Murphy Brewery Case

The Murphy Brewery is a distillery located at Lady’s Well in Cork, Ireland. Murphy’s is an Irish based brand stout. In 1983 Murphy’s partnered with Heineken and expanded its brand internationally. Murphy’s promotes both of their brands; Murphy’s Irish Stout, Murphy’s Irish Amber/Red Beer, in most of these markets in order to further communicate their Irish image. Murphy’s prides itself on being one of the oldest Irish brands shown in their slogan, “Murphy’s is a symbol of everything authentically “Irish.” Its warm history takes time to discover but its taste is easy to appreciate.”

Competitive Environment

Murphy’s faces two major competitors. First to stand out is Guinness. Guinness being the defining name of stout and being the “gold standard” which other brands are to be measured. Guinness also currently dominates the Irish stout market with an 89% market share. Their second competitor they must watch for and are always competing for second place with is Beamish.

Management and Partnership

Murphy comes with a strong team that doesn’t have any walls between business departments. Patrick (marketing director) being able to access information quite easily through David Ford (export manager) along with many others while doing more background on the company. Patrick himself also comes off as being very dedicated to the company by doing further research on the company’s history to be caught up. Murphy’s as well has a strong partnership with Heineken. Heineken showed their commitment to the partnership by opening a new office complex at Murphy’s brewery to communicate easier.

Target Market Identification

Murphy’s can break its target market in two ways. One it can by country markets.

• Irish Market- has a strong traditional presence since it’s a authentically Irish beer

• UK and continental European Markets-has to further establish themselves here. Should keep pushing themselves as an authentic Irish beer. As well they should focus on promoting their network with Heineken and promote themselves as a brand “Murphy’s” rather than just one product since people are very brand loyal here.

• American Market-this is another market they need to keep getting further into. With American they should promote their Buckler brand since America is shifting more to a healthier lifestyle.

The second way it could it who is consuming their beer.

• Classic Pub drinker- this market can very through age groups and is apparent in Ireland, Europe, and America. Murphy is not very strong in the pubs right now because pub drinkers are often brand-loyal and Guinness is the very well known stout name.

• Home Drinker- since this segment is growing recently