Light Beer Skews Republican. . . really.

The light beer category skews Republican. That may sound like a non-sequitur, but products appeal to customers of certain demographic profiles, and demographics align with politics. This is not just a matter of opinion. Academics from the Columbia Business School, Mannheim Business School, and ESADE Business School have spent years categorizing the political leanings of the Twitter followers of hundreds of brands.

Margins vary, but their research indicates the followers of most major light beers skew toward the Republican party: Amstel Light (54 Rep/46 Dem), Bud Light (56 R/44 Dem), Coors Light (63 R/37 Dem), and Miller Light (64 R/36 D).

Craft brewers tend to skew left: Dogfish Head (37 R/63 D), Sierra Nevada (39 R/ 61 D).

Values-based positioning can be an effective way to build a company while making employees feel like they are part of something larger than themselves.

Companies like Patagonia (18 R/ 92 D) have successfully staked out defensible territories by aligning themselves with political movements. It's a lot easier to do that when the company represents a small part of the market. It's very difficult to do that if you're a market leader and the preferred politics of a company's management don't necessarily reflect those of the existing customer base.

You can check out the political leanings of the customers of a great many brands here: https://lnkd.in/edXaEnJQ