Bud Pours into Asian Markets
April 29, 2005
When you say Budweiser, you say David Kim. In Asian American circles, that usually says it all.
For 15 years, after moving from the New York office to Anheuser-Busch’s corporate headquarters in St. Louis, Kim, a Korean American, has been the driving force behind the company’s outreach to Asian Americans.
As the director of sales development and community relations, Kim is one of the highest-ranking Asian Americans in a global company where gross sales hit $17 billion in 2004.
His rise exemplifies Anheuser-Busch’s commitment to Asian Americans as employees, consumers, and as a growing community. And it comes at a time when increasingly the company is targeting the community’s ancestral homeland. Asia, anchored by China, the largest beer market in the world.
“We have a brewery in Wuhan, west of Shanghai in the Hubei province,” said Kim. “We also bought a percentage in the Harbin brewery last year, and have part interest in Tsing Tao.”
So how important will Asia be to Bud’s profits?
“For the future it plays an important part,” said Kim. But he said “the major portion of our profits are driven domestically.”
In 2004, the company sold 103 million barrels of beer domestically versus just 14 million barrels internationally.
But the so-called upside is in the Asian markets — both here at home and overseas.
The company hopes new products will catch on. In the last quarter it released a new low-carb, low-calorie Budweiser Select, as well as B-to-the-E, a caffeinated drink to tackle Red Bull. Last week the company launched a watermelon-flavored brew to its Bacardi Silver lineup as a malt beverage expected to appeal to the 21-27 age group.
“It will take time for these new initiatives to gain traction,” said Anheuser-Busch president and CEO Patrick Stokes.
That means there’s likely to be more pressure on targeting Asians and Asian Americans.
Just go to the website at www.asianbud.com, and you can see a definite recognition of Asian America in its marketing plans with sexy images of Asian men and women in ads holding a tall cold one.
Diversity is one of the ten core values of the company, which employs over 31,000 people full-time.
And beyond its own walls, the company boasts a record of spreading the wealth, spending more than $400 million in goods and services to companies run by women and minorities.
David Kim sees the change in corporate attitude as a direct outgrowth of efforts at the grassroots level.
“We have supported Asian American organizations for 15 years now,” he said citing the Asian Pacific Institute for Congressional Studies, the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, the Organization of Chinese Americans, Japanese American Citizens League and the Korean American Coalition, among others.
Kim knows it’s a source of dissension among some groups, which have a philosophy of not accepting money from alcoholic beverage companies. Kim’s fine with that.
“Sometimes organizations take time to explain,” said Kim. “We don’t always agree with their reasoning, but we respect that. So many other organizations just appreciate our corporate recognition for the positive work they do in the community.”
Kim is most proud of the Anheuser-Busch Fellows Program to develop community leadership.
He calls the biggest success to date the A/B-Frank Horton Fellowship, named for the founder of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. The first recipient of the $25,000 fellowship was Scott Nishimoto, who Kim said has since become the youngest member of the Hawai‘i State Legislature at age 29.
“That’s a success story,” said Kim. “It’s clearly what we’ve intended to do all along.”
The program has spread to other icons and groups to help Asian filmmakers at NYU and leaders in business and government with Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta.
The fellowships also aid the company in identifying future Asian American leaders in fields that could benefit the corporation.
“We’re a vertically integrated company and the opportunities are great,” said Kim, who cited pathways into Anheuser-Busch that includes marketing, government affairs, legal, even brewing science.
“We get paid in beer,” he joked, though actually employees are given two cases a month.
But selling the company’s benevolence and opportunity may be slightly easier than selling beer to a community not known to over-imbibe.
Kim is quick to point out what most in the community already know.
“The Asian American market is not a single dimension,” said Kim. “It’s multi-dimensional depending on ethnicity.”
He does notice a preference for lighter beer, but he said Vietnamese prefer Michelob over Michelob Lite.
How about Bud vs. Bud Lite?
“Older Asian Americans tend to like Bud, because it’s the beer they’re familiar with,” said Kim, but he said the trend toward lighter and lighter beers extends even to the Asian American community. “Everyone wants to stay slim,” he said.
Non-alcoholic beers are also big with Asians.
“O’Doul’s is a good Asian name,” said Kim.
Annual Revenue:
$14, 934.2 net sales (millions)
Net Income: $2, 240.3
International Net Income:
$485 million (including income from equity partnerships – most international brands are not company-owned operations)
Number of Employees: 31, 435 full-time
Tony Bhalla
Executive Vice President
Metal Container Corp.
Chief Operating Officer
John Ha
Geographic Marketing Anheuser-Busch, Inc.
Manager
Dr. Huifen He
Research Scientist Anheuser-Busch, Inc.
Brewing, Raw Materials
Fernando Hong
Geographic Marketing
Anheuser-Busch, Inc.
Manager
B.J. Kancharla
Director Anheuser-Busch, Inc.
Operations Productivity
Brewing Operations
& Technology Division
Charlene Kim*
Associate General
Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc.
Counsel
Jason Pak
Geographic Marketing Anheuser-Busch, Inc.
Manager
Neerja Sehgal
Director Anheuser-Busch, Inc.
Shopper Insights &
Business Solutions
Laurel Siemers*
Associate Anheuser-Busch
Companies, Inc.
General Couns
* Denotes corporate employee; Anheuser-Busch, Inc. is the beer company subsidiary.
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