Special Report

America's Favorite Beers

It may be about time Budweiser relinquished its title as “King of Beers.” According to the recently released 2012 Harris Poll EquiTrend Rankings, there is a new batch of brews with stronger brand equity, customer connections and buzz. 24/7 Wall St. has examined the report, identifying the 10 beers with the strongest brands.

Read America’s Favorite Beers

The beer brands with the greatest strength — a measure of familiarity, quality, purchase consideration, trust and the ability to generate buzz — are largely more expensive brews. Nine of the 10 are among the most expensive beers out of the country’s 20 best-selling beers. The beer that is not one of the most expensive, Yuengling, is not far behind in price.

American consumers also are spending more on these beers. Dollar sales of every beer on the list has increased from one year prior. Yuengling, Blue Moon and Modelo Especial have had the largest increases among all popular beer brands. Meanwhile, many other brands, including Budweiser by Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE: BUD), Keystone Light and Natural Light, experienced decreases over this same period. Sales of Bud Light Lime dropped nearly 7% over this period.

The beers with the most powerful brands are just as varied as beer drinkers’ tastes. They differ greatly in style and originate from five different countries. They also have a range of founding dates, extending from 1759 to 1995. This illustrates that an established brand does not necessarily mean a strong brand.

24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 2012 Harris Poll EquiTrend Rankings to identify the most popular beers, which quantifies brand strength among consumers. We included dollar sales, change in dollar sales from one year ago and case sales. We also included the average price per case over the latest 52-week period in the United States provided by SymphonyIRI Group, a Chicago-based market research firm. The group looked at sales at supermarkets, drugstores, gas/convenience stores and mass market retailers, but excluding Walmart (NYSE: WMT) club stores, and liquor stores.

These are America’s favorite beers.

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