Mountain Man Beer CompanyBrand, Essay

MMBC is considering introducing a Mountain Man Light beer to attract younger drinkers to the brand. MMBC ultimately would like to reposition the brand to drive sales of Mountain Man Light to young people without eroding the core brand equity. The reason MMBC should consider doing this is because over the previous six years light beer sales in the U. S have been growing at a compound annual rate of 4% while traditional beer sales have been declining annually at the same rate. MMBC has been experiencing declining sales for the first time in the company’s history and needs to do something about it. For the introduction of this new light beer to succeed: †¢Mountain Man Light beer would have to not interfere with Mountain Man Lager sales and avoid the cannibalization of the original product. †¢ MMBC would have to strategically reposition themselves in a way where their brand keeps and maintains their strong image to it’s already older, blue collar, loyal customers while at the same time appealing to the younger drinkers. †¢MMBC needs to have the necessary funds to launch Mountain Man Light. †¢MMBC would need to make sure to get retailers to give them additional facings. MMBC’s goals should be to stop declining sales and solve whatever problem that’s causing lost sales, and maintaining a strong brand image while looking for marketing opportunities as well as promoting the growth of the company. To make the right decision MMBC needs to remember what has led them to be a successful brewing company. MMBC’s reputation of quality beer along with a unique flavorful taste has led the company to have a respectable market share for an old school, regional brewery and strong brand loyalty from its customers. Over the years MMBC has relied on its history and status as an independent, family owned brewery to create a certain authenticity and position the beer with its core drinkers (blue collar, middle-to-lower income men over age 45). MMBC has been recognized as one of the best beers in the nation many times leading to a strong brand awareness among working-class males in the East Central region. MMBC differentiated themselves strategically by using grass-roots marketing to spread its beer quality message by word of mouth, MMBC knows that they are not as big as Anheuser Busch and they don’t try to be. With a strong loyal customer MMBC’s brand loyalty rate is higher than the rates of competitive products. All of these factors and strategies have led MMBC to create a strong brand. In spite of its strong brand, MMBC’s decline is due to many factors. The first reason for this decline is that there has been a turn down in the beer sales in the whole US. The cause for this turn down is consumer’s acquired preference towards wines and spirits based drinks. Also, light beer sales in the US have been growing at a prospering rate of 4%, thus decreasing conventional premium beer sales by the equivalent percentage. Light beer sales accounted for 50. 4% of volume sales in 2005, compared with 29. 8% in 2001. This has definitely declined MMBC’s sale since they don’t offer a â€Å"light† beer category. Finally younger drinkers ages 21 to 27, which are not MMBC’s target market, account for more than 27% of total beer consumption and is still growing. In addition, this age group spent twice as much per capita on alcoholic beverages than consumers over 35 years of age.