Mountain Man Brewing

1. Mountain Man Brewing Company’s Brand and Customer

Company:

• Mountain Man Brewing Company (“MMBC” or the “Company”) is the producer of Mountain Man Lager (“MML”). MML is known as “West Virginia’s Beer” and has a bitter flavor and high alcohol content, which differentiates the product and contribute to the company’s brand equity.
• MML has significant brand recognition, evidenced by the 67% of West Virginia adults who say it is the best known regional beer.  MML is positioned as a brand with toughness and quality.  
• MMBC’s status as an independent, family-owned brewery lends itself to an aura of authenticity that appeals to its core customers - blue collar, middle-to-lower income 45+ year-old men.
• MMBC stands alone among the major and regional beer companies in not having expanded its product line beyond its flagship product.

Go-to-Market: Because of its longstanding reputation among the people of the East Central (“EC”) region, MMBC should continue to emphasize its independent, family-owned status to leverage its strong brand equity and high-quality reputation. In evaluating future products, MMBC should be careful to not distance itself from its brand or its core demographic of blue-collar males over age 45.

Customers:

• MML is distinctively popular among men over 45 years old and having household income less than $75k (mainly blue-collar).
• A small number of loyal and blue-collar MML customers account for a disproportionately large percentage of sales. MML’s sole brand loyalty rate (53%) is much higher than the rates of competitive products such as Budweiser (42%) and Bud Light (36%).
• Younger beer drinkers are aware of MMBC, yet perceive the beer as strong and as a working man’s beer meant to be consumed by older generations.
• MML consumers value the authenticity, quality and unique West Virginia “toughness” of the beer.
• Blue-collar males tend to drink most (60%) of their beer off-premise (liquor stores/supermarkets), while women and young drinkers consume more beer on-premise (bars/restaurants).
• Women represent 42% of light beer drinkers but only 19% of MML consumers. A focus group confirmed that women are a potential segment for a MMBC light beer. Younger drinkers also showed an affinity for light beer (9% of light beer consumption vs. 2% of MML consumption).

Go-to-Market: While MMBC should be careful to not alienate current MML drinkers, focusing solely on a demographic between the ages of 45-54 is risky. As these consumers age, MMBC will continue to lose overall market share. The company is also currently missing out on large demographics that have developed tastes for light beer: women and younger drinkers (expected to grow by nearly four million by 2010).  Younger drinkers also spent twice as much per capita on alcohol than those over 35.