{"id":4026,"date":"2017-03-14T06:00:53","date_gmt":"2017-03-14T11:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/?p=4026"},"modified":"2017-03-13T08:46:15","modified_gmt":"2017-03-13T13:46:15","slug":"a-fool-can-throw-a-stone-in-a-pond-that-a-100-wise-men-cannot-get-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/?p=4026","title":{"rendered":"A fool can throw a stone in a pond that a 100 wise men cannot get out.."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Corona<\/a>Miller Lite was the first line extension introduced in the early 1970s. \u00a0Lite’s success was soon followed in the mid-1970s by Coors Light and Bud Light. \u00a0These three brands created an entirely new category, and as successful as they were, these three brands not only replaced their mother-brands, they surpassed them. \u00a0The term \u201ccannibalized the mother- brand\u201d can be over used, but when you take the combined volume of both the regular and light brews of each brand, the decision to create a light beer was never second guessed.<\/p>\n

Today, we see Miller, Budweiser, and Coors, all once the flag ships of their respected breweries, in different places. \u00a0Miller has moved toward retro marketing and is positioned as a price beer; Budweiser is still in a free fall, looking for a parachute; and Coors, who years ago went back to a retro marketing strategy, has been growing for over 10 years.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the ultimate line extension the industry has seen is Michelob Ultra. This is certainly the hottest domestic brand, with only Modelo Especial coming close to Ultra\u2019s growth trends. \u00a0When AB dropped the tear-drop shaped Michelob bottle, the brand became a memory to older drinkers. \u00a0Ultra today is Michelob, and its success has become the target of several major importers.<\/p>\n

Heineken and Modelo are now offering brands aimed directly at the Ultra consumer, however, their marketing strategies are dramatically different. Heineken is introducing Amstel XLight, using their long-dormant brand, Amstel as the vehicle to capture the Ultra consumer. \u00a0 Modelo, on the other hand, is using the long established, and highly successful, Corona brand as their strategy to capture the Ultra consumer with Corona Premier. \u00a0These are interesting tactics and dramatically different.<\/p>\n

How will a buyer for a major chain view these two new brands? \u00a0Heineken will be asking for shelf space for a brand, long disappeared from the consumer\u2019s point, yet Corona will introduce their Premier tied to the Corona name. \u00a0Obviously, the buyer will be much more supportive of the Premier as it will have stronger name recognition over Amstel. \u00a0It seems to be a lock that Corona’s attempt will be successful and Amstel’s will not.<\/p>\n

The question really is: why did Heineken use the Amstel label for the XLight instead of the Heineken label? \u00a0Perhaps Heineken should have used their Dos Equis label. \u00a0It seems that Heineken is testing the temperature of the water, where Modelo is jumping directly into the deep end.<\/p>\n

It will not be surprising if the XLight disappears from the shelves by the end of the year, or at best, the brand will have limited distribution. Nor will it be a surprise that Premier will be the hot new beer of the year. \u00a0If so and Ultra’s trends continue as is, Heineken may be using their labels and go with something like a Heineken Superior or Dos Equis Grande. \u00a0The chance that those products will succeed is much better than Amstel XLight, so why bother with the Amstel name?<\/p>\n

Perhaps this is an example of the difference between a European managed importer verses an American managed company?<\/p>\n

A fool can throw a stone in a pond that 100 wise men cannot get out…..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Miller Lite was the first line extension introduced in the early 1970s. \u00a0Lite’s success was soon followed in the mid-1970s by Coors Light and Bud Light. \u00a0These three brands created an entirely new category, and as successful as they were, these three brands not only replaced their mother-brands, they surpassed them. \u00a0The term \u201ccannibalized the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2xRTi-12W","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4026"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4026"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4035,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4026\/revisions\/4035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}