Can Pabst Blue Ribbon beer maintain the chic image that the recession is apparently giving it? Like Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE:WMT) and McDonald's (NYSE:MCD), the working-class brew may have received something of an image upgrade as those with shrinking incomes have toned down the excess.
A Fortune article on CNN Money looks into the underdog cachet of Pabst Blue Ribbon. Marketing plays a role:
PBR still does minimal marketing, which continues to be part of its allure. And what little marketing the company does do has a distinctly non-traditional feel: PBR fans have a chance to win beer for a year and a cash prize when they enter their Pabst-inspired art in the company's annual art contest.
Pabst Blue Ribbon, now owned by a charitable trust, is for sale. Go to buyabeercompany.com, make a pledge, and you could wind up with "a crowdsourced certificate of ownership suitable for framing as well as enough beer to match your pledge," according to the would-be investors behind the deal.
Should fellow liquor companies Diageo (NYSE:DEO), Fortune Brands (NYSE:FO), and Boston Beer (NYSE:SAM) be looking at the brand? Is that too laughable? Is PBR the beer of choice when you can't bring yourself to drink Anheuser-Busch InBev's (NYSE:BUD) Budweiser?
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