Miller Brewery Co is the second-largest beer company in the US, located in Milwaukee. The company was founded in 1855. In a century, the company was merged by W.R. Grace and Co. And in 1969, it was acquired by Phillip Morris. The next changes took place in 2002 when Phillip Morris sold it to South Africa Breweries (SAB). In late 2007, the company decided to expand its activities and organized a joint venture: the main parties are SABMiller and Molson Coors. In order to compete on the global scale (Miller Brewery Co 2008), Miller Brewery Co is concerned with setting goals, establishing policies and programs, and implementing business action for the entire firm. Its major tasks are to translate consumer wants and needs, actual and potential, into profitable products and services that the company is capable of producing, of cultivating markets to support these products, and to program the distribution activities necessary to reach the markets.
The uniqueness of the Miller Lite Brewing Collection is that it is oriented to legal-age consumers. In order to enter the site and review the products, a visitor should enter his birth date and year. Using this strategy, Miller Lite tries to protect children and teens from unauthorized purchases and interest in alcoholic drinks. This strategy meets ethical and moral rules established by the company. It does not function as a separate entity in the business, nor is it more important than any other primary activity, yet through actual and potential sales, it does establish constraints within which the other activities must be performed (Miller Brewery Co 2008), The target age group are males and females from 21 years till 35-40 years. This age group is the most attractive for Miller Lite, proposing unique quality and American style. Marketing endeavors to fuse consumer wants and needs with the operations of a business organization, which to survive and grow in a keenly competitive, everchanging environment, concerns itself with the mechanisms of corporate adjustment.
SWOT analysis will help to identify the main challenges and benefits of the current position of Miller Lite Brewing. The main strengths of Miller Lite are its unique brand image and style of beer. This brand obtains a very competitive position on the market proposing unique taste and low caloricity level so important for heavy drinkers, in contrast to traditional beers with 110 calories per 12-ounce serving, which Miller Lite has only 96 calories. Selling history and non-price competition, which takes the form of branding, advertising, promotion, and additional services to customers and product innovation, are the main strengths of Miller Lite. For Miller Lite, the market opportunities include the high potential for growth and profitability of the company, and professional management team, fast-growing market segment, and high prices. On the other hand, there are a lot of threats and weaknesses that can prevent Miller Lite from rapid growth.
The international situation on the beer suggests that brewers are searching for new ways to impress buyers and create a core of loyal supporters. “Brewers are looking for a niche, and new flavors, plus craft styles command higher prices, which means more money for brewers” (Fredrix 2008). This situation increases competition and demands new investment in research and development and innovative technologies. It is possible to assume that competition can lead to a decrease in prices on beer in the near future. The main weakness of Miller Lite is seasonality. Competition strategy takes place on either a price or a non-price basis. Price competition involves businesses trying to undercut each other’s prices; this will, in turn, be dependent upon their ability to reduce their costs of production. This can require changes in competitive strategy to remain in the industry and, under some circumstances, it can occasion the decision to exit a business or an industry (Kotler & Armstrong 2005).
The new Craft style of beer is based on a unique combination of wheat, amber, and blonde ale styles so popular among craft brewers. The new-product adoption process is associated with the mental stages of consumer behavior: awareness, interest, evaluation, trial, adoption, and confirmation. As a new product, Miller Lite requires increasing support from marketing programs. A supporting system of communication and distribution must be established to assure the success of a product, and the level of initial promotional costs may be relatively high. The initial costs of cultivating a market may be heavy. Management can choose among alternative policies (Kotler & Armstrong 2005). At one end of the scale, management may choose to push the product through the distribution channels to the market. It may do so by undertaking expensive advertising campaigns.
This campaign is bolstered by a hard-selling effort designed to get wholesalers and retailers to promote the product (Hollensen, 2007). At the other extreme, the manufacturer may hope to pull the product through the channels to the market by cultivating the ultimate consumers. Among the factors that govern the advertising and sales programs that are selected are the degree of newness of the product, the existing degree of competition, the ease of entry of competitors who offer similar products, the brand loyalty of customers, the company image, and the corporate niche in the marketplace. Also, management must decide whether it wishes to skim the market or penetrate it deeply. The main problem is that: “It’s not clear how drinkers will perceive this new twist on Miller Lite, said Eric Shepard, executive editor of trade publication Beer Marketer’s Insights. “The point of craft beer is more flavorful, so light craft doesn’t make a whole lot of intuitive sense to me” (). Products like Miller Lite imply investments of significant proportions; they must be reassessed on the basis of future needs.
References
Fredrix, E. (2008). Miller to Launch Craft-Style Lite. Web.
Hollensen, S. (2007), Global Marketing: A Decision-Oriented Approach. Financial Times/ Prentice Hall; 4 edition.
Kotler, Ph., Armstrong, G. (2005). Principles of Marketing. Prentice-Hall; 11th edition.
Miller Brewery Co (2008). Web.