PBR in China

Those of us who have had the privilege of consuming tasty Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR) beers in the United States know that one of its primary delights, in addition to being delicious and refreshing, is that it is very, very cheap - selling for ~$20 for 30 beers.

This stands in stark contrast to PBR in China. Indeed, PBR in China sells for $44 per bottle. While Chinese PBR is technically a separate company that sub-licenses the PBR name from the main American brand, the mere fact that PBR's name, which is certainly not synonymous with high-quality luxury consumption in the United States, does not preclude it from selling at such a high price point is certainly interesting when considering how a U.S. brand approaches the Chinese market.

Moreover, PBR 1844 sells in a 750ml bottle, and is advertised with:

"It’s not just Scotch that’s put into wooden casks. There’s also Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer 1844.Many world-famous spiritsAre matured in precious wooden casksScotch whisky, French brandy, Bordeaux wine…They all spend long days inside wooden casks."

I have never tried PBR 1844 (business has made my money tree somewhat barren), so I can't speak to its quality, but I thought given the case we studied on Tuesday that this was a fascinating reminder that the correlation between quality and luxury does not need to be there for a product to be successful in the Chinese market.

The reference in the advertisement above to indisputably luxury goods show that simply associating a product effectively can do an immense amount of work on its behalf. An effective marketing campaign drawing a strong association between Napa wines and their Old World counterparts seems like it could be an immensely effective means of bridging the gap between the popularity of "French brandy [and] Bordeaux wine] and the wines in the United States that are looking to break into the world's biggest new market.