the same amount of money for a smaller amount of beer

 

[t-ramp]

That actually might be comfortable to hold...

I would think that it might be less likely to be dropped, especially if it's wet on the outside

Spoiler

or you're wasted.

if it has less beer, if only a little bit, it will save a TON of money.

Yeah. Depends how widespread the new can becomes, though.

 

[SUPREME1]

Whats the big deal?

Sometimes you update your appearance. They have changed the font a few times, did everyone pee themselves? Would guys feel better if they changed the curvature of their bottles?

Less beer?

Buy a 12 pack and you're actually closer to an 11 pack.

 

[lil smoke]

They're charging the same amount of money for a smaller amount of beer

Its already CHEAPER than water. I actually drink Bud, and I am not losing sleep. What about you guys?

OK fuck my readin comprehension, but where does it talk about the price.

 

[Always-honest]

I......... Don't...........



...drink from cans anyway.

 

[chaostrophy]

if it has less beer, if only a little bit, it will save a TON of money.

Unless it ends up costing them money because it pisses their customers off. Macrobrews are about quantity over quality...and here they go reducing the quantity.

 

[starmud]

whats with the obsession people in their 30's (and under) have with bowties and mustaches? its gotten so bad we now have mustache and bowtie designed duct tape.

i used to blame target for slapping this crap design on everything, but now i see it everywhere.

 

[Sobriquet]

This is the greatest beer-related innovation since the wide-mouth can!

 

[Bgamer90]

Definitely looks easier to grip.

 

[Oppo]

"This can is incomparable, like nothing you've ever seen before,"

except a bowtie

i think i will emulate the experience of drinking from this novel, proprietary can by gently squeezing the next can of orangina I consume

 

[Ferrio]

This is the greatest beer-related innovation since the wide-mouth can!

No, since the bottle shaped can!

Or the logo to tell me that the can in my fridge is indeed cold!


To me this sounds like the ultimate job. Sitting in a room all day thinking of really stupid ideas to promote the beer. "How bout... when it feels temperature change from someone's hand it greets you with a hello?"

 

[Joe Shlabotnik]

I was going to make a joke about this being an elaborate way to sell less beer per can, which turns out to be completely fucking true.

 

[Reckless Onion]

Nice can.. still taste like shit

GOML

 

[Joe Shlabotnik]

Its already CHEAPER than water. I actually drink Bud, and I am not losing sleep. What about you guys?

OK fuck my readin comprehension, but where does it talk about the price.

There is absolutely no way the price per ounce will drop, and it will probably rise. All sorts of products do this all the time.

 

[amar212]

Nice can.. still taste like shit

GOML

You know what needs to be known.