Although many companies have come and gone over the years, beer sales doubled. The customers for the beer industry are highly diverse. They range from being highly educated to non-educated, and male to female. Income ranges for those who drink beer are also very diverse. The age group of 21-24 year old people is only accountable for 8% of our population but consumes 14% of the beer industry. Anheuser-Busch has stated "Beer Drinkers Tend to Be Young, Ethnically Diverse, and Blue Collar". (Anheuser-Busch; Beer Industry Overview; 2001) As far as trying to expand sales of beer goes, both craft brewers and major brewers are going against trends of moderation; consumers are drinking less in the belief that this is part of healthy lifestyle. There's work to be done getting out information on recent studies that show moderate drinking of beer is good for you. Despite the gradual shrinking of the population of 21 to 35-year-olds this group will expand again beginning in the next decade. To some extent, in terms of on-premise business, independent craft brewers as well as large brewers are competing against TV and internet activities, but not much in magazine ads. You actually don't see too many print ads for beer within a magazine but on billboards and rotating digital advertisements. .
The part of the beer industry that seems to be in its 10th year rising profits, is imported beers. Imports have used multi million dollar slogans in the United States on TV commercials and ads. The editorial in the April 22, 2002 Wall Street Journal points up a huge issue and that's that now that the government is involved in the tobacco business, how long is it going to be before the government gets more involved in the alcohol business. (www.beveragebusiness.com/art-arch/) These things all contribute to how particular companies should set up their marketing strategies. The 15 major beer importers include Becks, Heineken USA, Guinness, Barton, Labatt and Gambrinus.