Mountain Man Marketing Case

Recommendation: Mountain Man Beer Company (MMBC) should launch a standalone light beer with completely different branding than Mountain Man Lager.

3C analysis: MMBC is an independent, family-owned brewery that makes one product – Mountain Man Lager – and sells it primarily to blue-collar, middle-to-lower income men over age 45 that live in the East Central Region. Their customers care about taste, price, the occasion being celebrated, perceived quality, brand image, tradition, and local authenticity. MMBC is known for producing quality beer and for having an authentic, unwavering brand that hadn’t changed in 80 years, providing them with a loyal but aging customer base. MMBC mainly competes with national players with deep pockets like Anheuser Busch, premium domestic brands like Miller and Budweiser, and specialty brands like Sam Adams. They compete with these and all other beer manufacturers for shelf space. MMBC sells a six-pack of their lager for the same price as other premium domestic brands like Miller or Budweiser. They struggle to compete with these large conglomerates that have better economies of scale in brewing, transportation, and marketing and more supplier power with distributors.

Strategy: The premium, non-light beer market is shrinking and MMBC isn’t attracting new customers. Additionally, their core target customer base is aging. They should protect their existing lager brand at all costs – it is their brand equity that has allowed them to compete against the national brewers for years. However, they also need to expand into the growing light beer segment to remain profitable long term. They should target the “first time drinker” demographic and women who would find light beer appealing.

Tactics: MMBC should use their sales force and current distribution network to try to get their light product on shelves. They need to make sure they don’t cut into their lager’s shelf space and they need to make sure the branding, name and appearance of their new product is very different than their Mountain Man Lager.  They should push their new brand through on premise locations like restaurants and bars frequented by young drinkers. Their pricing would need to be on par with the other light beer players to compete. They should implement grassroots marketing in places that index high against “first time drinkers”.