Posted on 11/13/2006 5:34:40 AM PST by ShadowDancer
Miller Says It's OK To Drink Cheap Beer
Ad Campaign Targets Affluent 20-Somethings
POSTED: 8:08 am EST November 13, 2006
MILWAUKEE -- With affluent drinkers straying to imports and crafts, a new ad campaign by Miller Brewing Co. embraces Miller High Life's emphasis on value, saying it's OK to savor a lower priced brew.
Milwaukee-based Miller, the nation's second largest brewer, targeted affluent 20-somethings with an ongoing ad campaign that proclaims Miller Genuine Draft is a "grown up" beer for drinkers who want the better things in life.
But that campaign missed older drinkers, typically 35-year-olds with kids, who still want a low-priced brew, said Tom McLoughlin, marketing director for Miller High Life.
With sales of domestic beer dropping, the company can't afford to leave out prospective customers.
On Friday, Miller launched new television ads in 14 markets in the Midwest, including Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and Ohio. The ads feature a delivery man removing Miller High Life from a bistro, dance club and other highbrow establishments, saying the brew doesn't belong there.
People can't have the finer things in life all the time and have to balance their purchases, McLoughlin said.
"As much as people trade up to experience more luxury goods, they can't do that all the time," he said. "There are places where you have to trade down."
Miller is banking on Miller High Life to help it offset a decline in U.S. sales. Its parent company, London-based SABMiller PLC said Thursday that U.S. volume was down 2.6 percent overall in the first six months of the year.
But sales of light value-priced beer have been up the past few years, according to a new report by research firm Mintel. Sales of both Miller High Life Light and Busch Light were up about 4 percent from 2004 to this year, while sales of the full-calorie equivalents were down about 6 percent each, the report said.
With sales of imports and crafts up about 11 percent in the first half of this year, Miller's new campaign shows the company is trying to capitalize on any growth trend it finds, said Eric Shephard, executive editor of the trade publication Beer Marketer's Insights. In this case, it's value-priced beer.
"Any kind of little bit of apparent change, even if they're not real, tends to get people reacting," Shephard said. "These could be short trends, but people have looked at it."
The new spots for Miller High Life could be the first of many, McLoughlin said. All three spots feature a delivery man who becomes indignant at the cost of items in establishments selling the beer. In the bistro clip, he looks at a menu, sees that burgers cost $11.50 and then hauls away cases of the beer.
"This beer is about helping people live the high life," he says. "It's a good honest beer at a tasty price."
McLoughlin said Miller believes some consumers don't really want to pay for higher-priced brews. A six-pack of High Life sells for about $4.99 in the Midwest, while Miller Genuine Draft goes for about $1 more.
"We want to call people on that and show them there's a way they can live the high life and that we rail against pretentiousness," he said.
Christy Brinnehl, a beverage analyst with Mintel Customs Solutions, said people tend to stick to beers in one price range. The ads aren't likely to convince people to switch to Miller's economy brew, but they could help reinforce attitudes among existing customers, she said.
The image of the delivery driver ought to resonate with those drinkers, many of whom are working class - and that's a smart move, Brinnehl said.
"I think that sometimes when the manufacturers are always targeting those affluent, younger 20s people who just started drinking," she said, "they're kind of leaving out those older drinkers or baby boomers."
Cheap beer is almost always crap beer , which Miller is .
There. That's much better.
Life is to short for cheap beer.
Man Law
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0609010141sep01,1,4130753.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
This time, as demonstrators march from Chinatown to House Speaker Dennis Hastert's (R-Ill.) Batavia office this weekend, they will have Miller Brewing Co., as a sponsor. The brewer has paid more than $30,000 for a planning convention, materials and newspaper ads publicizing the event.
I don't know about that. I do not drink beer anymore but when I did, I drank cheap beer. Sometimes you had to, when you were down on your last couple bucks before payday. Norfolk 7-11's, in the 80's, sold Iron City beer and you could get a 32 ounce bottle for 87 cents. Now, that's cheap beer!
Miller not only tastes bad, its uninteresting.
Let me drink a six pack of Shiner Bock and I will strain you better beer through my kidneys then miller.
Gee thanks Miller, but I'd prefer beer that has flavor to it, so I spend a bit more for the enjoyment. Let's fae it, Miller and Bud beers are likened to Ripple and Boones Farm wines.
If they paid $30,000 to some krauts named Ulrich and Ingo to come over and teach them how to make decent beer maybe their sales would go up. A good brew makes its own friends, even if they are college punks!
Bottled horse tinkle doesn't tickle my taste buds.
I don't drink Miller, but I do abide the MAN LAW, at least when I order a Corona, I have always said, 'And Hold the Fruit'.
Bit of a pet peeve of mine -- commercials and sitcoms always seem to be filled with 24-year-old people, who seem to spend little time on the job, yet also seem to be pulling down salaries well over $100,000. It's just not healthy to show these images as if most people live like this. It breeds unhappiness.
So here's the deal-I can hold my nose and drink cheap beer or spend a little more money and drink good beer. My issue is never the cost of the beer-it's the weight that drinking beer puts on. So if both of them are going to mean I have to spend more time at the gym-I'm all for buying better beer and enjoying it.
Beer making is an art. Miller is like a picture using crayons outside the lines.
SABMiller ad slogan: "You don't drink our beer, you only borrow it for a while."
They know how to make better beer. They choose not to.
Hey gringo! Eet's pronounced Meeeeller!
I got a late start on boozing. It wasn't until AFTER I left the Corps and was in college. I used to hear all the college punks go on about "cheap, crappy, mass produced, US beers" and naturally (this is COLLEGE, remember) I said to myself, "Listen to the liberal anti-American POS ranting and demonstrating how cultured, liberal, and enlightened he is." Fast forward to the "micro brew revolution" and my experimenting and branching out. WOW! These micro brews are really good! After about six months I had myself a Coors again. I swear to God, it tasted exactly and precisely like flavored water, LIGHTLY flavored water. Bud was even worse. I couldn't believe it. Now it's Red Stripe, Raffo, Tsingtao, and Ichiban Kirin for me.
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